Newsonline reports that Atiku Abubakar is a politician, business owner as well as a philanthropist.
He once served as the 11th Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. In 2019, he contested for president of Nigeria under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Atiku Abubakar GCON was born on 25 November 1946 to Garba Abubakar and Aisha Kande at Jada village of Adamawa State. His only sister died at a young age and that made him the only child of his parents. At a young age, Abubakar lost his father to a drowning accident in a neighboring village in 1957.
Abubakar is married to four wives and is blessed with 28 children. He met his first wife Titilayo Albert at Idi-Iroko when she was 19 years and secretly married her in December, 1971. Titilayo’s children are Fatima, Adamu, Halima and Aminu.
Thereafter, he married his second wife, Ladi Yakubu in January 1979. Ladi gave birth to Atiku, Abba, Zainab, Ummi-Hauwa, Maryam and Rukaiyatu.
Following Ladi is Princess Rukaiyatu, the daughter of late Lamido of Adamawa whom he married in 1983. Princess Rukaiyatu gave birth to Aisha, Hadiza, Aliyu, Asmau, Mustafa, Laila and Abdulsalam.
In 1986, he married his fourth wife, Fatima Shettima. She is the mother of Amina, Mohammed, two sets of twins, Ahmed and Shehu, Zainab and Aisha, and then Hafsat, her last daughter.
Afterward, Atiku divorced Ladi Yakubu and married Jennifer Iwenjiora Doughlas, a lawyer.
At the time, Atiku’s father did not believe in modern education, so he stopped his son from attending the compulsory traditional school. However, when the government discovered Garba Abubakar’s action, he was jailed for few days before his mother-in-law was able to pay for his bail. Afterwards, Abubakar started his primary education at Jada Primary School, Adamawa at the age of eight.
Thereafter, in 1960, he proceeded to Adamawa provincial secondary school for his secondary education. He graduated in 1965 and enrolled in Nigerian Police College, Kaduna. Shortly after, he left the college to take on the position of tax official at Regional Ministry of Finance. Also, in 1966, he gained admission into the school of Hygiene, Kano and graduated with a diploma in 1967. In the same year, Atiku proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University on scholarship. There, he graduated with a diploma in law in 1969 and immediately got employed by Nigeria Customs Service.
Atiku Abubakar worked with Nigeria Customs Service for twenty years and rose to the position of a Deputy Director. He retired in 1989 to venture into business and politics. While working as a Customs Officer, Atiku started a
real estate business. With a loan of N31,000, he completed his first house in Yola and rented it out. The proceeds from his first house was used in building his second house. Today, Atiku has several properties in Yola to his name.
Atiku also ventured into Agriculture in 1981. He bought 2,500 hectares of land to start maize and cotton farm. Unfortunately, the business closed down in 1986. However, Atiku with an unrelenting attitude started the sales of rice, flour and sugar.
Abubakar had a major business break when Gabrielle Volpi, an Italian businessman in Nigeria invited him to start Nigeria Container Services (NICOTES), a logistics company. Meanwhile, Atiku was still a civil servant under Nigeria Customs Service. This raised accusations of conflict of interest against Atiku Abubakar because it is an offence for an active civil servant to venture into another business. However, Atiku was able to defend himself saying that he only own part of the company’ shares and not involved in the day to day running of the business. NICOTES today has been renamed INTELS.
He also own Adama Beverages Limited, a beverage-producing company in Yola, a microfinance bank and several other business empires.
Abubakar worked underground during Bamanga Tukur’s governorship campaign. Bamanga Tukur was the then managing director of the Nigeria Ports Authority. Thereafter, Atiku met Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who was second-in-command of the military government that ruled Nigeria between 1976 and 1979. Yar’adua thereafter invited Atiku to the political meetings that holds regularly at his home. After sometime, Abubakar became the national vice-chairman of the People Front of Nigeria. The association was led by Yar’Adua and was in charge of ensuring the success of the transition programme started by Ibrahim Babangida, the then Head of State. Other politicians in the team are Babalola Borishade, Bola Tinubu, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Aliyu Sumaila and Sabo Bakin Zuwo.
In 1989, Atiku was selected to represent his constituency at the constituency assembly, set up to form a new constitution for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the government denied the registrations of The People’s Front but, they were able to find a place within the Social Democratic Party.
Atiku Abubakar announced his Gongola state gubernatorial run on 1st September 1990. However, in 1991 before the election could hold, the Federal Government splited Gongola State into two – Adamawa and Taraba States. Abubakar fell into Adamawa State. Fortunately, he won the SDP primaries in November 1991 but was disqualified from contesting in the election.
In 1998, he contested as the governor of Adamawa State under People’s Democratic Party and won. However, before his swearing in, he accepted to be the running mate of PDP’s presidential candidate, Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo.
Abubakar was sworn in as the vice-president of Nigeria on 29th May 1999. He worked together with South-African Deputy President, Jacob Zuma to launch South Africa Nigeria Binational Commission. In 2006, Abubakar had a clash with President Olusegun Obasanjo over his intention to amend the constitution, which will allow him to run for presidency for the third time. This did not go down well with Atiku and the argument did more harm than good to their relationship.
Abubakar ran for Nigeria presidential office under Social Democratic Party in 1992. Eventually, he came third in the convention primaries, losing to MKO Abiola and Babagana Kinigbe.
On 20 December, 2006, Action Congress (AC) selected Atiku as their presidential candidate. Thereafter, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) omitted Atiku’s name in the final list of 24 aspirants for 21st April Presidential election. Apparently, his name was omitted because a panel set up by the government listed him among corrupt persons in Nigeria. However, Abubakar contested the action in court on 16th March. At the long run, the supreme court ruled in his favour and was able to contest.
After the election, Atiku Abubakar came third, behind Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, PDP candidate and Muhammadu Buhari, ANPP candidate.
Abubakar also contested for president during the 2011 elections. This time, under Peoples Democratic Party. However, he lost at the primaries to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
In 2018, Atiku Abubakar announced his interest to contest as Nigeria President under PDP. He won the party’s nomination on October 7th at its convention. He also defeated other contestants with 1,532 votes, leading the Governor of Sokoto State Aminu Tambuwal by 839 votes.
Unfortunately, he lost to President Buhari on February 27th, 2019.
In May 2022, Atiku Abubakar emerged as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after he defeated eleven other aspirants at the party’s presidential primary election National Convention at MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja.
Atiku defeated Wike his closest rival after Governor Tambuwal stepped down and asked delegates to vote for the Vice President.
Wike polled 237 votes, while Atiku polled 371 votes, making him the winner of the tightly contested race.
Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) was registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission in August 2013. The media announced that the party was formed by Abubakar as Plan B if his presidential ambition is not achieved through PDP. To clear the air, Abubakar mentioned in a statement that his political associates founded the party but he was still a member of PDP.
Abubakar joined the All Progressives Congress on 2nd February 2014 to further pursue his presidential ambition. For reasons best known to him, he left the All Progressive Congress (APC) on 24th November 2017.
Abubakar returned to the People’s Democratic Party on 3rd December 2017. This he made known through his Facebook live broadcast.
In 2005, Atiku Abubakar founded the American University of Nigeria (AUN), an American standard university in Yola. Following that, he donated $750,000 to National Peace Corps Association in United State in 2012, for the purpose of funding a new initiative featuring global leaders who will discuss the Peace Corps’s impact.
In August 2013, he sponsored an essay competition organized to proffer solutions to the pressing educational problems in Nigeria. The participants of the essay wrote between 2,000 to 5,000 words on the topic ‘More Learning to More People: How can Nigeria be more innovative in bridging its literacy and skills gap? At the end of the essay, two winners emerged: Emeka Chigozie Ezekwesiri and Nneka Lily Nwagbo. Also, Abubakar issued scholarships to 15 escapees of the Chibok schoolgirls’ kidnapping
Adamawa’s traditional ruler, Alhaji Aliyu Mustafa made him the Turaki of Adamawa in 1982. During the 50th anniversary of the US Peace Corps in 2011, the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) honoured Abubakar with the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award.
In June 2017, Abubakar was awarded a chieftaincy title of the Waziri of Adamawa, and his Turaki title was transferred to his son, Aliyu.
In addition, Hall of Grace Magazine awarded him the Hero of Democracy, following his involvement in true federalism.
Atiku Abubakar is an active social media user with over 390,000 followers on Twitter, and 450,000 followers on Facebook. He is the second Nigerian politician to be verified on Twitter after Governor Tunde Fashola. He also has a blog he launched in 2013.
In 2017, Atiku Abubakar launched the True Federalism Campaign. He is keen on the need to restructure Nigeria and has since been giving speeches about it across the country. In his word, “True Federalism will encourage states to compete to attract investments and skilled workers rather than merely waiting for monthly revenue allocation from Abuja”. Over time, his speeches gained wide acceptance due to the state’s interest in having control over their resources, especially the South-South and South-East of Nigeria.
“Education truly can change a person’s story, it gave me everything. Whatever happens, get an education.”
“People exaggerate corruption in Nigeria. It is not even our first or second problem, maybe the third.”
“The only path to a prosperous Nigeria is one that brings forth our most talented demographic: the youth.”
“Talent without ambition is a waste, yet ambition without talent is worthless.”
“Without doubt, the fight against corruption is crucial to good governance and the progress of our country.”
“If you get education right, you will get everything else right.”
No doubt, Atiku is a successful entrepreneur and politician. Although we cannot ascertain his correct net worth but according to networthhouse.com, Atiku is worth $1.4billion.
Despite the failures Atiku faced in the presidential elections, he kept contesting with the hope of becoming Nigeria’s President someday. As an entrepreneur, failure should propel you to come back with better strategies.
Atiku failed in his maize and cutton business but rather than mourning over his loss, he moved on to the next business idea. Entrepreneurs must be determined to succeed in business and that will be the driving force to success.
Atiku Abubakar climbed on the shoulders of people ahead of him in the political space and that cleared the road for him to walk. Ride on the wings of your Industry leaders and in no time, you will be running in their pace.
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