Nigerian ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar announced on Sunday he will run for president, posing a challenge from the mainly Muslim north to incumbent Goodluck Jonathan’s expected bid to remain in office.

Abubakar will seek the ruling People’s Democratic Party’s nomination amid a dispute over whether it should abandon Jonathan, a southern Christian, and put forward a candidate from the north.

“I have come here to formally announce with humility and a deep sense of responsibility that I shall be offering myself as a candidate,” he told reporters.

“I want to chart a new course for our beloved country,” said Abubakar, who served as vice president from 1999 to 2007 under ex-head of state Olusegun Obasanjo, still a major power broker within the ruling party.

Abubakar and Obasanjo fell out as allies amid the former president’s failed bid to change the constitution to allow him to seek a third term, but the two are believed to have since reconciled.

Jonathan, who took over after the death of president Umaru Yar’Adua in May, is widely expected to run, but has not announced his candidacy. Elections are to occur early next year, though a date has not yet been declared.

The dispute over whether he should represent the PDP is rooted in an unwritten agreement that the ruling party rotate its candidates for president between the north and south every two terms.

The policy serves as a way of smoothing over religious, ethnic and social divisions in Africa’s most populous nation.

Since Yar’Adua did not finish out his first term, some argue a candidate from the north should represent the party, which has been in power since 1999 in Nigeria, one of the world’s largest oil producers.

Last week, the PDP’s leadership said Jonathan had the right to run in the elections, but stopped short of giving him an outright endorsement.

Abubakar was forced out of the ruling party during his dispute with Obasanjo and contested 2007 presidential elections as a candidate for the opposition Action Congress.

He finished third in the vote won by Yar’Adua and alleged the election was rigged.

He has since sought to return to the PDP, though officials with the party have said in recent days that he has not yet met the requirements for full membership, without providing further details.

The ex-vice president has also been accused of corruption in the past and has denied the allegations.

AFP

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