Nigeria’s political landscape is shifting once again. Former Vice President and perennial presidential contender Atiku Abubakar has officially resigned from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the party that carried him through past presidential bids and two terms in office.
In a letter to PDP leaders, Atiku cited deep-seated disillusionment with the party’s direction.
“With a heavy heart, I resign, acknowledging the irreconcilable differences that have arisen,” he wrote.
The move ends a decades-long chapter with a party that once ruled Nigeria for 16 consecutive years.
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But Atiku isn’t stepping away from politics.
He has now teamed up with fellow opposition heavyweights, including Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, and Nasir El-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State, to form a new coalition under the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC). The alliance is already being dubbed a serious threat to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 elections.
This coalition also includes several disaffected former governors, lawmakers, and party stalwarts from both the PDP and APC, echoing the powerful realignment that unseated the PDP in 2015.
Observers see this as a pivotal moment possibly the most formidable opposition force since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999. Whether this new alliance can hold and deliver a genuine alternative remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the race for 2027 has already begun.