Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar vowed last week that he will continue to contest for the country’s presidency as long as his health permits him. The same week, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was reinstated as the Emir of Kano four years after his dethronement by former governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s administration. These and three other stories we tracked dominated public discourse in the country last week.
1. Atiku eyes presidency in 2027 On May 23, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election declared his intention to vie for the country’s highest political office in three years. Atiku stated this during an interview on the Hausa Service of the Voice of America in Abuja.
He also hinted at a merger between the PDP and other opposition parties before the next general election. He said: “I will keep contesting again and again as long as I am alive and healthy. “Even the former US President Abraham Lincoln contested seven times before finally winning.
” Why it matters The remark speaks to the former vice president’s desperation to rule the country despite his failure in the last five elections held in the country. Atiku’s remark is expected to raise the country’s political temperature in the days ahead as interest groups in the South-East, in particular, are unrelenting in their push for the presidency after coming so close in 2023. It however remained to be seen if the PDP wi.