Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that the Presidency is already in panic mood because of the planned coalition, insisting that he remains Nigeria’s most formidable opposition figure.
On Monday, Daniel Bwala, the Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Policy Communication in a television interview, advised Atiku to jettison the idea of contesting the presidential election in 2027.
Bwala, a former aide to Atiku said, “As per my former principal, if I have the opportunity to meet him face to face, what I would tell him is, ‘You have to believe in destiny. God gives power to whomever he chooses, and it seems, from the facts on the ground, it may not have been God’s will for you to govern Nigeria.”
Bwala added that if Atiku insisted to contest, “as we are already seeing it playing out, his political ending may not be as palatable as he is thinking because right now, from his political family, he has lost substantial people, probably 60 to 70 per cent.”
But reacting to Bwala, through his media office, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election described Bwala’s remarks as “disparaging”, adding that the “rescue and rebuilding of Nigeria is a task of urgent national importance — far too important to be derailed by the petty ego trips of desperate presidential aides.”
The statement said it was “ironic and pathetic that Bwala — a political turncoat who once served as spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar’s 2023 presidential campaign — now presumes to lecture “a statesman of global standing on matters of legacy, destiny, and retirement.”
“His sanctimonious pontificating, laced with bitterness and duplicity, betrays a desperate effort to curry favour with a floundering administration clearly shaken by the unstoppable momentum of the national coalition being galvanized by Atiku and other progressive leaders.”
The media office said, Atiku Abubakar neither sought nor required validation from “political opportunists who shed principles as easily as they change parties.
“Mr. Bwala’s current relevance, if any, is owed entirely to the platform he once occupied under Atiku’s leadership — a fact that should breed humility, not arrogance.
“The Tinubu camp’s obsession with Atiku’s political future is no coincidence. If, as they claim, Atiku is a spent force, why the relentless smear campaign? Why the strategic allocation of presidential platforms to attack him?
“The answer is plain: Atiku Abubakar remains the single most formidable opposition figure in Nigeria, and the coalition he is forging represents a clear and present danger to the decaying edifice of the ruling party.
“This broad-based alliance, aimed at reclaiming Nigeria from economic collapse, institutional failure, and democratic erosion, has clearly rattled the ruling elite. No amount of historical revisionism or sanctimony can obscure the fact that Atiku has been a central pillar in Nigeria’s democratic journey since 1999, championing reform, restructuring, and electoral integrity when others chose complicity.
“Legacy is not defined by the trappings of office but by courage, consistency, and conviction. Atiku Abubakar’s legacy — as a unifier, builder, and patriot — is deeply etched in the consciousness of millions of Nigerians. It is impervious to the revisionist bile of yesterday’s defectors turned today’s defenders of dysfunction.
“We reaffirm, unequivocally, that the Waziri Adamawa remains focused and unshaken in his commitment to Nigeria’s future. He will not be distracted by political jesters masquerading as patriots,” the media office said.
