Labour Party’s vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, has said none of the major opposition candidates preparing for the 2027 presidential election have what it takes to transform Nigeria.
Baba-Ahmed, who was Peter Obi’s running mate in the 2023 election, made the assertion while appearing on the MicOn Podcast on Saturday.
President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress is seeking re-election in 2027, while former Anambra State governor Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress are among the leading opposition figures expected to challenge him.
Baba-Ahmed argued that many of the major opposition candidates seeking to replace Tinubu had previously been part of the political establishment he blamed for the country’s current difficulties.
He therefore advised Tinubu to prepare to leave office at the end of his tenure, but warned that handing over power to the current crop of opposition contenders would not necessarily produce the change Nigerians desire.
“I will simply advise uncle (Tinubu) to please prepare to hand over and move away, but not to the people contesting against him,” he said.
“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 PDP.”
The former lawmaker said he was advocating a “new Nigeria” and argued that his political history distinguished him from other politicians who had belonged to parties that 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 explained that although he was once a member of the Congress for Progressive Change, he left the party before its merger with other parties that eventually produced the APC.
“I have never been in a ruling party. When I was in CPC, it was a little opposition party,” he said.
“I never had an APC membership card.”
The former LP vice-presidential candidate also commented on the controversy surrounding Tinubu’s records in the United States.
He questioned Atiku’s decision to make the issue a major political point, arguing that the former vice-president had not always been vocal about the matter.
Baba-Ahmed said Tinubu had been allowed to govern but should not seek to prolong his stay in power.
He further accused the president of weakening Nigeria’s political parties during his administration.
“All he did in three years was to destroy political parties,” Baba-Ahmed said.
