Atiku Abubakar
Comes from Adamawa State and a former Vice President who had the closest hands-on to the coveted seat when he was ripped from his governorship seat and made Vice President to Olusegun Obasanjo. He has financial war chest enough to personally fund his campaign and has contested to get a ticket for a direct shot at the top post severally. He however has an unforgiving and unrepentant traducer in President Olusegun Obasanjo who has publicly vowed he would not be alive to see him sit on the highest political seat of Nigeria.
Atiku is reputed to be a team player with capacity to put together egg heads that can make things work; he is a Muslim like Buhari though lacks the talakawa appeal and carries the unenvious tag of a corrupt leader foisted on him and furthered by Obasanjo whom he has gone to speak with severally behind closed doors but with the same result of failing to secure his consent and support.
Another factor that may not work in his favour is that the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike appear to have a strangle hold on the party and would play a significant role in deciding who becomes the standard bearer of the party. If information coming from the state is anything to go by, there is already a preferred candidate whose understanding on power sharing favours Aminu Tambuwal. If Wike’s choice holds, Atiku will again as in the past, grab the wind and suck for the next four or eight years when he may decide on another shot at the same stage his ambition has always evaporated. He has Abraham Lincoln to embrace in political philosophy if the usual happens to him again.