{"id":196372,"date":"2026-02-27T11:40:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire"},"modified":"2026-02-27T12:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:55:27","slug":"fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire","title":{"rendered":"Fintiri Defection: Presidency Tells Atiku to Retire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The Presidency has mocked former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, telling him to retire and go to his second home in Dubai.<\/p>\n<p>Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said this in a post on his verified X handle on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>His remark follows the defection of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State (Atiku\u2019s home state) to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.<\/p>\n<p>Governor Fintiri on Friday dumped the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the APC.<\/p>\n<p>Reacting, Onanuga said, \u201cAdamawa Governor Fintiri joins the APC taking away Atiku\u2019s entire home base to President Tinubu\u2019s party. This is a big blow for Atiku.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the presidential election less than a year away, Fintiri\u2019s defection is surely a big blow to veteran presidential runner Atiku Abubakar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis ADC is largely unknown in the state. He certainly needs to reassess his ambition, as his governor has turned the APC into an Adamawa juggernaut.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf a politician is not so popular at home, he has no business selling his candidacy to outsiders. The time is nigh for Atiku to consider retiring from politics and going to his second home in Dubai.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The Presidency has mocked former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, telling him to retire and go to his second home in Dubai. Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said this in a post on his verified X handle on Friday. His remark follows the defection of Governor Ahmadu [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":196371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-196372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fintiri Defection: Presidency Tells Atiku to Retire - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Presidency has mocked former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, telling him to retire and go to his second home in Dubai ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fintiri Defection: Presidency Tells Atiku to Retire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Presidency has mocked former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, telling him to retire and go to his second home in Dubai ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-27T10:40:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-27T11:55:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1772193304.355514.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Fintiri Defection: Presidency Tells Atiku to Retire\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-27T10:40:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-27T11:55:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire\"},\"wordCount\":213,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1772193304.355514.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/fintiri-defection-presidency-tells-atiku-to-retire\",\"name\":\"Fintiri Defection: Presidency Tells Atiku to Retire - 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