•Atiku and Tinubu
Former vice president and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate for the 2027 election, Atiku Abubakar, has claimed that he has evidence that President Bola Tinubu is 90 years old, saying he would present the evidence in court.
Atiku made the claim in an interview with the BBC while explaining his decision to contest the presidency and arguing that his age and health should not prevent him from offering himself for public service.
“I have a president who is 90 years old now, and who is sick. I am healthy; I am strong. So why would I not make my services available to my fellow countrymen?” Atiku asked.
He further claimed that he had evidence to support his assertion about Tinubu’s age and said he would present it before a court, reports Daily Trust.
“I have evidence that he is [90], and I will present it in court,” he said.
Atiku’s claim about President Tinubu’s age was made in the context of his response to questions about his own suitability and qualification to contest the presidency in 2027.
Speaking about his political career, the ADC presidential candidate said contesting for the presidency was within his constitutional rights, stressing that his political journey had been marked by repeated attempts to seek elective office.
Atiku recalled that he contested for governor four times but said he was repeatedly disqualified by the military authorities overseeing Nigeria’s transition to democratic rule.
“I ran for governor four times, because at that position, the people who were in charge of Nigeria’s transition to democracy were military, and I was so anti-military. Any time I won, they would disqualify me. The last was when there was even an attempt on my life, and I went into exile,” he said.
He said the challenges he encountered throughout his political career were not new to him, adding that he had never considered his political journey an easy one.
“I’ve never found anything easy in my life. There is nothing new there. So, because I’m contesting the presidency two or three times… I mean, that’s not anything unusual in my life — in my political life,” Atiku said.
The former vice president also spoke about Nigeria’s worsening insecurity, blaming the persistence of the crisis on what he described as the “irresponsibility of government”.
Atiku said successive governments had not paid sufficient attention to the country’s defence and security requirements, arguing that the size of Nigeria’s population required a corresponding expansion of its security personnel.
“I remember when we were in office, I told the president that, look, we are over 200 million people and yet we have less than 200,000 policemen,” he said.
Drawing a comparison with Egypt, Atiku said the North African country had a significantly larger police force relative to its population.
“Egypt that has about 80 million had one million policemen on the streets. And therefore, there is peace there,” he said.
Atiku expressed confidence that the country’s security challenges could be brought under control within a relatively short period if adequate measures were adopted.
“Believe me, within one year, we can control this insurgency and insecurity that is all over the place,” he said.
The ADC presidential candidate is expected to face other contenders as political activities ahead of the 2027 general election intensify.
