By Ismail Omipidan, Abuja
It was long foretold. Many Nigerians have been expecting the news. And by Wednesday, July 16, 2025, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), formally resigned from the party.
It is the third time he would be resigning from the party. Apart from his latest resignation, he had resigned in the build up to the 2007 presidential election to join the defunct Action Congress (AC), and in the build up to the 2015 presidential election to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).
His resignation was announced by his media aide, Paul Ibe.
“I am writing to formally resign my membership from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) with immediate effect.
“I would like to take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude for the opportunities I have been given by the party. Serving two full terms as Vice President of Nigeria and being a presidential candidate twice has been one of the most significant chapters of my life. As a founding father of this esteemed party, it is indeed heartbreaking for me to make this decision.
“However, I find it necessary to part ways due to the current trajectory the party has taken, which I believe diverges from the foundational principles we stood for. It is with a heavy heart that I resign, recognising the irreconcilable differences that have emerged.
“I wish the party and its leadership all the best in the future. Thank you once again for the opportunities and support,” his resignation letter reads.
Although he did not make his next destination known in the letter, speculations are however rife that he would be heading to the African Democratic Congress (ADC). About three weeks ago, Atiku had teamed up with the 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, ex-Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, and former Senate President, Senator David Mark among others to form a coalition on the platform of the ADC, with the sole intention to dislodge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC from power in 2027. Daily Sun however gathered that the only other option available to the former vice president is to withdraw from the race, while remaining a strong pillar of support for the coalition, where he would automatically emerge as the rallying point for the opposition.
But where he heads to the ADC, and runs for the presidential ticket there, he is most likely going to pick the ticket, considering his political antecedents and exposure. If he picks the ticket, it will be the fourth time Atiku will be on the ballot for the presidential contest. The first time was in 2007. But he was only cleared to run barely 48 hours to the contest. His performance was abysmal. Since then, he had made two other unsuccessful bids to be on the ballot, until his emergence as candidate in 2019 and 2023 respectively.
In 2019, he slugged it out with a fellow Muslim, a fellow Fulani man from the north, former president, the late Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari was APC’s presidential candidate. Buhari defeated him. In 2023 again, he ran against the incumbent, a Yoruba and a Muslim from the South-West. Again, he was defeated.
Considering his age, he is most likely to want to give the presidential contest another shot. If he gets the ticket, considering that he had ran in the past with an Igbo man from the South-East and South-South respectively on three different occasions – 2007 (Ben Obi), 2019 (Peter Obi) and 2023 (Ifeanyi Okowa), he is most likely to want to try a Yoruba running mate this time around. But for the strong resentment for a Muslim-Muslim ticket within their cycle, there are some of the chieftains of the coalition who believe that a Muslim-Muslim ticket for them could as well be a game changer.