Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has said he will not give up on his ambition to become the president of the country.
Atiku was vice president to former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, from 1999 to 2007. He was the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2007, an election he lost to the People Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, the late Umaru Yar’Adua.
The Turaki Adamawa returned to the PDP in 2010 and lost the party’s presidential ticket to Dr. Goodluck Jonathan who ultimately won the 2011 presidential election.
Addressing newsmen at his residence in Abuja yesterday, Atiku submitted that to abandon the presidential race in the country would amount to a loss of hope in the redemption of the nation.
His words:”How can I be discouraged? You are just asking me to give up on Nigeria. I don’t have any other place to go.”
“So, why should I give up on Nigeria? That is what you are asking me to do. I won’t give up until I can no longer have the capacity, the strength. I cannot give up on Nigeria.”
Ahead of his formal declaration for the APC ticket next week, Daily Sun investigation revealed that the former vice president would be contending for the ticket alongside former presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), General Muhammadu Buhari and the Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Reacting to speculations that certain stalwarts of his party were scheming to give the party presidential ticket to his main rival, General Buhari in the name of consensus candidate, the former vice president dismissed it as mere rumour, saying the party’s constitution had no provision for automatic ticket.
“Those canvassing automatic ticket are scared of contest. There is nothing like that in a democratic setting.
“It is not going to be possible. There is nothing like automatic ticket. Those saying that might have been coming from a political background that does not know contest.
“The APC as presently constituted cannot escape contest. There is no zoning, no allocation of offices. So, on what basis are we having automatic ticket?”
The chieftain of the APC expressed delight that for the first time under the present political dispensation, Nigerians now had a political party formidable enough to challenge the ruling party.

I won’t give up on Presidency –Atiku