Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has disowned the statement wherein his representative at an event said that he does not want to be president at all costs.
NATIONAL POST recalls that Atiku was represented at an event in Lagos State by a Professor at the Achievers University in Ondo, Ola Olateju.
While making his speech on behalf of Atiku, he had said the former vice president was not desperate to be president.
However, Atiku has dismissed the speech made on his behalf, stating that it does not represent his opinion.
He declared through one of his spokespersons, Tunde Olusunle, that he would run again in 2027.
According to him, Nigeria needs to be saved from the Intensive Care Unit under President Bola Tinubu's administration.
Olusunle disclosed that Atiku made the clarification from his holiday home in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), after reading reports that he was not desperate to be president.
According to Atiku, “I did not issue that statement. When people stand in for me at events, we preview my thoughts on the instant subject and what my contribution or intervention will be, so we are on the same page.”
"In this particular instance, there was no engagement with me to distill my thoughts. Prof. Olateju was not speaking for me.
“I will run in 2027. Nigeria needs to be decisively rescued from the intensive care unit it has been consigned. The degeneration in our country, the level of poverty and pain, the anguish, is unacceptable,” he told ThisDay.
The development is a confirmation of earlier speculations that Atiku is determined to win the presidential ticket of the African Democratic Congress, ADC.
Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the ADC during the 2023 election, as well as former governor and ex-minister, Rotimi Amaechi are also eyeing the ticket.
There are fears that the squabble over who gets the ticket may destabilize the opposition coalition even before the 2027 election.
