With the next general elections just less than 2 years away, there have been several permutations, and intense lobbying going on for a suitable candidate that will take over from the current administration headed by president Muhammadu Buhari. Few persons have openly indicated interests to contest for the nation’ s top job, others are still waiting and consulting the right stakeholders before they can openly declare their intentions.
Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, who contested for the presidency in 2019 under the platform of the peoples democratic party, has not been too confidential about his intentions to contest again in 2023. The former vice president and business man, came in second during the 2019 polls with 41. 2%(11, 262, 978) of the votes in his favour. Atiku lost the election to the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, who had 55. 6%(15, 191, 847)of the votes in his favour.
Atiku’ s performance data in the last elections shows that, he might be the most suitable candidate who will be able to snatch power from the ruling party in 2023, since it is an established fact that president Buhari will not be contesting due to the constitutional term limit in place.
There are several factors that may pose a great threat to the presidential ambitions of Atiku Abubakar in 2023. These factors include age, and zoning. But, the latter might pose a greater threat to Atiku’ s presidential ambitions than the former. Just recently, southern governors met in Lagos state to deliberate on the future of this country. Among the various items they listed in their communique, is the request that the next president should come from the southern part of Nigeria.
This declaration by the 17 southern governors has cast a long shadow over the ambitions of the former vice president. Atiku Abubakar is from the northern part of the country, and to further add to the problem, several southern governors who signed the communique are members of Atiku’ s party, the people democratic party. Even though politics is not stagnant, the current situations on ground may affect the ambitions of the former vice president.