Ex-running mate attacks Peter Obi for defections, speaks on his rumoured joint ticket with Kwankwaso

Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, had moved to the ADC after leaving the Labour Party under which he unsuccessfully contested in the 2023 presidential election.

Yusuf Baba-Ahmed, the 2023 vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), has criticised Peter Obi for leaving the LP rather than stay back to solve the crises in the party.

Mr Baba-Ahmed spoke to reporters on Monday shortly after his official unveiling at the national headquarters of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) in Abuja.

A video clip circulating on Facebook showed the former vice-presidential candidate making the remarks after defecting to the PRP.

Exit from LP, ADC

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Mr Obi, the 2023 LP presidential candidate, resigned his membership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Sunday alongside a former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, before the duo formally joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).

Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, had moved to the ADC after leaving the LP under which he unsuccessfully contested in the 2023 presidential election.

While the former Anambra governor blamed an intense leadership crisis for his exit from the LP, he cited internal divisions, legal disputes, external influence, and an increasingly hostile political environment in the ADC for moving to the NDC.

Departure improper

But speaking after his defection to the PRP, Mr Baba-Ahmed argued that Mr Obi’s departure from the LP was improper because he ought to have stayed back to resolve the problem.

“Someone who got the Labour Party (2023 presidential) ticket so easily, should have stayed to fix the problems of the Labour Party, however difficult they were,” he said of Mr Obi.

Continuing, he said: “I stood and I earned the wrath of many because I said ‘come and reconcile’ in the Labour Party.

“Only for me to hear, to read it, and to even view it in the news. Here’s my former leader, my boss who I believe in, saying wherever there is a quarrel, he will walk away.

“So, if there is a quarrel in Nigeria, you will walk away? These are things that don’t add up.”

Obi-Kwankwaso joint presidential ticket

The speculations that Messrs Obi and Kwankwaso had formed an alliance to secure a joint presidential ticket gained momentum after they defected from the ADC to the NDC on Sunday.

Mr Obi, 64, is plotting to be the presidential candidate, while Mr Kwankwaso, 69, will serve as his running mate.

But speaking on Monday, Mr Baba-Ahmed argued that it is unlikely that northern voters would support a political alliance between Messrs Obi and Kwankwaso in the forthcoming 2027 presidential election.

“As much as possible, I try to avoid names of anybody at this stage or the politics of everyone. But it is very unlikely that the north will rally around Obi and Kwankwaso,” he said.

The former vice-presidential candidate, however, claimed that he originally suggested the alliance to Mr Obi.

“So they are going together now with Kwankwaso, it’s my idea. Will it work? I think it’s a big question. We’ll wait and see,” he stated.

He also raised concerns about the viability of the joint ticket between Messrs Obi and Kwankwaso, citing age gap and political profile.

“You have a vice-president(ial candidate) that is older than you, first of all in age, in education, in political profile, in so many other things,” he said.

“This is somebody with a burning ambition and temperament, who is going to be the president, actually?

“If you are presenting a ticket, throughout history, there’s a certain configuration that it goes,” Mr Baba-Ahmed added.