•Datti Baba-Ahmed
Vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has weighed in on the formation of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) coalition.
It was earlier reported that the coalition, comprising key political figures including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Presidential Candidate of the LP in 2023, Peter Obi; a former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and other opposition leaders, formally unveiled the ADC as its new platform on Wednesday.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Prime Time yesterday, Baba-Ahmed, said the ADC coalition is similar to the political strategy deployed by President Bola Tinubu in the build-up to the 2015 presidential election.
While comparing the ADC coalition to the alliance of political parties that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC), he added that that unlike the current coalition, the APC alliance perceived former President Muhammadu Buhari as the “anointed” presidential candidate long before the primary election.
“There are structural misgivings in the coalition as it is today. Buhari was the distant anointed from ab initio (referring to APC in 2015). The convener (Tinubu) supported him. He understands that when Buhari leaves, he will become president.
“This opposition does not have a distant anointed (candidate). There will be a very close gap and tight struggle for it (presidential candidate). Possibly, not so clean primary and struggle for it. The question is what will be the aftermath,” he said.
