Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed has said he accepted Peter Obi’s vice-presidential ticket for the 2023 election out of sympathy, not ideology, after three senior Nigerian politicians turned Obi down.
Baba-Ahmed made the disclosure during an interview with media outlet Symfoni, in a video that circulated on Wednesday. He said Obi had approached at least three prominent political figures in 2021 and 2022 to serve as his running mate on the Labour Party platform. All three declined.
“When he approached three other major politicians in 2021, they avoided him,” Baba-Ahmed said. “I would have been glad if, in 2022, one of them went with Peter Obi. But they all avoided him. I felt bad for him. I felt bad for Nigeria as a nation.”
He described his decision to accept the offer as voluntary, framing it in terms of national service rather than political calculation. “I took it upon myself because, naturally, I have always been a volunteer. For the sake of Nigeria, I extended that sympathy to him,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed declined to name the three politicians who allegedly turned Obi down, or to give reasons for their refusals.
The former senator used the same interview to draw a firm line between himself and his former running mate ahead of the 2027 election cycle. He said many assumed he would follow Obi into his new political platforms, first the African Democratic Congress, then the Nigeria Democratic Congress. He said they assumed wrong.
“They thought I would follow Peter Obi. But I had given enough sympathy there. With due respect, he does not own my politics. He does not own me. I am independent,” Baba-Ahmed said.
Baba-Ahmed defected from the Labour Party to the Peoples Redemption Party in May 2026. He cited internal disagreements, deviation from founding ideals, and external interference in the Labour Party as factors in his decision.
He also used the interview to criticise Obi’s own exit from the Labour Party, which Obi attributed to an unresolvable internal crisis. Baba-Ahmed rejected that reasoning. He argued that internal party disputes exist across every political organisation and should be resolved from within, not used as grounds for defection.
“Someone who got a Labour Party ticket so easily should have stayed to fix the problems of the Labour Party, however difficult they were,” he said. He added: “Wherever there is a quarrel, he will walk away. So, there is a quarrel in Nigeria, you will walk away? These are things that don’t add up.”
Baba-Ahmed also questioned the viability of Obi’s current alliance with former Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso inside the NDC, particularly its ability to attract Northern votes. “It is very unlikely that the North will rally around Obi and Kwankwaso. This is my personal opinion,” he said, adding that he still maintains a cordial relationship with both men.
The 2023 Labour Party presidential campaign, anchored by Obi and Baba-Ahmed, became one of the most closely watched political movements in Nigeria’s recent history. Obi received approximately 25 percent of the presidential vote, finishing third behind President Bola Tinubu of the APC and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
Obi has since left the Labour Party, moved briefly through the ADC, and is now the presidential candidate of the NDC for the January 16, 2027 general election. Baba-Ahmed, now under the PRP banner, has said he is open to supporting any credible candidate capable of unseating the current administration, but has not committed to Obi.
