The three main parties all have their candidates with Vice-President Atiku Abubakar the last to take a running mate in the shape of former Anambra State Deputy Governor Okechukwu Ude...
Vol 48 No 1 |
- WEST AFRICA
Yet the key focus will be on the presidency with three leading contenders: from Katsina in the far north Umaru Yar’Adua who stands for the governing People’s Democratic Party; Muhammadu Buhari for the All Nigeria People’s Party; Atiku Abubakar President Olusegun Obasanjo’s estranged deputy and like his rivals a Muslim northerner picked up the Action Congress nomination in late December...
Vice-President Atiku Abubakar launched his campaign for the presidency in Abuja on 25 November insisting that he could win elections due next April despite the open hostility of the incumbent Olusegun Obasanjo his suspension from the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) and pending corruption charges...
This is a big change from the position before the 2003 elections when Obasanjo relied heavily on the good offices of his Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and his powerful northern network to bring in the critical support from state governors for his renomination as the PDP's presidential candidate...
Obvious legal complications surround the personality war between President Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar...
As the net closes in on those state governors accused of corruption and fraud President Olusegun Obasanjo's position has strengthened markedly against his Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and most other would-be presidential candidates in next year's national elections...
Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has long maintained that he should be the natural choice of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) to take over from President Olusegun Obasanjo...
Atiku Abubakar's choice Abubakar could leave the PDP and use another party...
While President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar sling mud at each other the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) an official anti-corruption body led by Nuhu Ribadu has given Nigerians a taste of more to come and of the manner in which the political elite has operated state accounts in recent years...
The real rivalry is the battle of wits between the President and the two leading presidential would-bes in his party Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and the former military leader General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida...
More plausibly two presidential frontrunners Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and former military leader Ibrahim Babangida applauded the Senate's courage...
The third-term campaign sharpened that perception and helped northern candidates who opposed Obasanjo especially Vice-President Atiku Abubakar with whom Obasanjo shares a deep mutual loathing...