Atiku Abubakar: When One Man’s Ambition Becomes a National Burden, By Dan Osa-Ogbegie, Esq.

There comes a point when persistence ceases to be a virtue and becomes obsession.

For Atiku Abubakar, the Presidency of Nigeria appears no longer to be an aspiration founded on service. It has become an entitlement which Nigeria must somehow satisfy, whatever the political season, whatever the national mood and irrespective of the legitimate expectations of other sections of the country.

I first became conscious of Atiku’s presidential ambition in 1993 when, as a young senior secondary school student, I watched the SDP presidential contest eventually won by Chief MKO Abiola. Thirty-three years later, Atiku is still here, pursuing the same office. He sought presidential tickets in 1993, 2011 and 2015 and was presidential candidate in 2007, 2019 and 2023; and on the PDP Presidential ticket in 1999 as Vice Presidential candidate. He has now emerged as the ADC presidential candidate for 2027.

Nigeria cannot become the private waiting room of one man’s ambition.

The most disturbing thing about Atiku is not even his age. He turns 80 on November 25, 2026. Age is a biological fact, not a crime. My difficulty with him is the apparent inability to recognise that Nigeria is a delicate federation sustained not merely by constitutional provisions, but also by accommodation, restraint, equity and a sense of belonging among its numerous ethnic, religious and regional cleavages.

After President Muhammadu Buhari, a Northern Muslim, had completed eight years, some of the most powerful Northern APC governors voluntarily declared that their party’s presidential ticket should go South. Their statement of June 4, 2022 called it “a question of honour” and said rotation was necessary for a stronger and more united Nigeria.

These were Northerners voluntarily surrendering an opportunity for power because Nigeria was bigger than their individual ambitions.

Atiku thought differently.

He pursued and obtained the PDP ticket in 2022, notwithstanding the powerful national argument that power should return South. Today, another election cycle has arrived and, remarkably, it is Atiku’s turn again.

When exactly is it somebody else’s turn?

When is it the turn of the south? When is it the turn of another generation? When does personal ambition yield to national accommodation?

This is precisely why former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s description of the man who served as his Vice-President for eight years remains politically devastating. Obasanjo wrote of Atiku’s alleged “propensity to corruption”, “tendency to disloyalty”, “lack of transparency” and, most ominously, his readiness to sacrifice “morality, integrity, propriety, truth and national interest for self and selfish interest.”

Those words were not written by an opposition campaign spokesman. They came from the President beside whom Atiku sat for eight years.

Atiku may dispute Obasanjo’s judgment, and Nigerians are entitled to weigh both men and reach their own conclusions. Yet more than two decades later, his politics continues to raise the same fundamental question: where does Atiku’s ambition end and Nigeria’s interest begin?

Even the Deborah Samuel episode exposed an unsettling instinct. After a tweet from his verified account condemned her brutal murder, Atiku ordered it deleted, explaining later that the post had not received his personal approval. He subsequently condemned the killing, but the original retreat, amid political backlash, inevitably raised questions about political calculation in moments requiring moral clarity.

Nigeria is too fragile for a President whose politics leaves sections of the country wondering whether principle will survive electoral arithmetic.

Atiku has had an extraordinary political career. He has been Governor-elect, Vice-President, businessman, party leader and presidential candidate repeatedly.

Nigeria owes him no Presidency.

The Presidency is not a retirement benefit for political persistence. It is not compensation for previous defeats. It is certainly not an inheritance which must eventually fall to a man simply because he has waited long enough.

In 2027, Nigeria must tell Atiku Abubakar what ambition has apparently prevented him from telling himself:

Enough. The country belongs to all of us. – By Daniel A. Noah Osa-Ogbegie

Daniel A. Noah Osa-Ogbegie, public intellectual and member of APC , is a Benin based legal practitioner and public affairs commentator.