Nigeria’s opposition picks Abubakar to run for president again
By MacDonald Dzirutwe and Abraham Achirga
ABUJA (Reuters) -Nigeria’s former vp, veteran politician Atiku Abubakar, will run for president once more subsequent 12 months after the primary opposition occasion picked him as its candidate to face in elections to succeed incumbent Muhammadu Buhari.
Abubakar, 75, misplaced to Buhari over the last election in 2019, which he claimed was rigged. However Buhari won’t be on the poll subsequent 12 months when the second of his two four-year phrases involves an finish.
The Folks’s Democratic Get together (PDP) occasion, which dominated Nigeria after army rule resulted in 1999, was ousted from energy by Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) occasion in 2015. The PDP is vying for a return to governing Africa’s largest economic system.
Vote counting began late on Saturday and Abubakar garnered 371 votes, defeating his nearest rival, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, governor of oil-producing Rivers state, who acquired 237 votes.
In his acceptance speech, Abubakar reiterated his marketing campaign promise to finish insecurity within the nation and revive its fragile economic system, amongst different pledges, and promised to work together with his opponents.
“I subsequently pledge that I’ll restore unity. I additionally dedicated that I used to be going to deal decisively with the safety scenario on this nation,” stated Abubakar.
Abubakar has stood in six primaries, and subsequent 12 months’s vote will probably be his third presidential bid.
From 1999 to 2007, he was vp to Olusegun Obasanjo, the primary Nigerian chief after the top of many years of army rule.
Abubakar’s most important opponent will probably be from the ruling APC occasion, which is able to select its candidate at a particular conference to be held from June 6-8. The APC postponed its presidential major from Sunday after the electoral fee prolonged the deadline for political events to decide on their candidates.
Twenty-five candidates from the APC have registered to participate within the primaries. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and former Lagos state Governor and occasion heavyweight Bola Tinubu are seen because the ruling occasion’s front-runners.
Buhari’s successor faces a number of challenges, from insecurity marked by kidnappings for ransom within the northwest, an Islamist insurgency within the northeast, secessionist violence within the southeast, and a struggling economic system and excessive inflation.
(Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Enhancing by Sandra Maler and Jonathan Oatis)
