Atiku's 2003 Intervention Saved Tinubu in Lagos Elections

Phrank Shaibu, the senior special assistant to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, asserted that Atiku intervened in 2003 to protect Bola Tinubu from a political offensive led by then-President Olusegun Obasanjo. This offensive resulted in the removal of five Alliance for Democracy (AD) governors from the South-West during the elections.

While the AD lost control in five of the six states, Lagos remained under Tinubu's governance. Shaibu stated that Atiku persuaded Obasanjo to exclude Tinubu from the political campaign targeting Lagos, which he argued was a pivotal moment in Nigeria's Fourth Republic.

This intervention, according to Shaibu, secured Tinubu's second term as governor. He framed his account as a challenge to any attempts to revise the historical narrative regarding the relationship between Tinubu and Atiku.

Atiku, who served as Vice President under Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007, is currently campaigning for the presidency under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 general elections.