Former Labour Party vice-presidential candidate Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed has revealed that he agreed to run alongside Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election largely out of sympathy for the former Anambra State governor and concern for Nigeria’s political future.
Speaking during an interview with Symfoni, Baba-Ahmed said Obi had approached three prominent politicians before selecting him as his running mate, but none accepted the offer.
According to him, he felt disappointed by the situation and believed Obi deserved support at a critical moment in the country’s political history.
“People don’t understand that between me and Obi, there is a great deal of sympathy. I have sympathy for him. And this sympathy was at the core of our relationship,” Baba-Ahmed said.
He explained that he would have welcomed any of the politicians approached by Obi joining the Labour Party ticket ahead of the 2023 election but claimed they all declined.
“When he approached three other major politicians in 2022, I would have been glad if one of them had gone with Peter Obi in 2022. But they all avoided him. I felt bad for him and I felt bad for Nigeria as a nation,” he stated.
Baba-Ahmed said his eventual decision to accept the vice-presidential slot was voluntary and motivated by what he believed was in the best interest of the country.
“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 added.
Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed contested the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the Labour Party, emerging as one of the major contenders in a race ultimately won by President Bola Tinubu.
Baba-Ahmed’s latest comments provide fresh insight into the circumstances that led to the formation of the Labour Party’s presidential ticket and the relationship between the two politicians during the 2023 campaign.