The decades-long feud between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has exploded back into public view ahead of the 2027 elections, with Obasanjo calling Atiku the biggest mistake of his presidency and Atiku firing back that he clothed and fed Obasanjo after prison and built the political alliances that made him president — a deeply personal war rooted in a failed third-term bid that neither man has ever truly forgiven.
by Nij Martin
It is one of Nigeria’s most enduring political soap operas. Two men who once occupied the highest offices in the land, who ran the country together for eight years, who — by Atiku’s own account — shared meals and clothes in the aftermath of a prison sentence. And yet, a quarter of a century later, they cannot be in the same news cycle without tearing each other apart.
The latest episode arrived on Friday when Olusegun Obasanjo, speaking at the Lagos launch of veteran entertainer Charly Boy’s memoir, was asked about the biggest mistake of his presidency. His answer required no hesitation. “The man I picked as my running mate, my number two,” he said. “If I had known him as I came to know him later, I would not have picked him.” When pressed, he confirmed he was talking about Atiku Abubakar. He added, for good measure, that he thanked God for not allowing Atiku’s “actions and reactions” to harm Nigeria under his watch.
Atiku’s response came within 24 hours — and it was explosive. Not only did he reject Obasanjo’s characterisation, he pulled back the curtain on a private history that Obasanjo has never publicly acknowledged. “When he eventually regained his freedom, he had little to his name,” Atiku said, referencing Obasanjo’s imprisonment under the Abacha military government from 1995 to 1998. “I received him, clothed him, ensured he was properly cared for and extended every support necessary to help him regain his footing.” He went further, claiming he mobilised the political alliances and personal sacrifices that ultimately produced Obasanjo’s presidency. “If the true history of Chief Obasanjo’s political journey is ever written — free from selective recollection and personal bitterness — Atiku Abubakar will feature prominently as one of those whom God used to change the course of his life.”
So why do these two men hate each other so profoundly? The answer, at its core, is the third-term agenda.
During their second term together — 2003 to 2007 — Obasanjo quietly explored the possibility of amending the Nigerian constitution to allow a president to serve three terms rather than two. The proposal became one of the most consequential political battles of the Fourth Republic. Atiku did not merely oppose it — he actively worked to defeat it, lobbying lawmakers, building resistance coalitions and publicly campaigning against tenure elongation. On May 16, 2006, the Senate killed the constitutional amendment bill. The third-term dream was dead.
Obasanjo never forgave him.
What followed was a constitutional war conducted through institutions. Obasanjo declared Atiku’s vice presidential office vacant after the latter defected to the Action Congress ahead of the 2007 election. Atiku took the matter to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the president lacked the constitutional authority to remove an elected vice president from office. Atiku kept his office until the administration ended. But the relationship was destroyed beyond any possibility of repair.
What makes the current eruption particularly significant is its timing. Atiku is now the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress for the 2027 election. Obasanjo, according to former political adviser Akin Osuntokun, is allegedly the architect and principal financial backer of the Peter Obi-Rabiu Kwankwaso opposition ticket — the very ticket most likely to split whatever anti-Tinubu vote Atiku hopes to consolidate. Every public attack Obasanjo makes on Atiku, therefore, is not merely a personal grievance aired in public. It is electoral warfare conducted through the media.
Atiku appears to understand this clearly. “Obasanjo is trying to muddy the waters,” his media aide Paul Ibe told Sunday PUNCH. “Nigerians have come to see exactly what this is all about.” The APC, predictably, is delighted, with National Secretary Ajibola Basiru urging Nigerians to take Obasanjo’s characterisation of Atiku seriously and warning against giving the former vice president another leadership opportunity.
For all the heat and history, the personal dimension of this feud remains remarkable. Atiku insists he does not regret helping Obasanjo — that acts of kindness are “matters of conscience, not commercial transactions.” He has noted pointedly that WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala praised the economic management team he led as vice president just one day before Obasanjo launched his latest attack. “Whether or not the timing is merely coincidental is for Nigerians to judge,” he said.
Twenty-five years after they ran together, clothed and fed and imprisoned and freed, Obasanjo and Atiku remain locked in a feud that neither man can quit and neither man can win. And with 2027 approaching, it is only going to get louder.
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