As Atiku Clinches ADC Presidential Ticket

In line with analysts’ prediction, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was on Wednesday announced the winner of the presidential ticket of the African Democratic Congress for the 2027 general election, the fourth time he won a presidential ticket since 2007 when he contested the presidential election on the platform of the Action Congress. Will Atiku realise the ambition he has been nursing since 1993, when he contested the presidential primaries of the Social Democratic Party? Ejiofor Alike asks

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was last Wednesday announced winner of the presidential ticket of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) after he polled 1,846,379 votes to defeat his closest rival, former Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, who scored 540,117 votes to come second.

An economist, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, came a distant third with 177,120 votes.

Atiku’s victory in the presidential primaries of the ADC is not the first time he emerged as the presidential candidate of a major opposition party.

The former vice president was the presidential candidate of the Action Congress in the 2007 presidential election.

However, he came third after the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of the PDP, who emerged victorious and the late President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), who came second. 

Atiku was also the presidential candidate of the PDP during the 2019 presidential election, but he lost to then incumbent President Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In 2022, he was again elected as the PDP presidential candidate for the 2023 general election after he defeated the then Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State in the primaries. 

But he lost to the candidate of the ruling APC, Bola Tinubu.

Though he contested the presidential election three times – 2007, 2019 and 2023 – his political opponents taunted him as a serial contestant for vying for the presidency a record six times between 1993 and 2023.

In 1993, he contested the presidential ticket of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) with the late Chief Moshood Abiola and Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe but came third after Abiola who won the ticket and Kingibe, who came second.

In 2011, he contested the presidential primaries of the PDP but lost to the then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.

In 2014, he contested the presidential primaries of the APC for the 2015 general election but lost to Buhari.

Atiku has a reputation of opposing the second term bid of any incumbent president who belonged to the same political party as him.

It is on record that he challenged Jonathan who belonged to the same PDP with him for the party’s ticket in 2011. He also left Buhari’s APC to challenge his second term bid in the 2019 general election.

His current entry into the 2027 presidential race on the platform of the ADC will mark the seventh attempt Atiku would be vying for the presidency since 1993.

With his victory in the ADC presidential primaries, analysts say the 2023 presidential experience is about to be relieved, as he will again slug it out with Tinubu of the APC and Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), in the 2027 presidential election, in what analysts believe will be another three-horse race.

In his acceptance speech, Atiku described ADC as a great party “built through hard work, immense sacrifices and compromises, guided by our determination to rescue our country’s democracy, which is facing its greatest threat since the return to democratic rule in 1999.”

But analysts believe that with the failure of the opposition parties to form one strong coalition as the opposition parties did in 2014 to challenge the then ruling PDP, Tinubu and the APC are already coasting home to victory ahead of the 2027 polls.

With a fragmented opposition that will likely split the votes against the APC into more than two, the ruling APC is well positioned to win the 2027 presidential race as it won with minority votes of less than 37 per cent in 2023.

Contrary to his claims of the opposition coalition making sacrifices and compromise, the leading opposition figures in the ADC – himself, Obi, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and Amaechi – had refused to make sacrifices and compromise due to their personal ambitions.

The development forced Obi and Kwankwaso to defect to NDC, leaving Atiku and Amaechi in ADC.

Again, while the Mark-led ADC is still contending with the Dumebi Kachikwu-led faction of the party, a fresh crisis is still looming within the Mark’s faction following the rejection of the results of the primaries by Amaechi.

Reacting to Atiku’s victory in a statement he issued last Tuesday, the former transportation minister alleged widespread voter disenfranchisement, manipulation and serious electoral malpractice during the exercise, insisting that the results announced were “concocted” and did not reflect the will of party members.

He accused some party officials of undermining the integrity of the exercise through what he described as coordinated irregularities capable of damaging the credibility of the party ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Following Amaechi’s outburst, Atiku initiated reconciliatory moves to pacify him with a visit to his Abuja residence last Thursday.

Announcing the visit on his X handle, Atiku also hinted that there would be a second leg to the visit.

Atiku’s visit to Amaechi is believed to be part of the move to present a unified front against the ruling APC as the former vice president can’t risk leaving the former Rivers State governor disgruntled, considering the damage done to his 2023 presidential ambition by Wike, who remained inconsolable after the former vice president defeated him in the 2022 PDP presidential primaries.

Though the outcome of the visit still remains a matter of conjecture, analysts say Amaechi will likely be offered the vice-presidential ticket to avert Atiku’s experience in Wike’s hands.

But the question is: Will Amaechi make a U-turn and accept the “concocted” results of the ADC presidential primaries and become part of the purported fraud if he is offered the vice-presidential ticket?

The former Rivers State governor had also in December 2025 dismissed suggestions that he might run as a vice-presidential candidate with Atiku, or be part of any joint presidential ticket in the 2027 elections.

Amaechi declared that he was running for the presidency and would not be a running mate to anybody.

He was reacting to Atiku’s political ally and media entrepreneur, Dele Momodu, who had suggested that Atiku might consider the former Rivers State governor if Obi declined to run with him.

Having won the ADC ticket, Atiku’s presidential ambition is still facing formidable hurdles – fractured opposition that will split votes in favour of the ruling APC, increasing popularity of Obi and Kwankwaso’s NDC, threats by the Kachikwu-led faction of the ADC, and the Amaechi factor.

Will the former vice president run back to Dubai as he was accused of doing in the previous election seasons after winning the ticket of a party or will he hit the ground running, deploying enormous human and material resources to realise his age-long ambition, knowing full well that 2027 is his last chance?