Datti Baba-Ahmed Warns ADC Against Fielding Atiku — Says Tinubu Knows How To Defeat Him
Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, former vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, has advised the African Democratic Congress (ADC), now backed by an opposition coalition, to avoid fielding former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in the 2027 presidential race.
Speaking in an interview with Trust TV, Baba-Ahmed argued that Atiku, having run for president multiple times, remains a predictable figure whom the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Bola Tinubu understand too well to defeat.
“If you bring out Atiku, they know how to work against Atiku, and he is welcome to win. If he wins, we will support him,” he said. “You need that candidate they can’t understand, they don’t know where to catch — that is how to win an election.”
He emphasized that any serious coalition aiming to unseat Tinubu must recognize the President’s deep political influence and capacity for long-term strategy.
“Any coalition that is coming together has to realise how powerful this individual called Tinubu is,” Baba-Ahmed warned. “Somebody who schemed for 16 years to take it one day. He has done what nobody has done.”
Reflecting on Atiku’s long-running presidential ambition, Baba-Ahmed noted that the former PDP candidate had contested six times and appears set for a seventh attempt.
“With due respect to Atiku, Atiku consistently contested, all the last six, this will be the seventh one without let or hindrance,” he said. “Tell me who from across the divide would stand up and say it must be that other individual that must be the president and I will take over from him after eight years?”
Baba-Ahmed concluded by urging the opposition to rethink its strategy and present a fresh, hard-to-predict candidate with wide appeal and a new political approach.
