After Five Failed Presidential Runs, Why Should Nigerians Trust Him Now?
There comes a moment in every political career when persistence stops looking like determination and starts looking like delusion. Atiku Abubakar reached that moment several campaigns ago. His decision to contest the 2027 presidency for what would be his sixth attempt is not a sign of commitment to Nigeria. It is a testament to personal ambition that has long since lost any connection to the public interest it was presumably meant to serve.
Nigerians have had multiple opportunities to elect Atiku Abubakar as their president and have declined on each occasion. In 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2023, voters had the chance to send him to Aso Rock and chose not to. What exactly is it about 2027 that he believes will make Nigerians change their minds? The country is in worse shape than it has been in decades. Voters are more demanding, not less. And the competition in the form of Peter Obi is more compelling than anything Atiku has faced before.
The Corruption Question He Cannot Escape
Let us speak plainly about the corruption allegations that have followed Atiku throughout his public career. Multiple credible international investigations and reports have raised serious questions about financial impropriety during his tenure as Vice President. His personal wealth, accumulated during years in government, defies explanation by any legitimate income stream from his public salary. These are documented concerns that Atiku has never adequately addressed.
In a country where the justice system is widely perceived as compromised, the absence of conviction is not the same as the absence of wrongdoing. Voters have every right to take these concerns seriously when evaluating his fitness for the highest office in the land. A man who cannot give a satisfying account of how he became so extraordinarily wealthy in public service should not expect voters to simply take his integrity on faith.
A Vision Built for Another Era
Beyond the personal integrity questions, Atiku economic vision does not speak to the Nigeria of 2027. His privatization agenda, however theoretically sound in certain respects, is the vision of a 1990s Washington Consensus technocrat transplanted into a contemporary Nigerian crisis that demands a far more nuanced response. Simply selling off state assets to private buyers does not automatically produce jobs, food security, or improved services for ordinary Nigerians.
The evidence from Nigeria own privatization history, much of it overseen by Atiku himself during the Obasanjo years, is sobering. The privatization of the power sector did not fix electricity. His record of overseeing failed privatizations while accumulating personal wealth is not a governance credential. It is a warning about the kind of president he would be.
The PDP Brand Problem
Atiku runs on the PDP ticket, a party that governed Nigeria for sixteen years and presided over one of the most spectacular squanderings of national wealth in the history of any developing country. The oil boom years of the PDP era produced not transformation but decay: crumbling infrastructure, a collapsed educational system, endemic corruption, and a security crisis that festered until it became existential.
The PDP brand remains toxic among a significant segment of the electorate. In 2027, with Peter Obi offering a genuinely compelling alternative and President Tinubu seeking re-election, Atiku faces the prospect of being squeezed from both sides. His lasting contribution to Nigeria might be the gracious decision to step aside and allow the change Nigeria so desperately needs to actually happen.
