…Says Obi abandoned political comfort zone against his advice, insists none of Tinubu’s challengers represents real change
By Yinka Giwa
Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, Peter Obi’s running mate in the 2023 presidential election, has delivered a stinging assessment of his former principal and other leading opposition figures ahead of the 2027 election, declaring that none of President Bola Tinubu’s major challengers has what it takes to improve Nigeria.
Baba-Ahmed, who ran alongside Obi on the Labour Party (LP) ticket in 2023, specifically included the former Anambra State governor and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar among politicians he said had, at various times, been part of the political establishment responsible for Nigeria’s present condition.
Speaking on the MIC ON Podcast on Saturday, the former senator also disclosed that Obi ignored his advice and moved out of his political “comfort zone” in the build-up to the 2027 contest, a decision he said effectively ended his ability to continue helping his former political partner.
Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is seeking a second term, while Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and Atiku of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) are among his major challengers.
Baba-Ahmed said that while he is not a supporter of Tinubu, Nigerians should not assume that the prominent politicians seeking to replace him necessarily offer a better alternative.
“Because none of them will improve Nigeria. All those people contesting against him too were all in bed together at some point or another — including Peter Obi. At some point, he was in the PDP.”
The comments represent one of Baba-Ahmed’s sharpest public criticisms of Obi since the pair mounted a formidable third-force presidential challenge in 2023.
Baba-Ahmed argued that Nigeria requires an entirely new political direction rather than a recycling of politicians who have previously belonged to, or worked within, the country’s dominant political establishments.
He presented his own political history as evidence that it was possible to remain outside the ruling establishment, saying he had never belonged to a party while it controlled the Federal Government.
“Tell me one politician who has never been in a ruling party. I’m the one. Have I ever been in a ruling party?” he asked.
Baba-Ahmed acknowledged that he had belonged to the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), but said he resigned before the party merged with others to form the APC.
“I have never been in a ruling party. When I was in the CPC, it was a little opposition party,” he said, adding: “I never had an APC membership card.”
The former lawmaker also questioned Atiku’s role in the renewed controversy surrounding Tinubu’s records in the United States, wondering why the former vice-president was now “at the forefront of tormenting” the President over issues on which he had previously been less vocal.
Despite ruling out Tinubu’s principal opponents as agents of the change he wants, Baba-Ahmed was equally critical of the President and his administration.
He said Tinubu had been given an opportunity to govern Nigeria but should not seek to extend his stay in power beyond the current term, accusing the administration of weakening the country’s political parties.
“All he did in three years was to destroy political parties,” Baba-Ahmed said.
Turning specifically to the breakdown of his political partnership with Obi, the former vice-presidential candidate disclosed that he had strongly advised his former principal against joining the ADC during the political realignments preceding the 2027 election.
According to him, he went to the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre ahead of Obi on one occasion and privately pulled him aside to warn him that the ADC was not the appropriate political platform for his ambitions.
“When he was going to join ADC, I had to go to Yar’Adua Centre ahead of him, I called him aside. They were worried. Why is Datti calling Peter Obi aside and talking to him?” he recalled.
Baba-Ahmed said he made his opposition unmistakably clear to Obi.
“And I told him, ‘This is the last time I’m coming to this place.’ I gave him my reasons. This is not a place for you. Was I wrong? I was proven right,” he said.
He cited Obi’s subsequent exit from the ADC as vindication of his warning, saying: “Within four months, Peter Obi left ADC.”
Baba-Ahmed further suggested that Obi had departed from some of the political positions they previously shared, saying he was uncomfortable with what he considered contradictions in political conduct.
“Now, I don’t like people who contradict themselves, and I don’t want to go into criticising again the politics of Atiku because that’s not what I’m about,” he said.
Asked whether he could have done more to persuade Obi to remain in the Labour Party, Baba-Ahmed said his influence had limits once his former principal decided to disregard his counsel.
“Peter Obi moved out of his comfort zone against my advice. Beyond that point, I could no longer help him,” he said.
Obi and Baba-Ahmed contested the 2023 presidential election on the Labour Party platform, finishing third behind Tinubu of the APC and Atiku, who contested that election on the PDP ticket.
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