Atiku: I didn’t host Yari – it was just a random airport greeting
by: Oluwaseun M. Lawal
The story started at an airport, not in some hidden drawing room.
Early Monday, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja was its usual mix of noise and waiting. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar sat in the departure lounge with family and a few close associates, getting ready to fly out for the lesser hajj in Saudi Arabia. Then Senator Abdulaziz Yari walked in.
They saw each other. They stood. They shook hands. Old colleagues. Old rivals too.
And that was basically it.
By Tuesday, however, parts of the media were already whispering something else: that Atiku had secretly hosted Yari, a senior figure in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), at his Abuja residence for a private political meeting. A big story. A juicy one. Just not, according to Atiku’s camp, a true one.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Atiku’s media adviser, Paul Ibe, pushed back hard. Yes, Atiku and Yari met, he confirmed. No, it was not a scheduled meeting. Not in any living room. Not in any office. It was, as he described it, a chance encounter at the airport. Nothing more formal than a brief exchange of greetings between two politicians who have known each other for years.
Ibe explained that Atiku, a leading figure in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was at the airport on February 2 with his entourage, waiting for his flight to Saudi Arabia. While they sat at the departure lounge, Yari passed by. The two men exchanged pleasantries like people who once shared the same corridors of power. Then they went their separate ways.
No side meetings. No strategy session. No visit to Atiku’s home.
Ibe said it became necessary to openly deny the story because of the way some outlets had framed it – almost like Atiku and Yari were quietly sewing together a new political deal in Abuja. That impression, he insisted, is simply false and mischief.
Of course, Atiku has been holding a lot of real political meetings lately. That part is not in doubt. Only last Saturday, February 1, 2026, he hosted the National Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Yabagi Yusuf Sani, along with senior party officials, at his Abuja residence. That one was planned. Doors opened. Guests announced. No pretending.
The backdrop to all this is already charged. There has been growing speculation about a possible alliance between Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) platform, potentially to present a joint presidential ticket to challenge Atiku and the old order in 2027. The rumour mill has been spinning non-stop – mergers, coalitions, third-force, defections. Everyone is talking.
Sani, after his meeting with Atiku, tried to pour some cold water on the more dramatic theories. He said their conversation was not about any merger or secretly drafting Atiku into the ADP, but about something broader: how to keep the opposition space alive, protect democratic competition and offer Nigerians credible alternatives in the next general elections. Opposition cohesion, not recruitment, was how he framed it.
Against that backdrop, it wasn’t surprising that a simple airport greeting between Atiku and Yari quickly became fuel for another round of speculation. But Atiku’s camp is drawing a line: there is a difference, they are saying, between casual politeness in a public lounge and structured political talks in a private residence.
In other words, they are admitting the hello, but not the meeting.
