1. Atiku Abubakar is a Nigerian politician and businessman who served as the vice president of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo.
58 Facts About Atiku Abubakar
1. 2.
Atiku Abubakar ran for the office of governor of Adamawa State in 1990 and 1996 unsuccessfully, but won in 1998.
3.
Atiku Abubakar ran unsuccessfully for President of Nigeria six times, in 1993,2007,2011,2015,2019, and 2023.
4.
Atiku Abubakar ran in the Social Democratic Party presidential primaries in 1993, but lost to Moshood Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe.
5.
Atiku Abubakar was a presidential candidate of the Action Congress in the 2007 presidential election coming in third to Umaru Yar'Adua of the PDP and Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP.
6.
Atiku Abubakar contested the presidential primaries of the People's Democratic Party during the 2011 presidential election losing out to incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.
7.
Atiku Abubakar came in second in the general election, being defeated by Bola Tinubu, though Abubakar joined other opposition candidates in demanding a revote.
8.
Atiku Abubakar's father, Garba Abubakar was a Fulani trader and farmer, and his mother was Aisha Kande.
9.
Atiku Abubakar was named after his paternal grandfather Atiku Abdulqadir who hails from Wurno, Sokoto State and migrated to Kojoli village at Jada, Adamawa State, his maternal grandfather called Inuwa Dutse migrated to Jada, Adamawa State from Dutse, Jigawa State he became the only child of his parents when his only sister died at infancy.
10.
Atiku Abubakar's father was opposed to the idea of Western education and tried to keep Atiku Abubakar out of the traditional school system.
11.
At the age of eight, Atiku Abubakar enrolled in the Jada Primary School, Adamawa.
12.
Atiku Abubakar graduated from secondary school in 1965 after he made grade three in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.
13.
Atiku Abubakar left the college when he was unable to present an O-Level Mathematics result, and worked briefly as a Tax Officer in the Regional Ministry of Finance, from where he gained admission to the School of Hygiene in Kano in 1966.
14.
Atiku Abubakar graduated with a Diploma in 1967, having served as Interim Student Union President at the school.
15.
In 2021, Atiku Abubakar successfully completed and passed his master's degree in International Relations at Anglia Ruskin University.
16.
Atiku Abubakar has six children with Ladi: Abba, Atiku, Zainab, Ummi-Hauwa, Maryam and Rukaiyatu.
17.
Atiku Abubakar later divorced Ladi, allowing him to marry, as his fourth wife, Jennifer Iwenjiora Douglas.
18.
Atiku Abubakar's children include: Amina, Mohammed and the twins Ahmed and Shehu, the twins Zainab and Aisha, and Hafsat.
19.
Atiku Abubakar worked in the Nigeria Customs Service for twenty years, rising to become the deputy director, as the second highest position in the Service was then known; he retired in April 1989 and took up full-time business and politics.
20.
Atiku Abubakar started out in the real estate business during his early days as a Customs Officer.
21.
Atiku Abubakar continued this way, building a sizeable portfolio of property in Yola, Nigeria.
22.
Atiku Abubakar then ventured into trading, buying and selling truckloads of rice, flour and sugar.
23.
Atiku Abubakar's most important business move came while he was a Customs Officer at the Apapa Ports.
24.
Atiku Abubakar is a co-founder of Intels Nigeria Limited, an oil servicing business with extensive operations in Nigeria and abroad.
25.
Atiku Abubakar retired in April 1989 and took up full-time business and politics.
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On his part, Atiku Abubakar has defended the decision, saying his involvement was limited to the ownership of shares, and that he was not involved in the day-to-day running of the business.
27.
Atiku Abubakar canvassed for votes on behalf of Tukur, and donated to the campaign.
28.
Atiku Abubakar was drawn by Yar'Adua into the political meetings that were now happening regularly in Yar'Adua's Lagos home, which gave rise to the People's Front of Nigeria.
29.
In 1989, Atiku Abubakar was elected the National Vice-chairman of the Peoples Front of Nigeria in the build-up to the Third Nigerian Republic.
30.
Atiku Abubakar won a seat to represent his constituency at the 1989 Constituent Assembly, set up to decide a new constitution for Nigeria.
31.
On 1 September 1990, Atiku Abubakar announced his Gongola State gubernatorial bid.
32.
Atiku Abubakar and Kingibe considered joining forces combining 5,231 votes to challenge Abiola.
33.
However, after Shehu Yar'Adua asked Atiku Abubakar to withdraw from the campaign, with Abiola promising to make him his running mate.
34.
In 1998, Atiku Abubakar joined the Peoples Democratic Party and later secured nomination for Governor of Adamawa State, winning the December 1998 governorship elections, but before he could be sworn in he accepted a position as the running mate to the PDP presidential candidate, former military head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo who went on to win the 1999 presidential election ushering in the Fourth Nigerian Republic.
35.
On 29 May 1999, Atiku Abubakar was sworn in as Vice President of Nigeria.
36.
In 2006, Atiku Abubakar was involved in a bitter public battle with his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, ostensibly arising from the latter's bid to amend certain provisions of the constitution to take another shot at the presidency.
37.
In 2005, Abubakar was allegedly involved in a bribery scandal with US Congressman William J Jefferson.
38.
Atiku Abubakar stated that Jefferson never suggested providing personal economic benefits, and Jefferson corroborated this claim.
39.
Atiku Abubakar was sentenced to 13 years in prison, one of the longest sentences ever given to a former US congressman for corruption.
40.
In 2006, Atiku Abubakar fell out with President Olusegun Obasanjo, and switched parties, from the Peoples Democratic Party to the Action Congress of Nigeria, in preparation for the 2007 elections.
41.
On 25 November 2006 Atiku Abubakar announced that he would run for president.
42.
INEC issued a statement stating that Atiku Abubakar's name was missing because he was on a list of persons indicted for corruption by a panel set up by the government.
43.
In January 2011, Atiku Abubakar contested for the Presidential ticket of his party alongside President Jonathan and Sarah Jubril, and lost the primary, garnering 805 votes to President Jonathan's 2736.
44.
On 2 February 2014, Atiku Abubakar left the Peoples Democratic Party and became a founding member All Progressives Congress, with the ambition of contesting for the presidency ahead of the 2015 presidential election.
45.
On Friday, 24 November 2017, Atiku Abubakar announced his exit from the All Progressives Congress, and returned to the Peoples Democratic Party on 3 December 2017.
46.
Atiku Abubakar said he decided to 'return home' to the PDP now that the issues which made him leave the party had been resolved.
47.
In 2018, Atiku Abubakar began his presidential campaign and secured the party nomination of the PDP in the presidential primaries held in Port Harcourt on 7 October 2018.
48.
Atiku Abubakar defeated all the other aspirants and got 1,532 votes, 839 more than the runner-up, the Governor of Sokoto State Aminu Tambuwal.
49.
Atiku Abubakar continued his campaign rally in Kogi State as he promised to complete abandoned projects in the state.
50.
Atiku Abubakar took his campaigns to Katsina, visit Emir of Daura on 7 February 2019 On 27 February 2019, Atiku Abubakar lost the presidential election to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari by over 3 million votes.
51.
Atiku Abubakar emerged as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for 2023 election after he defeated 12 other candidates in a keenly contested presidential primary held at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja on 28 May 2022.
52.
Atiku Abubakar has delivered speeches around the country on the need to restructure the country.
53.
Atiku Abubakar recently declared at an event where he was conferred the award Hero Of Democracy by Hall of Grace Magazine.
54.
Atiku Abubakar said: "True Federalism will encourage states to compete, to attract investments and skilled workers rather than merely waiting for monthly revenue allocation from Abuja".
55.
Atiku Abubakar is the founder of the American University of Nigeria in Yola, Adamawa.
56.
Atiku Abubakar has publicly claimed that the true reason is that his visa is still being processed.
57.
In 1982, Atiku Abubakar was given the chieftaincy title of the Turaki of Adamawa by his future father-in-law, Adamawa's traditional ruler Alhaji Aliyu Mustafa.
58.
In June 2017, Atiku Abubakar was given the chieftaincy title of the Waziri of Adamawa, and his previous title of Turaki was transferred to his son, Aliyu, his first son with his third wife.