…Says ADC Coalition Deceiving Nigerians
The 2023 vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Datti Baba-Ahmed, says Nigeria does not need an election-rigger to succeed Mahmood Yakubu, whose 10-year tenure expires as the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on November 9, 2025.
Baba-Ahmed stated this on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Friday.
Baba-Ahmed blamed Yakubu for some of the irregularities that marred the 2023 presidential election won by ex-Lagos governor Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said, “All I want is a credible person, not somebody who will clearly rig what the constitution provides: 25% in at least two-thirds of the states of the federation and the FCT, and go ahead to breach the constitution and put Nigeria into what Nigeria is today. Just one individual. Throughout human history, individuals make or break societies.”
Tinubu trounced LP’s Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his two top contenders. Atiku and Obi challenged the election results up to the Supreme Court, but the apex court upheld the victory of Tinubu as declared by the electoral umpire, INEC.
Yakubu, a 75-year-old Professor of Political Science and former Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), emerged as INEC chairman in November 2015 following his appointment by then President Muhammadu Buhari.
Yakubu succeeded Attahiru Jega, who supervised the 2015 general elections. In 2020, Buhari reappointed Yakubu as the electoral commission boss for a second term of five years.
The onus to appoint Yakubu’s successors falls on Tinubu, but there have been talks about Yakubu’s replacement and the zone of the country his successor would come from, especially because INEC chairmen in the last 15 years have come from the northern region of the country.
Baba-Ahmed, who was Obi’s running mate in the 2023 presidential election, said electoral recruitment remained the bane of Nigeria’s democracy.
He said, “Our leadership recruitment is the bane of our problems.
“Electoral fraud is the single most important fact to be addressed in our lives as a nation, even beyond insecurity.
“Insecurity is derived from electoral fraud. The Nigerian election gave birth to the kind of insecurity we have today.
“Corruption is aggravated by electoral fraud. The destruction of our youths, of the system, is aggravated by electoral fraud.”
Meanwhile, Datti Baba-Ahmed, says the opposition coalition floated on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is deceiving Nigerians that it can rescue the country from the cesspool of underdevelopment.
“They are deceiving us,” Baba-Ahmed said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Friday.
Baba-Ahmed was the running mate to Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election, won by ex-Lagos governor Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The former LP vice-presidential candidate expressed willingness to be Obi’s running mate in the 2027 presidential election.
Already, Obi, who has expressed his interest in running for president in the 2027 election, has identified with members of the ADC coalition like David Mark, Atiku Abubakar, Nasir el-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi and Rauf Aregbesola.
However, Baba-Ahmed said he desired that the former Anambra governor would remain in the Labour Party and be the party’s flag bearer in the next poll.
He said, “I’m in the Labour Party. I’m a Peter Obi man. I still want Peter Obi to come back to the Labour Party and contest the 2027 election.”
Asked whether he would be running mate to a presidential candidate in 2027, Baba-Ahmed said, “If Nigeria is still around and there is an electoral system to follow. My love for Nigeria is undying, and I would appropriately associate the group and individuals that are like-minded to restore Nigeria.”
Baba-Ahmed said there are two individuals he would deputise. “The first one has not said anything. The second one is Peter Obi. I’m always with Peter Obi until he decides not to,” he said.