Atiku Abubukar, GCON, served as Vice President of Nigeria (1999-2007). He was raised in rural Jada, Adamawa in north-eastern Nigeria and was educated, in part, by volunteers from the US Peace Corps. Their own generosity and self-sacrifice, and their encouragement and belief in him, laid a foundation upon which the young man constructed a formidable, brilliant business and political career, and a record of philanthropy unmatched in Africa.
It is impossible to mention the development of education in Nigeria without an acknowledgment of the immeasurable contributions of Atiku. Rotary International and American National Peace Corps Association have recognised the former Vice President for matching his passion with his purse. Appropriately, the American National Peace Corps Association honoured him with the Harris Wofford award in 2012. “No private business man in Africa has worked harder for democracy or contributed more to higher education than Atiku Abubakar,” his citation at that event speaks eloquently.
The establishment of the world-class AUN in Yola, Adamawa State, in the insurgency prone North East of Nigeria is the strongest proof of Abubakar’s passion for education. Though a private university founded by the former Vice President, the about 70 percent subsidy provided by his intervention, affords both the children of the rich and poor access to world-class education.
Specially gifted children, regardless of their parental backgrounds are also afforded the opportunity to better their future through this first-class university. Even the vulnerable, among them the Chibok girls who escaped Boko Haram captivity have found accommodation in the academy operated by AUN, and recently graduated one of the Chibok girls who found a home in the school following their escape from captivity. The rest of that first batch and the over 100 that later joined the special programme of the institution are set to commence university studies. The university not only helps students acquire first rate degrees but promotes entrepreneurship courses to meet the challenges of the Nigerian realities. By giving its students the skills for entrepreneurship, Atiku is helping the students to bootstrap themselves in life. Inspired by his awesome early life experiences when he had to struggle for himself because he was an orphan at vulnerable age, Abubakar is using education as key to transforming people’s life.
Atiku’s contribution do not stop at education, he is also a remarkable philanthropist that has dedicated his life to bringing succour to humanity. He has donated to worthy causes to tackle many deadly, but easily preventable diseases like the now eradicated polio. He also identifies with internally displaced persons (IDPs), the pathetic victims of the Boko Haram insurgency. Atiku is also an exponent of peace, unity, tolerance and peaceful coexistence as exemplified by the setting up of the Adamawa Peace Initiative (API) by the American University of Nigeria (AUN) at his prompting as a vehicle for promoting and maintaining peace in Adamawa State and indeed the North East region of Nigeria. Today, the API initiative is getting more than cursory look as a viable model for dealing with strife in multi-religious communities.
Holding both a Royal Society of Health and a Law degree, he was an early promoter of the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), the progenitor of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), as he pursued a career both in public and private life, culminating in his being twice elected as Vice President of Nigeria, always refusing to serve in Nigeria’s military dictatorships.
An apostle of politics without bitterness, Atiku Abubakar has a legendary knack for bringing Nigerians across divides for the attainment of noble goals and has over the decades left no one in doubt as to why he is a democrat par excellence.
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