By Balogun Kamilu Lekan
Biography
Atiku Abubakar is a prominent Nigerian politician, businessman, philanthropist, and ex-custom officer.
He was born on 25 November 1946 to Garba Abubakar and Aisha Kande in Jada, Adamawa state. Abubakar is 77 years as of 2023
The famous Nigerian politician served as the vice president of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007
Education
Abubakar had his elementary education at Jada Primary School, Adamawa, before heading to Adamawa Provincial Secondary School for his secondary education.
After his secondary education, Atiku briefly attended the Nigeria Police College in Kaduna before he gained admission into the School of Hygiene in Kano for a Diploma.
In 1967 he enrolled for a Law Diploma at the Ahmadu Bello University Institute of Administration on a scholarship from the regional government.
In 2021, Atiku bagged a Master’s degree in International Relations at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Career
Atiku began his professional journey as an officer in the Nigeria Customs Service, where he worked for two decades and eventually climbed the ranks to Deputy Director. In April 1989, he retired from the Customs Service and transitioned into business and politics.
In 1974 while still serving as a custom officer, he secured a loan of 31,000 naira to construct his initial residential property in Yola, which he subsequently leased out. With the rental income, he procured another plot and erected another house. He continued this trend, gradually amassing a considerable real estate portfolio in Yola, Nigeria.
By 1981, he diversified his business interests into agriculture and obtained 2,500 hectares of land near Yola to cultivate maize and cotton crops.
Eventually, he expanded into trading by purchasing and reselling large quantities of rice, flour, and sugar.
Abubakar was among the co-founders of Intels Nigeria Limited, an oil servicing company with significant operations both within Nigeria and abroad.
Abubakar’s business activities are primarily based in Yola, Adamawa. These ventures comprise Adama Beverages Limited, a beverage production facility in Yola, an animal feed factory, and the American University of Nigeria (AUN), the foremost private university in Sub-Saharan Africa modeled after the American education system.
Abubakar’s initial involvement in politics occurred during the early 1980s when he operated behind the scenes during Bamanga Tukur’s campaign for the governorship. Tukur was the managing director of the Nigeria Ports Authority at that time. Abubakar participated by canvassing efforts to garner votes for Tukur and donate to the campaign.
He went fully into politics in 1993 when he contested the Social Democratic Party presidential primaries losing to Moshood Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe.
Abubakar became a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1998 and subsequently won the nomination for Governor of Adamawa State. He triumphed in the governorship elections held in December of that year. However, before the inauguration, he was chosen as the running mate to the former military head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo, the PDP presidential candidate. General Obasanjo emerged victorious in the 1999 presidential election, which marked the beginning of the Fourth Nigerian Republic.
On 29 May 1999, Abubakar was sworn in as the Vice President of Nigeria. A position he occupied till 2007
He vied for the presidency in the 2007 election under the Action Congress party but ended up in third place behind Umaru Yar’Adua of the PDP and Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP. He also competed in the presidential primaries of the People’s Democratic Party in the 2011 election but lost to the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.
In preparation for the 2015 presidential election, he joined the All Progressives Congress but failed to secure the party’s nomination and lost out to Muhammadu Buhari. He returned to the Peoples Democratic Party in 2017 and was its presidential candidate in the 2019 election, but he lost again to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
In May 2022, he was chosen as the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate for the 2023 general election.
Notably, Atiku has made unsuccessful attempts to become the President of Nigeria in five different elections, spanning from 1993 to 2019.
Marriage
Abubakar has five wives and twenty-eight children. He has divorced two of his wives
His wives are
- Titilayo Albert
- Ladi Yakubu
- Princess Rukaiyatu
- Fatima Shettima
- Jennifer Douglas
His children include
- Fatima
- Adamu
- Halima
- Aminu
- Abba
- Atiku
- Zainab
- Ummi-Hauwa
- Maryam
- Rukaiyatu
- Aisha
- Hadiza
- Aliyu
- Asmau
- Mustafa
- Laila
- Abdulsalam
- Amina
- Mohammed
- Hafsa
- Ahmed / Shehu(Twins)
- Zainab / Aisha(Twins)
Net worth
Atiku Abubakar has an estimated net worth of $1.8 Billion and many valuable assets. He owns an Embraer Phenom 100 personal luxury plane worth $4.1 million and a $2.95 million chateau close to Potomac, Maryland, USA. However, NewswireNgr cannot independently verify this
Achievements
As the former vice president of Nigeria, he gained the national honor of the Grand Commander of the Order of Niger(GCON), the second-highest title in Nigeria.
He was also named the Turaki of Adamawa by the traditional ruler in Adamawa. Additionally, in 2017, he was honored with the traditional title, Waziri of Adamawa, and his previous title of Turaki was transferred to his son Aliyu.
Controversy
Atiku was reportedly accused of using his ex-wife Jennifer Iwenjiora Douglas Abubakar to siphon money to the United States for eight years.
Disclaimer
The information in this article was curated from online sources. NewsWireNGR or its editorial team cannot independently verify all details.
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