Nigeria election 2023: Who’s Atiku Abubakar?

Atiku Abubakar is hoping will probably be sixth-time fortunate in his quest to be Nigeria’s subsequent president having fallen brief on 5 earlier makes an attempt, the primary in 1992.

The 75-year-old has circled the summits of public life for many of his profession as a prime civil servant, a vice-president, and a distinguished businessman, making his fortune within the oil sector and giving a few of it away to charity.

However the highest workplace within the land has eluded him, and in February 2023 he goes once more, providing his credentials as a seasoned political operator and serial entrepreneur because the treatment for Nigeria’s ills.

Africa’s most populous nation is going through hovering unemployment, widespread insecurity, excessive inflation, and a sluggish financial system closely depending on fluctuating oil revenues.

Mr Abubakar’s marketing campaign is constructed on his success as vice-president between 1999 and 2007, the place as head of the federal government’s financial group he oversaw profitable reforms within the telecommunications, pensions and banking sectors that led to jobs and GDP progress.

Nonetheless, his critics level to accusations of economic impropriety in opposition to him which they are saying make him unsuitable for the highest workplace in a rustic the place corruption is a large problem.

He’s accused of cronyism, particularly when he oversaw the privatization of key authorities belongings. He denies any wrongdoing and says the costs are politically motivated.

Mr Abubakar will likely be hoping to unite the fractured opposition Peoples Democratic Get together (PDP), the place cracks have emerged since his victory on the main in June.

Some influential southern governors begrudge his emergence, saying it was the flip of the south to supply Nigeria’s subsequent president after eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner like Mr Abubakar.

His alternative of a operating mate has additionally stirred an open insurrection throughout the get together, with many believing that the snub of the extremely influential governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike, would possibly show pricey.

A preferred determine throughout the get together, Mr Wike was thought of the overwhelming favorite, having misplaced out within the presidential main, however Mr Abubakar as a substitute selected Delta state governor Ifeanyi Okowa.

Story continues

Outdoors his get together, Mr Abubakar faces a formidable opponent in Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and a bourgeoning youth-driven marketing campaign led by the Labour Get together’s Peter Obi who’s focusing on votes in conventional PDP areas in southern Nigeria.

There’s additionally the problem of convincing younger Nigerians that he’s an appropriate alternative, given his age, and that he’s a break from the political class many have misplaced confidence in.

An affable, enterprising determine, Mr Abubakar strikes adroitly between the worlds of commerce and politics – qualities that, his supporters say, will assist him unite the nation and revive the financial system.

He has been concerned in Nigerian elections for many years and has just lately fluctuated between the 2 dominant events, the APC and PDP – the place he was a founding member, searching for a shot on the presidency.

His first exit from the PDP, in 2006, coincided with an investigation into his document as vice-president, when he was accused of getting diverted $125m (£95m) value of public funds in direction of his enterprise pursuits.

Related prices appeared in a 2010 US Senate report, which accused Mr Abubakar of having transferred $40m (£30.55m) of “suspect funds” to the US, utilizing his American spouse’s checking account.

The costs have by no means been tried in court docket, and Mr Abubakar has rejected the allegations of corruption as politically motivated. In January 2019, he visited Washington DC, ending hypothesis that he was avoiding journey to the US as a result of he would possibly face arrest there.

He appeals to voters who desire a revival of the financial system and nationwide unity, after seeing Mr Buhari administer a interval of financial stagnation and accusations of ethnicity in political appointments.

Mr Abubakar’s status in enterprise is linked to the spectacular rise of Intels, the oilfield logistics agency that he co-founded in 1982. From its unique workplace in a delivery container, the corporate has grown right into a multi-national, multi-billion naira operation, using greater than 10,000 individuals.

He has diverted a part of his wealth to charitable causes, most notably establishing the distinguished American College in Adamawa state, northern Nigeria. The college has provided scholarships to a few of the “Chibok women” – survivors of a high-profile kidnapping by Islamist Boko Haram militants.

Mr Abubakar regards himself as a fortunate beneficiary of the Western-style schooling provided on the college and fiercely opposed by Boko Haram. He was born in Adamawa to a religious Muslim household, and his father, a Fulani tradesman and herder, was briefly jailed for stopping him from attending college.

“Father was responding usually with concern and nervousness to the onslaught of change in Nigeria,” Mr Abubakar wrote sympathetically in his autobiography.

After ending his research, he joined the customs service, serving at Lagos port and airport. “Corruption was rife in Customs however I used to be not a part of it,” he wrote. “I noticed Customs… as a method of creating wealth for the federal government.”

Whereas nonetheless a civil servant, Mr Abubakar started shopping for property and farmland for industrial functions, finally shifting into the rising marketplace for oil and fuel companies. “I recognised very early in life that I’ve a superb nostril for enterprise,” he wrote in a chapter of his autobiography entitled, Making Cash.

His profession in customs introduced him into contact with the navy and political elite, two classes which were interchangeable for a lot of Nigeria’s latest historical past. Mr Abubakar grew near the previous military main, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, concerning him as a political mentor.

Whereas Nigeria was nonetheless beneath navy rule, the 2 males started networking with different regional leaders, hoping to type a reputable government-in-waiting.

In 1989, Mr Abubakar give up the civil service to dedicate himself to politics. He made his first presidential run in 1992, as a candidate for the faction that had gathered round Shehu Yar’Adua. He stepped down after coming third within the first spherical, and the election itself was later cancelled by the navy authorities.

The repression intensified within the Nineties beneath the dictatorship of Gen Sani Abacha. Mr Abubakar was briefly exiled in London, whereas his mentor, Shehu Yar’Adua, was despatched to jail, the place he finally died.

Mr Abubakar returned to Nigeria in 1997 as Gen Abacha relaxed his grip on energy. He turned vice-president after the elections in 1999 put in the PDP candidate, Olusegun Obasanjo, within the presidency.

Throughout two phrases in workplace, he oversaw a sequence of privatisations, incomes reward as a liberaliser in some quarters, and criticism elsewhere as a crony capitalist.

In his autobiography, he took credit score for reforming the banking sector, the public sale of cell phone licences, in addition to for an financial increase that enabled Nigeria to repay a lot of its debt.

Mr Abubakar, from north-eastern Adamawa state, says he’ll convey again the nice occasions if elected president in 2023.

He has 4 wives and 28 youngsters.