The vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25 presidential election, Datti Baba-Ahmed, 54, became the centre of attention after he was anointed by the party to be the running mate of its then flag bearer, Peter Obi.
However, 15 months into the election that Obi came third behind President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, and Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party, questions are still being asked whether Baba-Ahmed is the weak link between the impressive political machinery of Obi and the LP.
On that account and for all it is worth, Obi’s supporters, known as Obidients, have been suggesting that the former Anambra State Governor gets rid of dead weights, if any, in his pursuit of victory at the polls.
The affable Baba-Ahmed was not so popular when Obi held one of his hands up as he presented him to Nigerians as Labour Party’s vice-presidential candidate. He had come across as a gentleman who should not have dipped his toe in the murky waters of politics.
But the 54-year-old economist had been in the public eye, even though it was not very pronounced. He was once a member of the House of Representatives before he was elected into the Red Chamber as senator representing Kaduna North.
The Kaduna State-born politician’s decision to hobnob with Obi proved to be an auspicious one. This is true because by the time the curtain was drawn on the 2023 presidential election, he had become a household name in Nigeria.
But charity, they say, begins at home. During the presidential election, Baba-Ahmed could not, as politicians are wont to say, deliver his state, Kaduna, or even his Polling Unit, to Obi.
In his Polling Unit 021, with 272 accredited voters, at Tudun Wada ward in Zaria Local Government Area, Baba-Ahmed was handed a crushing defeat.
Atiku had the most votes there. The former vice-president polled 102 votes at Baba-Ahmed’s PU while Tinubu notched up 99 votes. The LP made do with only 11 votes.
The result in Baba-Ahmed’s local government, Zaria LG, was no better than Tudun Wada ward. In the local government, the PDP scored 62,260 while the APC and LP polled 41,432 and 3,634 votes, respectively.
At state level, Atiku’s PDP was also the runaway winner with 445,671 votes, followed by APC with 321,691 votes. Baba-Ahmed’s LP came third with 253,207 votes.
Apart from Obi’s core supporters, many analysts have argued that a vice-presidential candidate, who could not come up with the goods in his own state during an election, should be jettisoned. Other analysts, however, disagree with this position.
“Baba-Ahmed did not do so well for Obi in the election because he is not widely known in the North. He is very intelligent and a gentleman but he is not radical. They don’t know him up North. Obi made him known”
They insist that Baba-Ahmed has stuck with Obi through thick and thin and must be allowed to eat the fruits of his labour. They also say that in terms of being loyal to Obi’s cause, Baba-Ahmed has been impeccable.
It is very likely that Obi appreciates Baba-Ahmed’s loyalty as well as his political worth, and the LP frontrunner has not failed to show this publicly.
During his press conference following the Supreme Court judgement, which gave Tinubu’s government the all clear, Obi not only signaled that the journey to the 2027 presidential election had begun but also factored his running mate into it.
He said, “This is not the end of our journey (because of the Supreme Court judgment); but in fact, the beginning. We shall endure, persist, until we get to our destination because a new Nigeria is our destination. A destination not an event.
“As a party and as candidates, Datti and I have now exhausted all legal and constitutional remedies available to us.
“However, this end is only another beginning in our quest for the vindication of the hope of the common man for a better country.”
As things stand today, the LP, under the leadership of Julius Abure, has reserved its 2027 presidential ticket for Obi.
And apart from Obi, Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, was also allotted an automatic ticket, but for some reason, Baba-Ahmed was not included and his supporters are keeping their fingers crossed that he will be considered soon.
Asked to comment on Baba-Ahmed’s political worth and whether he should tag along with Obi, a political scientist, Moyo Jaji, chose to be cautious.
According to him, it will be very difficult to talk about Baba-Ahmed continuing with Obi or not because politics is dynamic.
“Things are not statistics in politics. It is always dynamic.
“Your friend today might be your enemy tomorrow and your friend again a day after, depending on the circumstance. So, I cannot talk about 2027 now because nobody knows tomorrow.
“Another candidate might emerge that would even be more formidable than Obi. And how are we even sure that Obi will still be in the LP?
“So, things are always in a state of flux in politics. One cannot categorically make a statement,” he said.
Jaji also said assuming Tinubu was not retaining his seat, and rotational presidency dictated that a Northerner had to be next in line for the office of president; Baba-Ahmed would be a better choice.
“By the next dispensation, you could be told that the presidency should go to the North – that is if Tinubu was not retaining his seat.
“Baba-Ahmed will be a better choice if the president must come from the North – going by the rotational presidency arrangement which is not written, anyway.
“It is, therefore, normal for Obi to want to contest again in 2027 but circumstances might not favour him, not to even talk of him retaining or rejecting a running mate when the time comes,” Jaji said.
In addition, Jaji said other things equal; it was not written on stone that it must be Baba-Ahmed who should be Obi’s running mate.
“Was Obi not the running mate of Atiku in 2019? Anything can still happen and there might be unforeseen circumstances that might change the whole equation,” he argued.
On his own part, political commentator, Kizito Opara, noted that Baba-Ahmed did not do so well for Obi and the LP in the North. In his view, Obi made Baba-Ahmed famous.
Opara said even though he was not pressing for Baba-Ahmed’s substitution with another Northern politician, he said there were those suggesting that Obi replaced his running mate.
He, however, said that Obi should be careful. Opara fears that the names of some potential running mates being bandied about, like Nasir El-Rufai, are those that can be used against him (Obi).
He said, “Baba-Ahmed did not do so well for Obi in the election because he is not widely known in the North. He is very intelligent and a gentleman but he is not radical. They don’t know him up North. Obi made him known.
“I might not want him to be replaced, but some are suggesting that Obi should replace Baba-Ahmed with another Northern politician.
“The question is who would he choose? All the people being suggested for him are alleged criminals. They have questionable character and bad records.
“Some are even suggesting El-Rufai or one of those other alleged criminals, but the problem is that Baba-Ahmed’s record outshines their own.
“And the moment Obi picks any of them, whether now or later, they will use his choice against him,” Opara said.
Yet another analyst, Sylvester Enefeli, said “It is true that Baba-Ahmed did not pull much weight in the North during the 2023 presidential election, but one should not compare now with then.
“The man was ridiculed and his family insulted, but he held firmly to the belief that Nigeria must be great again. I think he should continue to work with Obi.
“When Obi visited Canada earlier this month, I noticed a huge banner at the venue of the town hall meeting he attended. I saw Baba-Ahmed’s picture on the banner and I was elated.
“And for those who say that Baba-Ahmed has what it takes to win the presidency in 2027, I do not agree with them.
“It will be an exercise in futility if he tries it. He will fail woefully. He needs to continue to build on the momentum he is enjoying with Obi. Anything short of this will spell doom for his political career.”
However, the national chairman of the LP, Julius Abure, is not hiding his disdain for the party’s running mate in the 2023 polls.
According to Abure, Nigeria would have been divided if Datti Baba-Ahmed was the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections.
“Obviously, if Datti was the presidential candidate, he wouldn’t have been able to create the movement, the following that gave rise to the results that we have in the first instance. So the analysis isn’t correct.
“The analysis doesn’t follow because a lot of people joined the Labour Party because of the personality of Peter Obi. Apparently, because of his character, performance, and behaviour, people saw him as a leader and, therefore, wanted him to be (president). Datti is not on that same pedestal,” Abure added.
“Datti doesn’t have that kind of followership that has the capacity to change the political trajectory that we had before.
“And, therefore, he wouldn’t have been able to create that situation that would have given rise to what could have happened with the election.
“But after the election and the outcome of the election, if it was Datti, probably the country would have been divided, and in the end, a lot of people would have died by now,” Abure added.
Abure didn’t explain why people would have died if Baba-Ahmed had been the standard-bearer of the LP.
He said there must be peace in the nation before Nigerians can demand a better country.
“Every folk has their own perception and views. But I think that having a peaceful country and we are still available in the country, still being able to agitate for reform, put the government on the spot, and continue to agitate for a better country, I think, is better,” he said.
“We are already here. We are here talking about the 2027 election.
“If the country were at war or in a crisis, we wouldn’t be here talking about the 2027 election. So, however we look at it, I think we have done very well. Datti and Peter Obi were a very good combination.”
However, following the presidential election, Baba-Ahmed fiercely criticized the judiciary over judgments on the election.
At the time, he asked Olukayode Ariwoola, the chief justice of Nigeria, not to swear in Bola Tinubu as the president.
He said swearing in Tinubu as president would hinder the nation’s democracy and violate the 1999 constitution.
After the Supreme Court affirmed Tinubu’s election, Baba-Ahmed claimed that no justice of the Supreme Court would give Nigerians democracy.
“Rise up for your rights. No justice of the Supreme Court will give you democracy.
“The petition court and the Supreme Court, please quote me on this, did not actually affirm the success of Tinubu’s presidency.
“They upheld the unconstitutionality of that election and they are happy for it to remain so and they have the power. Nobody can do anything about it,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed had said in 2022 that he left the PDP because of his stance on not paying delegates during primaries.
He said he withdrew from the governorship race In Kaduna State because he refused to pay delegates to vote for him. He said the leader of the PDP in Kaduna became ‘afraid of him’.
Many had labeled the Labour Party as an extension of the PDP because both Messrs Obi and Baba-Ahmed left the PDP almost the same time in 2022. The former was a presidential aspirant in the party but left days before the national convention.
“It will be an exercise in futility if he tries it. He will fail woefully. He needs to continue to build on the momentum he is enjoying with Obi. Anything short of this will spell doom for his political career”
Speaking on the PDP, Baba-Ahmed said his former party was in stagnation and he had no future in it.
“I withdrew from the governorship race because God has not made me to be one that will buy delegates’ votes.
“It became clear that they are afraid of me and jittery that I had no future in that party. I had to leave,” he said then.
Baba-Ahmed said he did not join the presidential race because he believes it is the turn of the south.
“In 2018, most of the serious politicians from the south considered it the turn of the north, the Muslim north—stayed back and did not contest. It was a gesture of friendliness and brotherhood.
“With due respect to my brothers from the north and Muslims who feel they should contest now, I was of the view that we should reciprocate and nothing more than that,” he said.
He also dismissed the claim that the Labour Party was only on social media, noting that the party was a moving train that cannot “be bombed”.
He said then that anyone who earned legitimate income as a worker is a member of the party.
“Anybody who earns legitimate income in Nigeria is by default a member of LP. If you go to work from 9am to 5pm, if you engage in any form of legitimate business, by default you are a member of LP.
We belong to Nigeria and Nigeria belongs to us.“What is going to hit the ruling party is going to be worse than what happened in 2015. LP is a train, not like the Abuja/Kaduna train. It is hard to blow up this train. The whole of Nigeria is in it. We are blurring all demarcations,” he said in 2022.
Baba-Ahmed said then that a Peter Obi government will eliminate fraud in the government procurement process and use the ‘pyramid approach’ to address education.
He stated also that the Labour government would ensure that workers ensure sufficient wages that will last for the entire month.
