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…Says Obi, Atiku and others have been part of the Nigerian political establishment
By Daud Olatunji
The Labor Party’s 2023 vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has said none of the leading politicians who will challenge President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election have the capacity to transform Nigeria.
Baba-Ahmed, who was Peter Obi’s running mate in the 2023 presidential election, made the statement on Saturday during his appearance on the MicOn podcast.
He, however, said Tinubu should prepare to leave office at the end of his constitutionally permissible tenure, arguing that the President should not seek to extend his tenure beyond two terms.
According to him, even if Tinubu should relinquish power, the alternatives currently presented by the opposition do not represent the “new Nigeria” he hopes for.
“I will simply advise uncle (Tinubu) to prepare to hand over and leave, but not to the people contesting against him,” Baba-Ahmed said.
“Because none of them will make Nigeria better. Even all those people contesting against him were all in bed together sooner or later, including Peter Obi. At one point, he was in the PDP.”
Baba-Ahmed’s comments come amid increasing political maneuvering ahead of the 2027 presidential election, with Tinubu seeking re-election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
Prominent figures linked to the contest include Obi and former vice president Atiku Abubakar, associated with the African Democratic Congress.
Baba-Ahmed argued that the political history of the main contenders raises doubts about their ability to provide a fundamental breakthrough from the system in which they had previously participated.
He argued that his call for a “new Nigeria” was rooted in his assertion that, unlike other major contenders, he had never belonged to a political party that controlled the federal government.
“Tell me a politician who has never been in a ruling party. That’s me. Have I ever been in a ruling party?” he asked.
The former MP explained that although he was a member of the Congress for Progressive Change, he left before the party merged with other parties to form the APC.
“I have never been in a ruling party. When I was in the CCP, it was a small opposition party,” he said.
“I never had an APC card.”
Baba-Ahmed also waded into the controversy over Tinubu’s alleged record in the United States, questioning the consistency of Atiku’s criticism of the president on the issue.
According to him, the former vice president has not always addressed the issue with the same intensity.
The former Labor Party vice-presidential candidate also accused the Tinubu administration of undermining political parties, without providing further details on the accusation.
He however maintained that Tinubu was given the opportunity to govern Nigeria but should not seek to remain in office beyond the constitutionally permitted two terms.
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