Atiku’s Presidential Ambitions Under Threat As Adamawa Governor Makes Bold Statement

During a recent interview on Channels TV, the governor of Adamawa State, Umaru Fintiri, stated that no Northerner has any business running for president in the 2027 general elections. According to him, it’s still the turn of the Southerners, who he believes have the right to enjoy 8 years in power.

“Whether they like to hear it There’s no business of anybody in the North do with the Presidency at the moment. It’s the turn of the South. They should complete their 8 years if we are really serious about this country and about rotating the leadership.”

When he was asked whether his position on a Northerner not running for the presidency would undermine the ambitions of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is from Adamawa state and appears set to run for the presidency again, Fintiri insisted that his position is from the perspective of a former member of the PDP, which Atiku Abubakar has also abandoned for the African Democratic Congress.

Governor Fintiri’s position comes after he finalised his cross-carpeting from the People’s Democratic Party to the ruling All Progressive Congress. On why he chose to abandon the opposition for the ruling party, because the PDP doesn’t have any presidential candidate, which doesn’t suggest seriousness.

“We won’t force anybody to be a presidential candidate, which means we will continue to play local politics,” Fintiri said on how the lack of clarity at the federal level of the PDP has inspired his decision to align with the ruling party while maintaining a grip on the state.

Come 2027, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar will likely be running for the presidency should he secure the nomination of the African Democratic Congress, which he joined in 2025 after dumping the People’s Democratic Party.

Should his name be on the ballot for the presidential elections, this would be the fourth time he has run for the presidency after failed attempts in 2007, 2019, and 2023. Atiku’s perennial quest to lead Nigeria started in 1992 when he ran for the ticket of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which he lost to MKO Abiola. In 2011, he lost the ticket for the People’s Democratic Party to Goodluck Jonathan, and in 2015, he lost the All Progressive Congress Party ticket to Muhammadu Buhari.

While Governor Fintiri’s comments align with the position of other Northern political figures in the APC who are backing the incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to extend his stay in Aso Rock, it’s unlikely to affect Atiku’s chances of winning Adamawa State should he run in 2027, as he has historically clinched his home state every time he ran for president.