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A former Labour Party vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has said that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar would have been on course to become Nigeria’s president in 2027 if he had supported Peter Obi during the 2023 presidential election.
Speaking during an interview on Inside Sources on Channels Television, Baba-Ahmed argued that Atiku missed an opportunity to unite opposition forces by backing Obi’s candidacy in 2023 rather than contesting himself.
According to him, if Atiku had adopted the long-term political strategy often associated with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and encouraged Obi and himself to contest under a unified arrangement, he would have earned their support in a future presidential race.
Baba-Ahmed said that had Atiku approached them and declared that he would support Obi in 2023 with the understanding that they would not challenge him in 2027, he would have accepted the proposal and persuaded Obi to do likewise.
He maintained that such a move would have positioned Atiku favourably to emerge as president in 2027.
The former senator attributed Tinubu’s political success to his patience and long-term planning, noting that the president had previously provided political platforms for other leaders, including Atiku in 2007 and the late Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
According to Baba-Ahmed, Tinubu was willing to wait for years to achieve his political ambitions and strategically built alliances that eventually paved the way for his presidency.
He argued that Tinubu’s support for key political figures over the years enabled him to establish influence and goodwill that later worked to his advantage during the 2023 election.
Baba-Ahmed further claimed that many leaders within the current opposition coalition lack the patience required to execute a similar long-term strategy.
He singled out Rotimi Amaechi as one of the few politicians in the coalition who appears to have exercised patience while waiting for the right political opportunity.
The former Labour Party running mate also warned opposition figures against becoming overly optimistic about their chances against Tinubu, insisting that the president understands his opponents’ political calculations and can counter their strategies.
According to him, he had previously advised members of the opposition coalition against excessive excitement, warning that they lacked a unifying figure comparable to Buhari, whose popularity helped galvanise support across different political blocs.
Baba-Ahmed said he told coalition leaders that without a credible and widely accepted political outlier, it would be difficult to rally Nigerians behind a common presidential candidate, but claimed that his advice was not well received.
