Former Nigerian VP Atiku Abubakar secures ADC ticket to challenge President Tinubu in January elections as opposition remains divided.
ABUJA: Veteran Nigerian politician Atiku Abubakar, one of the leaders of the country’s fractured opposition, has secured his spot to challenge incumbent President Bola Tinubu in elections in January.
The former vice president, popularly known as Atiku, won the primaries of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the party announced late Wednesday.
“We have to unite, as we pledged before this process, to work to pull our country and our people out of the destructive grip” of Tinubu’s ruling All Progressives Congress, Abubakar said in an acceptance speech.
Tinubu has staked his first term on economic reforms popular with economists and investors but less so with those living through crushing inflation left in their wake.
But it remains to be seen if the opposition, which has done little to mount a resistance since Tinubu won his first term in 2023, can capitalise on the discontent.
The ADC had been transformed into a leading opposition movement in recent months under the expectation that Abubakar, as well as heavyweights Rabiu Kwankwaso and Peter Obi, would join under its banner.
However, Obi and Kwankwaso recently ditched the ADC to jump ship to the Nigeria Democratic Congress.
That has raised the possibility of a repeat of 2023, when all three ran separately for president, splitting the opposition vote in a poll Tinubu won with just 36.6 percent of the ballots.
Abubakar served as vice president from 1999 to 2007, under president Olusegun Obasanjo.
He ran for president, or contested for presidential primaries, six times between 1993 and 2023.
