Atiku Abubakar is a famous Nigerian politician and business tycoon. He served as the 11th vice-president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 under the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. He is a member of People’s Democratic Party (PDP). In 1998 he was elected as the Governor of Adamawa State. He is currently one of the most disciplined and strict vice presidents Nigeria has ever produced.
He was born on 25th November 1946 in Jada, a small village in Adamawa State in the northern part of Nigeria. He is currently 72 years old. Atiku Abubakar was born to a Fulani trader and farmer Garba Abubakar and Aisha Kande in Jada village of Adamawa State in the northern part of Nigeria.
Atiku Abubakar became the only child of his parents when his only sister died at infancy. His father and mother divorced before his father died in 1957 and his mother remarried. Eventually, his mother died of heart attack in 1984. Atiku Abubakar could not start school when he wanted to because his father opposed his decision of obtaining western education.
When it was discovered that he is not going to school, his father was arrested and jailed until he paid a fine. Consequently, Atiku Abubakar got registered into Jada Primary School in Adamawa State at the age of 8 years old. After his primary school, Atiku Abubakar was admitted into Adamawa Provincial Secondary School Yola, the capital city of Adamawa State in 1960.
He later finished his secondary school in 1965 after he made grade three in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination. After completing his secondary school education, Atiku Abubakar proceeded to Nigerian Police College in Kaduna. He later left the college and got a job as a tax officer in the Regional Ministry of Finance. Later he got admission to study at the School of Hygiene in Kano in 1966.
In 1967, Atiku Abubakar graduated with a Diploma at the School of Hygiene in Kano. That same year, Atiku Abubakar was admitted for a Law Diploma at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Kaduna State on a scholarship. He graduated in 1969 and got employed by Nigeria Customs Service that same year.
In 1998, Atiku Abubakar was elected as Executive Governor of Adamawa State. While still Governor-elect, he was selected by then presidential candidate Olusegun Obasanjo as his running mate. The duo went on to win the first democratic elections in February 1999 and Atiku Abubakar was sworn-in as Nigeria’s second democratically elected vice president on 29th May 1999.
His second term as Vice President was marked by a stormy relationship with President Obasanjo. His bid to succeed Obasanjo did not receive the latter’s support, and it took a judgment of the Supreme Court to allow Atiku Abubakar contest after he was initially disqualified by the Independent National Electoral Commission on the grounds that he had been indicted for financial misconduct by an investigating panel set up at Obasanjo’s behest.
The Supreme Court ordered the electoral commission to restore Atiku Abubakar’s name onto the presidential ballot. Atiku Abubakar ran on the platform of the Action Congress, having quit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on account of his issues with President Obasanjo. Atiku Abubakar lost the election, placing as third position after Umaru Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
Atiku Abubakar is a co-founder of Intels, an oil servicing business with extensive operations in Nigeria and abroad. He is also the founder of Adama Beverages Limited and the American University of Nigeria (AUN) both in Yola, Adamawa State in the northern part of Nigeria.
Atiku Abubakar currently has four wives and is the father of 28 children. While at Idi-Iroko, Atiku Abubakar met 19 year old Titilayo Albert, who he secretly married in December 1971 in Lagos, because her family was initially opposed to the union.
On 26th October 1972, Titilayo delivered a baby girl and they named her Fatima. She later gave birth to Adamu, Halima and Aminu. In January 1979, Atiku Abubakar got married to Ladi Yakubu as his second wife. He had six children with Ladi. The six children he had with Ladi are Abba, Atiku, Zainab, Ummi-Hauwa, Maryam and Rukaiyatu.
In 1983, he got married to his third wife, Princess Rukaiyatu, who is the daughter of the late Lamido of Adamawa, Aliyu Mustafa. Princess Rukaiyatu gave birth to Aisha, Hadiza, Aliyu (named after her late father), Asmau, Mustafa, Laila and Abdulsalam. In 1986, he got married to his fourth wife, Fatima Shettima.
Fatima Shettima gave birth to seven children namely Amina, Mohammed, Ahmed, Shehu, Zainab, Aisha, and Hafsat. Atiku Abubakar later divorced his second wife Ladi and got married to his fourth wife Jennifer. Atiku Abubakar is currently the PDP Presidential aspirant and flag bearer of Peoples Democratic Party for the February 2019 presidential election in Nigeria.
Atiku Abubakar is currently one of the richest and most influential personality and public figure in Nigeria with an estimated net worth of $180 million.
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