Atiku Clarifies ‘Not Desperate’ Comment

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has assured his followers of running for the Presidency in 2027.

Atiku gave the clarification through one of his spokespersons during the 2023 presidential election, Tunde Olusunle.

Speaking with ThisDay, Olusunle said Atiku would run again in 2027 because 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.

Speaking over the weekend, Ola Olateju, who represented Atiku at an event in Lagos, said the former Vice President was not desperate to be president.

Olateju said Atiku plans to build a better Nigeria.

However, Olusunle said Atiku disowned the statement, stressing that it was not from him.

“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 said.