Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Thursday launched a direct citizen engagement
portal named Ask AA, giving Nigerians an unfiltered line to put questions to him about his
policies ahead of the 2027 presidential election. The platform went live within the last few
hours and immediately drew heavy traffic, with Atiku’s campaign claiming tens of thousands
of submitted questions in its opening window.
Atiku, who is now standing on the platform of the African Democratic Congress after his
split from the Peoples Democratic Party, framed the launch as a break with Nigeria’s tradition
of top-down campaigning. The era of candidates speaking at voters is over, he said in a video
message circulated with the launch. The era of voters speaking to candidates has begun.
The portal allows any Nigerian with internet access to submit a text, voice or video question,
which Atiku’s team says will be filtered, grouped by theme, and answered publicly either in
writing or in weekly broadcast sessions. Topics flagged in the first wave of submissions
include fuel subsidy policy, the naira’s exchange rate, youth unemployment, insecurity in the
North, and the state of the power grid.
Political analysts see the move as both a strategic repositioning and a direct challenge to
President Bola Tinubu, whose All Progressives Congress inaugurated its own Presidential
Campaign Council in Abuja earlier this week. Where the APC spent the week on stagecraft
and party machinery, Atiku’s camp is betting that direct, retail-style engagement will cut
through to younger voters frustrated by the economy.
This is clearly aimed at the 18-to-35 demographic that largely stayed home or voted Labour
in 2023, one Abuja-based political strategist told local reporters. If Atiku can convert even a
fraction of them into active supporters, the ADC becomes a real force rather than a vehicle.
The launch also puts pressure on Peter Obi and the Labour Party, who built their 2023
campaign on digital-first engagement. By moving onto Obi’s turf, Atiku is signaling that he
intends to compete for the same disillusioned base rather than cede it.
Not everyone is impressed. Critics on social media quickly pointed out that Atiku, who has
run for the presidency multiple times, is an unusual face for a disruption pitch. Others
questioned whether the portal is more than a slick marketing exercise, noting that similar
engagement promises from past Nigerian candidates fizzled once the campaign calendar got
crowded.
The campaign responded by publishing a technical white paper describing how questions will
be de-duplicated, categorized by an in-house team, and answered within a published servicelevel timeframe. Atiku himself has committed to a weekly livestream in which he will take
questions directly from the portal.
The launch landed on the same morning as other political news that will test the ADC’s
framing. The Independent National Electoral Commission reaffirmed that voter accreditation
and result collation for 2027 will not be fully automated, and that no autonomous system will
be allowed to decide candidate qualification. INEC’s position complicates calls from some
civil society groups for faster, tech-first reforms that Atiku has, in the past, endorsed.
Meanwhile, in Ibadan, police confirmed one person dead after hoodlums attacked supporters
of broadcaster Oriyomi Hamzat, in a reminder that the physical ground game of Nigerian
politics is as rough as ever. Analysts warned Atiku’s camp that an online portal alone will not
solve the familiar problems of thuggery, inducement and voter suppression that have shaped
past elections.
For now, though, Atiku has the morning’s headlines. Whether Ask AA becomes a genuine
new chapter in Nigerian political communication, or just another campaign gimmick, will
depend on what happens the first time an awkward question lands in his inbox.
