We’ll ride any vehicle to unseat Tinubu in 2027 – Atiku

• …says coalition train has left the station

By Lateef Ibrahim

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has reaffirmed that the coalition of opposition forces he is championing would adopt any platform that ensures good governance in its bid to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027.

Atiku made the declaration during a meeting with a delegation of National Opinion Leaders.

In a video of the meeting which was shared on his X handle (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, he assured that the “coalition train has left the station and would have multiple stops to bring on board Nigerians of all shades.”

His comment came just two days after the PDP Governors’ Forum, at the end of their meeting in Ibadan, distanced themselves from any planned coalition or merger ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Atiku had in March announced the formation of a coalition of opposition parties to challenge President Tinubu’s re-election bid.

At the announcement, he was flanked by Dr Yunusa Tanko, who represented Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate Peter Obi, and former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, who recently left the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Following Atiku’s recent visit to former President Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna alongside other coalition members, expectations were high that the PDP governors’ meeting in Ibadan would clarify the party’s stance on the alliance.

However, after the meeting, which began on Sunday and ended Monday, and was attended by acting PDP National Chairman Ambassador Umar Damagum and other party leaders, the governors disassociated themselves from any coalition or merger discussions.

They nonetheless expressed readiness to welcome any individual, group or party willing to join the PDP to “wrest power and enthrone good leadership in 2027.”

While addressing the youth-dominated delegation of National Opinion Leaders, Atiku urged them to remain focused and not be swayed by short-term inducements.

“Don’t be disrupted by people giving you pennies or kobos here and there, and nairas here and there, and then abandon your future, and the future of your children,” he said.

“Now, because of that, that’s why a number of us leaders from the parties I have mentioned—APC, PDP, Labour, and others—have come together to say we are going to have what I call in Hausa Sabuwar tafiya, which in English means a new path, a new pathway to a new Nigeria.”

“And we have been meeting, and by the grace of God, very soon we will announce, and we hope and we appeal to you all to be part of this movement.”

The former vice president said the primary objective of the coalition was to ensure good governance.

“Whatever vehicle that will give us good governance in the future of our children and grandchildren, that is the vehicle we are going to ride on,” he declared.

He concluded by urging the delegation to start planning and mobilising support.

“Get to planning and working together and getting as many Nigerians as possible to get converted to this new pathway,” he said.