Atiku Abubakar, the former vice president, has been making permutations to make history in the 2027 presidential election and become the second politician in Nigeria to defeat the incumbent president in Nigeria.
While President Bola Tinubu will be contesting for a second term in office in the 2027 election, the former vice president has consistently said that the incumbent can be defeated in the forthcoming poll through a coalition.
While he has been championing the call for a coalition ahead of the 2027 election to defeat President Tinubu, he has also made three major moves by political calculation and analysis recently to actualise his long-time aspiration.
Below are the recent moves:
Kaduna pilgrimage and meeting with Buhari
Atiku recently joined the throngs of politicians who made pilgrimages to the residence of the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna state. His visit to Buhari has been considered a political statement ahead of the next election.
The former vice president was accompanied by former governors Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto, Achike Udenwa (Imo), Gabriel Suswam of Benue, Jibrilla Bindow (Adamawa) and former minister of communication, Isa Pantami.
El-Rufai as a place-holder for Atiku in SDP
The former Kaduna state governor, who recently dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has been described as a placeholder for the former vice president in his new party.
Like Atiku, El-Rufai has been calling for a coalition to unseat President Tinubu. The duo have held a press conference and explained the reason the president should be voted out in 2027.
Criticism against Atiku, El-Rufai’s alliance
However, Buba Galadima, a chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), alleged that the celebrated defection of El-Rufai from the APC to the SDP was to be a placeholder for Atiku, should the PDP governors deny him the party’s ticket.
Galadima made the allegation in a television interview, adding that the former governor had previously attacked the former vice president and wondered why Atiku agreed to work with El-Rufai.
Also speaking on the coalition Atiku and El-Rufai have been advocating for, Oladotun Hassan, a legal practitioner, in an exclusive interview with Legit.ng, posited that the former vice president should have known that the former governor should not be trusted.
“I think Atiku should have learnt that Nasir El-Rufai is always quick to announce himself as the most clever and cleanest person in the political space, as if he doesn’t have any holes in his cupboard. This kind of man is deceitful. He was the same man who went to the kind of Aregbesola to blow his head that they should stop promoting godfatherism and setting him against Asiwaju and they’re worst of enemies today, which ought not to be.”
APC crisis: Buhari speaks on defection of loyalists
Legit.ng earlier reported that former President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly expressed indifference about his loyalists dumping the President Bola Tinubu-led APC.
Reports had it that the APC governors who visited the former president were seeking his intervention to stop the CPC bloc from dumping the party.
It was also stated that the CPC remained the largest bloc, with ruling party governors fearing that their defection would doom the APC.