Former Vice President and 2023 presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has vowed to appoint more youths and women in his government if elected president in 2027.

“We will make sure that 70 per cent of our appointments will go to the youths and women,” Mr Abubakar said in a viral video circulating on social media on Saturday.

Mr Abubakar, who has contested the presidency six times in three decades, also promised a massive crackdown on corruption if elected president.

Promising zero tolerance for corruption, Mr Abubakar said Nigeria remained repressive because of a few corrupt individuals.

“I swear to God, if elected, whoever steals or engages in any corruption-related activities, we will declare war against them, and they must be punished,” Mr Abubakar said. “Other countries are advancing, but Nigeria remains regressive because of a few corrupt people.”

Mr Abubakar’s statement comes a few days after opposition politicians formed a coalition, adopting the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as their official party to challenge President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election.

The other two members of the coalition, former Anambra Governor Peter Obi and former governor of Rivers Rotimi Amaechi, have promised to serve only one term. 

Mr Abubakar’s promise to crack down on corruption comes a few years after he was caught admitting in an audio tape how he and others deployed onshore shell businesses to corner billions in federal contracts.

Also, Mr Abubakar was at the centre of a federal broadband contract scandal that engulfed former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government.

The charges later saw the jailing of William Jefferson, at the time a serving member of the United States. American authorities said they found cash bribes believed to have come from a Nigerian racket in Mr Jefferson’s refrigerator while probing the case, but Mr Abubakar was never specifically charged.

Meanwhile, Mr Abubakar has contested the presidency six times: in 1993, he contested on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) platform; and in 2007, he contested on the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) platform, losing to Umar Ya’adua of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He challenged former President Goodluck Jonathan in the PDP’s primaries in 2011 and lost. After joining the APC in 2014 ahead of the 2015 election, Mr Abubakar lost the presidential primaries to Muhammadu Buhari. 

The politician returned to the PDP in 2017 and lost the presidential election to Mr Buhari of the APC in 2019. He contested alongside Mr Tinubu in 2023 and also lost.