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Baba-Ahmed, President Tinubu
Datti Baba-Ahmed, Labour Party’s vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 election, has called on President Bola Tinubu to refrain from seeking a second term, saying the political tide is turning against him.
Speaking on Friday during a segment of Prime Time on Arise Television, Baba-Ahmed suggested that a wise political move for Tinubu would be to step aside before the next electoral cycle.
“I expect Tinubu to throw in the towel if he is that smart politician,” Baba-Ahmed remarked. “I’m not praising him at all. It’s not good to be what he is that I don’t want to say.”
The former senator accused Tinubu of manipulating past presidential elections for political gain, alleging that the current president has been involved in engineering outcomes since 2007.
“He skipped 2007 and jokingly made Atiku (presidential) candidate, made Buhari in 2015, Buhari won, and then skipped 2019 and they stole 2023,” Baba-Ahmed claimed. “If he is that smart, everything is there for him that he’s going to lose 2027.”
Baba-Ahmed said two political figures are poised to challenge Tinubu effectively in the next election without naming them. “There are two possible candidates that I cannot mention, and they are the nemesis of Tinubu,” he said. “Tinubu’s time has come.”
He also aimed at the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), calling it a “lie,” and criticised former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure for what he described as a failure to deliver on security, development, and anti-corruption promises.
“Buhari did not fight corruption. Neither will Tinubu ever do this. So going forward, I see APC losing this election,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed expressed hope in a political awakening among Nigerians, predicting a shift toward real democratic engagement.
“I see Nigerians somehow uniting. Listening to what someone like me is saying that, look, if you cannot practise this democracy, it’s not for you,” he stated. “And then Nigerians will decide to come out and practise democracy for the first time.”
He added, “And then bad leadership will begin to have no hiding place in Nigeria. And then gradually, we’ll begin to heal our land, we’ll begin to recover, we’ll begin to unite and take each other as fellow Nigerians, brothers and sisters. Their time is up.” (BusinesDay, excluding headline)
