Six unsuccessful attempts to become president of Nigeria were made by Atiku Abubakar in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2023.
Moshood Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe defeated him in the 1993 Social Democratic Party presidential primary. In the 2007 presidential election, he ran as an Action Congress candidate and finished third behind Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP and Umaru Yar’Adua of the PDP. In the 2011 presidential election, he ran in the People’s Democratic Party’s presidential primary but lost to incumbent Goodluck Jonathan. Before the 2015 presidential election, he joined the All Progressives Congress in 2014 and ran in the presidential primary, losing to Muhammadu Buhari.
He rejoined the PDP in 2017 and ran as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2019 election, although he lost to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari once more. After defeating Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike in the primaries, he was selected as the People’s Democratic Party’s presidential candidate once more in May 2022, this time for the general election of 2023. Bola Tinubu defeated him in the general election, but Abubakar joined other opposition candidates in calling for a rerun.