•President Bola Ahmed Tinubu & Alhaji Atiku Abubakar at the National Mosque Abuja on Friday, October 25.
By Jane Okafor, Abuja
ABUJA: Twenty months after the keenly contested Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election, President Bola Tinubu and his political rival and major challenger, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), met face – to – face for the first time at the National Mosque in Abuja, an encounter that elicited a frenzy of excitement from thousands of worshippers.
The political gladiators and war horses were allies dating back to 1998 until presidential ambition turned them into rivals but at the Jumat prayer on Friday afternoon, October 25, they met face – to – face and worshipped at the National Mosque Abuja to the palpable excitement of worshippers who could not stop watching the nation’s two political heavy weights.
After the 2023 election won by Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and subsequently challenged by Atiku and Peter Obi of the Labour Party(LP) at the courts, both gladiators had not seen face-to-face until this Friday afternoon.
Atiku has continued to criticise Tinubu administration’s policies since he was sworn in as President on May 29, 2023.
According to Leadership, Tinubu and Atiku had attended the Juma’at congressional prayer and as well the wedding fatiha of a daughter of former Gombe State governor and Senator representing Gombe Central, Danjuma Goje, at the mosque.
Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, candidates of various political parties vying for Nigeria’s presidency had gathered at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, to sign the Peace Accord organised by the National Peace Committee (NPC).
In attendance at the time were presidential candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu; the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
Others present were the then President Muhammadu Buhari; the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III; former Heads of State, Generals Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar; among others.
