Murtala Ayitogo: Why Atiku’s greatest political act may be stepping aside

There comes a point in politics when a man must decide whether he wants to be remembered as a contender or as a statesman. For Atiku Abubakar, that moment may be now.

No serious observer of Nigerian politics can deny Atiku’s place in the story of the Fourth Republic. He helped build the modern PDP, served as Vice President during one of Nigeria’s most economically transformative civilian administrations, and financed opposition politics when many were too afraid to challenge power. Even after repeated defeats, he remained committed to electoral democracy. For millions of Nigerians, especially in the North, he became the enduring face of opposition politics.

That deserves respect.

But respect cannot become blindness, nor gratitude become political hostage-taking. History is often harshest to leaders who mistake endurance for inevitability.

Nigeria’s opposition stands at its most consequential crossroads in over a decade. The country is struggling under inflation, insecurity, unemployment, currency instability, rising debt, and deepening public despair. This is not just another election cycle or another chapter in a familiar political rivalry. The 2027 election may determine whether Nigeria still has the institutional resilience to recover from years of economic and political decline.

That is precisely why the opposition cannot afford sentimentality.

The numbers are unforgiving. In 2019, Atiku lost to Muhammadu Buhari by more than three million votes. In 2023, despite widespread anger against the ruling party, fuel scarcity, naira chaos, and one of the weakest incumbency transitions in recent Nigerian history, he lost again, polling 6.98 million votes to Bola Tinubu’s 8.79 million.

More significantly, the coalition that once made the PDP formidable visibly weakened around him.

The South East, once a reliable PDP stronghold, drifted away almost entirely. The South South fractured. Urban youth voters migrated elsewhere. The “broad national coalition” often invoked by Atiku’s supporters increasingly exists more in nostalgia than in electoral reality. Analyses of the 2023 election showed how dramatically the PDP’s traditional voting blocs splintered under his candidacy.

Then there is the reality many acknowledge privately but avoid discussing publicly, Atiku Abubakar is now nearly 80 years old.

Age alone should not disqualify anyone from leadership. Nigeria should not embrace shallow ageism. But politics is not only about physical capacity. It is also about energy, renewal, symbolism, and the ability to convince a restless generation that tomorrow can look different from yesterday.

Right now, the opposition is asking Nigerians to believe in change while presenting one of the oldest and most recycled presidential candidacies in modern African politics.

At some point, repetition stops looking like resilience and starts looking like an inability to let go.

Albert Einstein is often credited with defining insanity as “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Whether he actually said it matters less than the fact that Nigerian opposition politics increasingly resembles the quote.

Every four years, the same script returns, the same candidate, the same internal battles, the same appeals to “experience,” and the same promise that “this time” the arithmetic will work. Then comes another defeat, and the cycle begins again.

Meanwhile, the APC continues to consolidate power, not necessarily because Nigerians overwhelmingly love it, but because the opposition keeps mistaking familiarity for viability.

This is why Atiku’s most important role in 2027 may not be candidate, but kingmaker.

And there is dignity in that.

Nelson Mandela understood that history sometimes asks a leader to step back so the movement can step forward. Olusegun Obasanjo, whatever one thinks of him, understood the importance of succession and generational transition within political structures. Great political actors eventually realize that legacy is measured not only by personal victories, but by what they make possible after themselves.

Imagine an alternative final chapter for Atiku.

Not another bruising presidential primary. Not another intra-party civil war. Not another zoning controversy consuming political oxygen while Nigerians struggle to afford food.

Instead, imagine Atiku rising above personal ambition.

Imagine him becoming the elder statesman who convenes the opposition, brokers compromises, calms egos, guides candidate selection, and helps produce the strongest possible ticket, whether or not his name is on it. Imagine him using his influence not to dominate the process, but to stabilize it. Imagine him helping to build a coalition capable of surviving beyond a single election cycle.

That would be statesmanship.

And frankly, it may be the opposition’s only credible path back to power.

Because the truth is uncomfortable, Nigeria’s opposition cannot keep asking voters to embrace renewal while refusing to renew itself.

The country is hungry for competence, urgency, clarity, and emotional connection. Nigerians care less about elite power struggles than about who can lower food prices, create jobs, stabilize the currency, and make families feel safe again. The electorate has changed. The media environment has changed. Political loyalty itself has changed.

The old formulas no longer work.

This election must become bigger than any one man’s unfinished presidential ambition.

For years, many Nigerians supported Atiku out of conviction, strategy, necessity, or coalition logic. They defended him through propaganda, regional polarization, and repeated campaigns. But political loyalty cannot become permanent emotional blackmail. Any movement that cannot evolve eventually collapses under the weight of its own nostalgia.

The opposition now faces a stark choice, preserve one man’s ambition or maximize Nigeria’s chances for genuine democratic competition.

Those are no longer the same thing.

And deep down, many within the opposition already know it. They are simply afraid to say it aloud.

But history does not reward silence. It rewards clarity.

The most patriotic thing Atiku Abubakar may be able to do now is also the hardest thing in politics, step aside, guide the process, help elevate a new generation of leadership, and save the opposition from itself.

–Murtala Ayitogo writes from Nasarawa