Atiku Abubakar, former vice president and 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), officially resigned his membership of the party on Wednesday.
This was disclosed in a letter dated Monday, July 14, 2025, which went viral online yesterday.
The letter, shared by Abubakar’s media aide via social media, was addressed to the PDP chairman of Jada 1 Ward in Jada Local Government Area, Adamawa State. It was signed by Abubakar himself and marked ‘received.’
The development comes as political alignments begin to take shape ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Atiku’s exit follows his open endorsement and involvement in the formation of a new coalition platform, the Alliance Democratic Congress (ADC).
Read also: Again, Atiku dumps PDP
There was no official reaction from the PDP as of press time. Calls put to Debo Ologunagba, national publicity secretary of the PDP, were not picked.
In February 2014, the former vice president had dumped the PDP to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), contesting the presidential primaries against former President Muhammadu Buhari. He was however defeated in the primaries.
He later returned to the PDP prior to 2019, contesting and winning the party’s presidential primary. But he lost to former President Buhari in the general election. He also contested the rancorous 2023 election on the party’s platform where he won. However, the primaries resulted in a splinter group, led by Nyesom Wike, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, working against him.
PDP weakens
Abubakar’s exit has further weakened the nation’s major opposition party, which has lost most of its members – including two governors – in the last seven months.
Abubakar garnered 6,984,520 to emerge second in the 2023 election.
In the 2023 election, Abubakar won 12 states, including Osun, Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa, Katsina, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Taraba.
“We have often said that the PDP is dead, but Atiku’s exit is a nail in the coffin for the PDP. Atiku will move with his millions of supporters to the ADC and that will be the PDP’s loss,” said Abu Johnson, a political analyst.
“The party is weakened and may no longer exist after the 2027 elections unless the stakeholders, the original founders of the party, go back to the constitution of the party.
Read also: Atiku’s presidential ambition rests on Peter Obi
“If they had insisted in the 2023 convention that it was the turn of the South and restricted the contest to Nyesom Wike and other southerners who were there, the current crisis would have been avoided,” he said.
Abubakar is eyeing the presidency in 2027, which will be his sixth time contesting for the position.
In an article which appeared in BusinessDay on July 15, Ifeanyi Maduako wrote: “Atiku seems to be the most influential or the most powerful among the college of former vice presidents. From all indications, Atiku is not just comfortable being among this esteemed and privileged college of a handful of Nigerians. Atiku is obviously tired of the prefix of vice president being attached to his name. He craves to be the president of Nigeria even if for 24 hours, just like Chief Obafemi Awolowo reportedly craved in his lifetime. Atiku wants to change his name to President Atiku Abubakar, perhaps by all means possible.
“That undying ambition could account for why he doesn’t want to give up in his pursuit of the ambition against all odds. Since 1992 to date, he doesn’t want to be a spectator in every general election in the country. Either he was stopped at the party primary level, or he was defeated as a presidential candidate in the main election. Regardless of his ageing bones, he doesn’t want to give up his ambition.”
