In this post, Platinumtimes.ng chronicles the biography, family, career and networth of Atiku Abubakar.
Atiku Abubakar is a Nigerian politician and businessman, he served as Nigeria’s vice president during former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure. He was the people’s democratic party presidential candidate in the just concluded 2023 elections.
Profile Summary
Full name: Atiku Abubakar (GCON)
Born: 25th November,1946
Place of birth: Jada, Adamawa state, Nigeria
Education: Ahmadu Bello University Institute of Administration
Religion: Islam
Career: Politician, businessman
Political Party: People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
Biography
Atiku Abubakar was born on 25th November,1946 in Jada, a village in Adamawa state, his father was a Fulani trader named Garba Abubakar and his mother’s name was Aisha Kande. He is the only son of his parents following the death of his only sister.
Being born to a father who opposed Western education, he started his early education late at the Jada Primary School, Adamawa till 1960 when he was admitted into Adamawa Provincial Secondary School and graduated in1965.
After secondary school, Abubakar studied for a while at the Nigeria Police College in Kaduna. He left the College when he was unable to present an O-Level Mathematics result, and worked briefly as a Tax Officer in the Regional Ministry of Finance.
He was then admitted to the School of Hygiene in Kano in 1966 and graduated with a Diploma in 1967 after serving as an Interim Student Union President at the school.
In that same year, he enrolled for a Law Diploma at the Ahmadu Bello University Institute of Administration, on a scholarship from the regional government. After graduation in 1969, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was employed by the Nigeria Customs Service.
In 2021, Abubakar successfully completed and passed his Master’s degree in International Relations at Anglia Ruskin University.
Family
Being a Muslim and having to grow up alone with no siblings to play with, Atiku is married to four wives and is blessed with 28 children.
He met his first wife, Titilayo Albert at Idi-Iroko when she was 19 years and secretly married her in December, 1971. Titilayo’s children are Fatima, Adamu, Halima and Aminu.
He married his second wife, Ladi Yakubu in January 1979. Ladi gave birth to Atiku, Abba, Zainab, Ummi-Hauwa, Maryam and Rukaiyatu.
His third wife is Princess Rukaiyatu, the daughter of late Lamido of Adamawa whom he married in 1983. Princess Rukaiyatu gave birth to Aisha, Hadiza, Aliyu, Asmau, Mustafa, Laila and Abdulsalam.
In 1986, he married his fourth wife, Fatima Shettima. She is the mother of Amina, Mohammed, two sets of twins, Ahmed and Shehu, Zainab and Aisha, and then Hafsat, her last daughter.
Afterwards, Atiku divorced Ladi Yakubu and married Jennifer Iwenjiora Doughlas, a lawyer.
Career
He started his career as a civil servant and businessman before venturing into politics. He worked with the Nigeria Customs Service for 20 years and rose to the position of a Deputy Director.
While working as a Customs Officer, Atiku started a real estate business. With a loan of N31, 000, he completed his first house in Yola and rented it out. The proceeds from his first house was used in building his second house. Today, Atiku has several properties in Yola to his name.
Atiku also ventured into Agriculture in 1981 when he bought 2,500 hectares of land to start maize and cotton farm.
Unfortunately, the business closed down in 1986. However, Atiku with an unrelenting attitude started the sales of rice, flour and sugar.
Atiku had a major business break when Gabrielle Volpi, an Italian businessman in Nigeria invited him to start Nigeria Container Services (NICOTES), a logistics company. Meanwhile, Atiku was still a civil servant under Nigeria Customs Service.
This raised accusations of conflict of interest against him because it is an offence for an active civil servant to venture into another business. However, Atiku was able to defend himself saying that he only owned part of the company’s shares and was not involved in the day-to-day running of the business.NICOTES today has been renamed INTELS.
He also owns Adama Beverages Limited, a beverage producing company in Yola, a microfinance bank and several other business empires.
Political Career
In 1989, he retired from civil service and ventured into business and politics.
Abubakar worked underground during Bamanga Tukur’s governorship campaign. Bamanga Tukur was the then managing director of the Nigeria Ports Authority. Thereafter, Atiku met Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who was second-in-command of the military government that ruled Nigeria between 1976 and 1979.
After sometime, Abubakar became the national vice-chairman of the People Front of Nigeria. The association was led by Yar’Adua and was in charge of ensuring the success of the transition programme started by Ibrahim Babangida, the then Head of State. Other politicians in the team were Babalola Borishade, Bola Tinubu, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Aliyu Sumaila and Sabo Bakin Zuwo.
In 1989, Atiku was selected to represent his constituency at the constituent assembly, set up to form a new constitution for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the government denied the registrations of The People’s Front but they were able to find a place within the Social Democratic Party.
In 1990, Atiku announced his Gongola state gubernatorial run, in 1991 before the election could hold, the Federal Government divided Gongola state into two; Adamawa and Taraba States.
Abubakar fell into Adamawa state. Fortunately, he won the SDP primaries in November 1991 but was disqualified from contesting in the election.
In 1998, he contested as the governor of Adamawa state under People’s Democratic Party and won. However, before his swearing in, he accepted to be the running mate of PDP’s presidential candidate, Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo.
Atiku was sworn in as the vice president of Nigeria on 29th May 1999.
He worked together with South African Deputy President, Jacob Zuma to launch South Africa Nigeria Binational Commission.
In 2006, he had a clash with President Olusegun Obasanjo over his intention to amend the constitution, which will allow him to run for presidency for the third time.
This did not go down well with Atiku and the argument did more harm than good to their relationship.
In 1992, Abubakar ran for Nigeria presidential office under Social Democratic Party and he came third in the convention primaries, losing to MKO Abiola and Babagana Kinigbe.
On December 20, 2006, Action Congress (AC) selected Atiku as their presidential candidate. Thereafter, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) omitted Atiku’s name in the final list of 24 aspirants for the April 21 Presidential election. Apparently, his name was omitted because a panel set up by the government listed him among corrupt persons in Nigeria.
After the election, Atiku came third, behind Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, PDP candidate and Muhammadu Buhari, ANPP candidate. He also contested for president during the 2011 elections. This time, under the PDP. However, he lost at the primaries to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
In 2018, Atiku announced his interest to contest as Nigeria President under PDP. He won the party’s nomination on October 7 at its convention.
He also defeated other contestants with 1,532 votes, leading the Governor of Sokoto state Aminu Tambuwal by 839 votes. Unfortunately, he lost to President Buhari on February 27, 2019.
In 2022, Atiku Abubakar emerged as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for 2023 elections but was defeated by the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the general elections.
Awards and titles
Atiku Abubakar has been conferred with many traditional titles and international awards. Some of them are;
Chieftaincy title of the Turaki of Adamawa by Adamawa’s traditional ruler Alhaji Aliyu Mustafa in 1982.
Chieftaincy title of the Waziri of Adamawa in 2017.
He was given an international Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award by US Peace Corps in 2011.
Net Worth
Being a successful businessman and Politician, he has an estimated networth of about $1.8 billion.