Atiku @ 70: Four Facts You Didn’t Know About Nigeria’s Ex-vice President, Plus Photos From His Birthday

On 25th November 2016,  former vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, turned 70.

The Adamawa-born politician who occupied the second highest position in Nigerian politics on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is now a bonafide, card-carrying member of Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In fact, Atiku strove to emerge as president as he contested the party’s primaries in 2015. But he lost to Muhammadu Buhari, who would later emerged as the country’s number one citizen.
Check out FOUR other unbelievable facts about the ex-VP:

1. He officially married four wives
This may be unknown to many Nigerians, but Atiku actually has four women he got married to legally. Although he married the fourth wife after divorcing the second one, the vibrant grandfather is always looking at expanding his family, hence the continuous indulgence of the women.
He married his first wife (Titilayo) in 1971, got married to Ladi (whom he later divorced) in 1979, hooked up with Rukaiyatu in 1983, before releasing Ladi in 1986 to create room for the arrival of Jennifer, with whom he has his youngest child.

2. He secretly married his first wife aged 19
The family of his first wife, Titilayo Albert had opposed to them getting married to each other when they first met in Lagos, in 1971, but the ex-vice president ignored all the threats and later got married to his lover.
Titi (as she is affectionately called) who was 19 at the time they got married, later gave birth to his set of children and remains with him till date.

3. Atiku has 20 children
Well, this may seem unbelievable to so many, but it is actually true. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has a total of 20 children to his credit.
His first wife, Titi, gave him four kids; Fatima, Adamu, Halima and Aminu, while his divorced wife, Ladi had the luxury of bearing six healthy children.
Atiku Abubakar poses with some of his children.
He named them Abba, Atiku, Zainab, Ummi-Hauwa, Maryam and Rukayatu.
His third wife, a princess, had the most children for the former vice president, she had seven namely Aisha, Hadiza, Aliyu (named after her late father), Asmau, Mustafa, Laila and Abdulsalam and Jennifer turned Jamila was responsible for the birth of Abdulmalik, Zara and his youngest child, Faisal making them 20 in all.

4. High political ambitions
The customs officer turn-politician had lofty dreams of becoming either a governor or president but has been turned down on four different occasions.
Once in 1991, he would have emerged as the governor of Adamawa after it broke away from Gongola state, but he was disqualified by the government.
Also in 1998, Atiku won the election to become the next governor of Adamawa, but was snapped up by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and together, the contested and won Nigeria’s presidential election that returned Nigeria to democracy in 1999.
For his presidential ambitions, Atiku came third in the 1992 SDP convention primary, but MKO Abiola who was adjudged the winner got only 400 votes, it ended in a run-off, thus Atiku stepped down for Abiola and asked his supporters to vote for him, with an agreement he (Atiku) would emerge as the running mate.
But Abiola won, and announced Babagana Kingibe as against the agreement they had.
He also contested in 2006, 2011 and his most recent ambitious move was that of 2015, when he contested the presidential primaries on the platform of the APC, and again, lost out to Muhammadu Buhari.

More photos from his birthday below: