10 things you did not know about Atiku Abubakar

Atiku Abubakar is a man you would describe as a genius considering his background and achievements. He has been a top civil servant, a vice-president, and a prominent businessman and philanthropist who made his fortunes in the oil sector and made a lot of charity donations. However, one thing seems to elude this illustrious man from Adamawa State – becoming the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Atiku has unsuccessfully contested for the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria five times. He contested for the position in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019. 2023 may be the charm as he was declared the winner of the presidential primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in May 2022.

Table of Content hide 1Biography 2Career 2.1Political career 3Achievements 4List of Atiku Abubakar companies 5Net worth 6Family 7Atiku 2023 810 things you did not know about Atiku

Biography

Atiku Abubakar was born on November 25, 1946, in Jada, a former British colony in Cameroon that later joined Nigeria in the 1961 British Cameroons referendum. His father, Garba Abubakar, was a Fulani trader and farmer; his mother was Aisha Kande. Atiku was named after his paternal grandfather Atiku Abdulqadir who hailed from Wurno, Sokoto State, and migrated to Kojoli village at Jada, Adamawa State. Atiku’s father died in 1957 after drowning while crossing a river to Toungo, a neighbouring village to Jada.

Atiku attended Jada Primary School, Adamawa. For his secondary education, he attended Adamawa Provincial Secondary School, where he graduated with grade three in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination in 1965. After that, he studied at the Nigeria Police College in Kaduna for a short while but failed to present an O-Level Mathematics result. So he left and worked briefly as a Tax Officer in the Regional Ministry of Finance.

He attended the School of Hygiene in Kano in 1966 and graduated with a Diploma in 1967. While in the school, he served as Interim Student Union President. In 1967, he was admitted for a Law Diploma at the Ahmadu Bello University Institute of Administration, on a scholarship from the regional government. In 1969, he graduated and was employed by the Nigeria Customs Service.

Atiku also completed and passed his Master’s degree in International Relations at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom, in 2021.

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Career

Atiku began his career in the Nigeria Customs Service, where he worked for 20 years and rose to the rank of Deputy Director, the second-highest position in the Service then. He retired in April 1989 and joined business and politics full time. Before he retired, he had already joined the real estate business and was awarded a 31,000 naira loan to build his first house in Yola in 1974. He completed the house and put it up for rent.

Proceeds from the rent went into gradually purchasing other properties in Yola. Then he moved into agriculture, acquiring 2,500 hectares of land near Yola to start a maize and cotton farm in 1981. However, the business failed, and he was forced to close it in 1986. Then, he went into trading, buying and selling truckloads of rice, flour, and sugar.

Atiku’s most important business move was while he was still a customs officer. An Italian businessman invited him to set up Nigeria Container Services (NICOTES), a logistics company operating within the Ports. The company blossomed into Intels Nigeria Limited, which would provide immense wealth to Abubakar. The business has extensive operations in Nigeria and abroad.

Political career

Atiku joined politics in the early 1980s, where he worked in the background for the governorship campaign of Bamanga Tukur, the then managing director of the Nigeria Ports Authority. He joined General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua’s political meetings in Yar’Adua’s Lagos home, which birthed the Peoples Front of Nigeria (PFN). Atiku had met Yar’Adua during customs service days when the latter was the second-in-command Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, between 1976 and 1979.

PFN prominent politicians were Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Baba Gana Kingibe, Bola Tinubu, Sabo Bakin Zuwo, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila and Abubakar Koko. In 1989, Abubakar was elected the National Vice-Chairman of PFN and subsequently won a seat to represent his constituency at the 1989 Constituent Assembly.

The military government denied the PFN registration, and the party merged with the government-created Social Democratic Party (SDP). In 1990, Atiku announced he would contest for the gubernatorial seat in Gongola State. But the federal government divided the state into Adamawa and Taraba states a year later. Atiku’s state fell in Adamawa, and he won the SDP Primaries in November 1991 but was disqualified by the government from contesting the elections.

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In 1993, he contested the SDP presidential primaries but lost to Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. After June 12 presidential elections, Atiku attempted to contest for the gubernatorial seat of Adamawa State under the United Nigeria Congress Party, a transition program by Head of State General Sani Abacha, which ended when Abacha died.

In 1998, Abubakar joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He contested and won the Governor of Adamawa State seat but chose to forfeit the position after being offered running mate to the PDP presidential candidate, former military head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo. PDP went on to win the presidential elections in 1999, and Atiku officially became the Vice President of Nigeria, a position he held for two terms.

During his second term as Vice President, Atiku fell out with his boss, Obasanjo, and was instrumental in ensuring the latter’s bid for a third term failed. He later left PDP for Action Congress (AC) and won the primaries for the presidential ticket in 2006. However, his name was missing after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released the final list of 24 aspirants in 2007. Although Atiku successfully had the court overturn his nomination, he still lost the elections finishing third behind winner Umaru Yar’Adua of PDP.

In 2011, Atiku rejoined PDP and contested the presidential primaries but lost to Goodluck Jonathan, who later became Nigeria’s president. Atiku left PDP and was one of the founding fathers of the All Progressive Congress (APC), which was created in 2014. He intended to run for the presidency in the party but lost the primaries to Muhammadu Buhari.

On December 3, 2017, Atiku returned to PDP and won the presidential primaries held in Port Harcourt on October 7, 2018. However, he lost the presidential elections to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari by over 3 million votes on February 27, 2019.

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Achievements

Atiku Abubakar has a rich portfolio of achievements he has made over the years. Here is a list of some of them:

As vice president, he chaired the National Economic Council that brought GSM into Nigeria, which stabilised the Naira.
He created over 50,000 direct jobs and 250,000 indirect ones in Adamawa State, the largest private employer of labour in the state, only second to the state government.
Pushed for creating the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and gave the corruption-fighting body its first grant from his budget.
Atiku led the Obasanjo administration’s efforts to restore peace, law, and order during the Sharia crisis of 2000.
He co-founded one of Africa’s largest oil, gas, and port services firms in the 80s.
Atiku is also the proprietor of the American University of Nigeria, Yola, which is one of the best private universities in Africa.
Through the university, he has given a full scholarship to over a hundred students, including some of the Chibok girls.
Atiku was named Waziri of Adamawa, and his previous title of Turaki was transferred to his son Aliyu.

List of Atiku Abubakar companies

Intels Nigeria Limited
Prodeco
Atiku Abubakar farm
ABTI schools which include the American University of Nigeria (AUN)
Adama Beverages
Gotel Communications

Net worth

Atiku Abubakar has an estimated net worth of N747 billion ($1.8bn) and many valuable assets.

Family

Atiku Abubakar married four wives and has 28 children. His marriage to his first wife, Titilayo Albert Atiku-Abubakar produced four children – Fatima, Adamu, Halima and Aminu. In 1979, he married his second wife, Ladi Yakubu and they have six children together – Abba, Atiku, Zainab, Ummi-Hauwa, Maryam and Rukaiyatu.

Atiku married the third wife, Princess Rukaiyatu, daughter of the Lamido of Adamawa, Aliyu Mustafa. Their children are Aisha, Hadiza, Aliyu (named after her late father), Asmau, Mustafa, Laila, and Abdulsalam. In 1986, he married Fatima Shettima, and their children are Amina (Meena), Mohammed and the twins Ahmed / Shehu, Zainab / Aisha, and Hafsat. He later divorced his second wife, Ladi, to marry a fourth one as Islam permits. His wife was Jennifer Iwenjiora Douglas, but both divorced in 2021 following a disagreement over her continued stay in the United Kingdom, amongst other long-standing issues.

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Atiku 2023

Atiku Abubakar emerged the PDP flagbearer for the 2023 presidential elections on May 28, 2022. He polled 371 total votes to beat closest rival Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, who scored 237. Atiku is yet to announce his running mate.