2027: Datti Baba-Ahmed Sparks Controversy, Says Obi, Atiku, Others Lack Capacity to Save Nigeria

In a political development that has sent shockwaves through Nigeria’s opposition camp, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, has asserted that none of the prominent challengers eyeing the presidency in 2027 possesses the genuine capacity to rescue the nation from its economic and social morass. Speaking on a recent episode of the MicOn Podcast, the academic-turned-politician did not spare his own former running mate, Peter Obi, or former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, lumpenizing them with the very political class they seek to displace.

Baba-Ahmed’s blunt assessment directly targets the core of the emergent opposition coalition, which has been attempting to forge a united front against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He urged the incumbent president to prepare for an exit in 2027 but warned that handing over to the current crop of challengers would simply be a continuation of the same cyclical governance failure. The former federal lawmaker argued that the major political actors have been deeply entangled with one another in various past administrations, rendering their promises of a "new Nigeria" hollow.

"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,"

Baba-Ahmed stated during the podcast, a remark that political analysts believe could severely damage the cohesion of the reformist political coalition that disrupted the two-party hegemony in 2023. By explicitly naming Peter Obi, his former principal, Baba-Ahmed has signaled a major ideological fracture within the opposition camp.