Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, running mate to Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election, has called on the coalition-backed African Democratic Congress (ADC) to field a presidential candidate in 2027 whom the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would find difficult to defeat.
Speaking during an interview with Trust TV, Baba-Ahmed advised the coalition to avoid presenting a familiar political figure like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, whom the APC, he said, has already mastered how to defeat.
According to him, Atiku’s previous unsuccessful bids in the last two presidential elections prove the ruling party’s familiarity with his strategy.
“If you bring out Atiku, they know how to work against Atiku,” he said. “You need that candidate they can’t understand, they don’t know where to catch. That is how to win an election.”
Baba-Ahmed warned the ADC coalition not to underestimate the political strength and strategic patience of President Bola Tinubu.
He noted that Tinubu spent 16 years working toward his presidential ambition before achieving it in 2023 — a level of political foresight and endurance he believes is rare within the current opposition bloc.
“Any coalition that is coming together has to realise how powerful this individual called Tinubu is. Somebody who schemed for 16 years to take it one day. He has done what nobody has done,” Baba-Ahmed said.
He further challenged opposition figures to demonstrate the kind of selfless long-term planning Tinubu displayed in 2015, when he set aside his own ambitions to back Muhammadu Buhari’s successful presidential run.
According to Baba-Ahmed, no opposition politician today has shown that level of political sacrifice or commitment to a collective cause.
“With due respect to Atiku, he has contested consistently. This will be the seventh time. But who among us can say, ‘Let this other person go now, and I will wait eight years to take over’? That’s the kind of strategy that won Tinubu the presidency,” he added.
The comments come amid ongoing speculation over who the coalition may present as its flagbearer in the next general election, with opposition leaders under pressure to present a unified and formidable challenge to the APC in 2027.
