Waziri Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President of Nigeria, has attempted to become President of our nation no less than 6 times and his latest attempt is the 7th.
In 2007 he contested as the Action Congress (AC) presidential candidate in the general election and finished third behind Umaru Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari.
In 2011 he lost the PDP presidential primaries to incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.
In 2015 he lost the APC presidential primaries to Muhammadu Buhari.
In 2019 he was the PDP presidential candidate and lost the general election to Buhari.
In 2023 he was the PDP presidential candidate and lost the general election to Bola Tinubu.
He is now on his seventh bid.
There are only six documented cases of individuals who have contested the presidency of their country 7 times or more.
They are:
(1) Pascual Racuyal of the Philippines who contested 11 times.
(2) Nicolás Zúñiga y Miranda of Mexico who contested 10 times.
(3) Harold Stassen of the United States of America who contested 9 times.
(4) Jack Fellure of the United States of America who contested 9 times.
(5) Lyndon LaRouche of the United States of America who contested 8 times.
And finally
(6) Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal who contested seven times.
Every single one of them failed to ever win the presidency of their nation except Wade who won on the 5th and 6th attempts and lost on the 7th.
Atiku has failed in all of his 6 attempts over the last 33 years and he is now on his 7th.
Stop and think about that.
In a country of 230 million people one man has been trying to be President for 33 years, has failed each time, and is now attempting it again for the seventh time.
Again consider the fact that the same man has been a member of 7 political parties since he joined politics in 1991 and four political parties (one of which is the PDP which he left and rejoined twice) since 1999.
Given this it is fair to say that he is a political wanderer.
Unlike leaders elsewhere, to Atiku the party is nothing but a vehicle of power that exists for him and he does not exist for the party.
It is of course his right to keep trying but this could also be legitimately regarded as an obsession.
Nothing is more indicative of that obsession than his attempt to mobilise the Governors of the PDP to move against his leader President Olusegun Obasanjo, a man who had nominated him as his running mate for the second time, topple him as the party’s presidential candidate and take his place as the flagbearer in 2003.
This was not only a case of ingratitude but also treachery and especially so because Obasanjo had trusted him to raise all the finances that were needed for that second run.
Atiku raised the money through private donors and instead of utilising it for the election and primaries he sat on it, refused to release it and literally blackmailed the President who was left with nothing.
Two interventions saved Obasanjo.
First the God factor, which was the most important, and secondly a stupendously wealthy businessman from Kano (who I shall not name) who made virtually all the money that was needed available for both the delegates at the convention and the election itself.
