Atiku Abubakar

Atiku Abubakar (born 25 November 1946) is a Nigerian politician and businessman who served as vice president from 1999 to 2007 under President Olusegun Obasanjo. He ran unsuccessfully for governor of Adamawa State in 1990 and 1996, won in 1998, and became Obasanjo's running mate before being sworn in and re-elected as vice president in 2003.

He has made six unsuccessful presidential bids in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2023. He lost the 1993 SDP primaries to Moshood Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe; placed third in 2007 as Action Congress candidate behind Umaru Yar'Adua and Muhammadu Buhari; lost the PDP primary in 2011 to Goodluck Jonathan; joined the APC in 2014 and lost its 2015 primary to Buhari; returned to the PDP in 2017 and lost the 2019 election to incumbent Buhari; then secured the PDP ticket again in May 2022 after defeating Nyesom Wike and finished second to Bola Tinubu in the 2023 election. He later joined other opposition candidates in demanding a revote and, in 2025, left the PDP for the African Democratic Congress alongside Peter Obi, with both leaders indicating plans to build a united opposition front for 2027.

Atiku was born in Jada on 25 November 1946, when the area was part of the British Cameroons before the 1961 referendum that joined the territory to Nigeria. His father, Garba Abubakar, was a Fulani trader and farmer, and his mother was Aisha Kande; he was named after his paternal grandfather Atiku Abdulqadir, while his maternal grandfather Inuwa Dutse moved to Jada from Dutse in Jigawa State. He became his parents' only surviving child after his sister died in infancy, and his father died by drowning in 1957 while crossing a river to Toungo near Jada.