Twist: Datti Baba-Ahmed says Obi, Atiku, others cannot deliver ‘New Nigeria’ in 2027

THE Labour Party’s 2023 vice-presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, has dismissed President Bola Tinubu’s major challengers ahead of the 2027 election, saying they lack the capacity to deliver meaningful change in Nigeria.

Baba-Ahmed, who contested alongside Peter Obi in 2023, made the statement during an appearance on the MicOn Podcast on Saturday.

According to him, the leading politicians seeking to unseat Tinubu are products of the same political establishment they now claim to oppose.

He said Tinubu should leave office at the end of his tenure but argued that replacing him with any of the prominent opposition figures would not fundamentally alter the country’s trajectory.

“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.

Baba-Ahmed specifically included Obi among the politicians he believes cannot provide the transformation Nigeria needs, noting that the former Anambra State governor previously belonged to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He argued that Obi’s political history contradicts the idea that he represents a complete departure from Nigeria’s established political order. Datti ran with Obi in 2023 on the same presidential ticket. But this time, Obi chose to leave the Labour Party for the African Democratic Party (ADC) before, again, leaving for Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), where he is the presidential candidate alonggise his deputy, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

The former lawmaker said his own record was different, claiming to be the only politician among the major contenders who had never belonged to a ruling party.

Baba-Ahmed said he was previously a member of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), but resigned before the party merged with others to form the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“I never had an APC membership card,” he said.

He maintained that his political agenda remains centred on building what he called a “new Nigeria,’ rather than simply replacing one set of political leaders with another.

Baba-Ahmed also criticised former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar over his attacks on Tinubu concerning controversies surrounding the president’s records in the United States.

He questioned Atiku’s decision to make the issue a major political point, asking why he had not pursued the matter with similar intensity in the past.

On Tinubu’s administration, Baba-Ahmed said the president had been given an opportunity to govern but should prepare to relinquish power.

He accused the administration of undermining the country’s political parties and argued that its record over the past three years had weakened Nigeria’s democratic institutions.

“All he did in three years was to destroy political parties,” Baba-Ahmed said.