Former Labour Party vice-presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed has said former Vice President Atiku Abubakar could have positioned himself to become Nigeria’s president in 2027 if he had supported Peter Obi’s presidential bid in the 2023 election.
Baba-Ahmed made the remark during an appearance on Inside Sources, a programme on Channels Television, where he reflected on political alliances ahead of the 2027 general election.
According to him, Atiku missed an opportunity to build goodwill and strengthen opposition unity by insisting on contesting the 2023 election rather than backing Obi.
“If in the 2023 election he had taken everyone by surprise and done what Bola Tinubu typically does—call Peter Obi and me and say, ‘You are my juniors, I will support you. No 2027 for you’—Wallahi, I would have agreed, and I would have told Peter Obi to agree,” Baba-Ahmed said.
“And Atiku would have been the 2027 president of Nigeria if that had happened.”
The former senator argued that President Bola Tinubu’s political success was partly due to his willingness to play a long-term game, citing instances where the president supported the ambitions of other politicians before pursuing his own presidential ambition.
“He didn’t mind waiting,” Baba-Ahmed said, referring to Tinubu’s political strategy over the years.
He recalled Tinubu’s support for Atiku’s presidential bid in 2007 and his backing of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari in the build-up to the 2015 election, describing both moves as part of a calculated long-term political plan.
According to Baba-Ahmed, patience is a key ingredient many opposition politicians lack.
“That patience, those in this group, except Amaechi, don’t have,” he said, adding that former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi appeared to have shown more restraint than other leading figures in the opposition coalition.
He also warned opposition leaders against what he described as excessive optimism about their chances of defeating President Tinubu in 2027.
Baba-Ahmed said he had cautioned members of the emerging opposition coalition that the president remained a formidable political strategist capable of dismantling their plans.
“They didn’t have a Buhari in this coalition,” he said, arguing that the opposition lacks a consensus figure with the kind of national appeal that helped unite various political interests ahead of previous elections.
“I told them that if you don’t have a decent outlier, people will find it difficult to rally around him. Did they listen to me? They took offence.”
His comments come amid ongoing discussions among opposition politicians over possible alliances and strategies ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
