Former vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has taken a swipe on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his repeated presidential ambitions, saying Atiku has been contesting for Nigeria’s top office since his National Youth Service Corps days.
Baba-Ahmed made the remark during an interview on Channels Television, where he criticised the dominance of long-standing political figures in Nigeria’s electoral space and called for the emergence of a new generation of leaders.
“When I was doing my NYSC, Baba Atiku was an aspirant, and in 2018, we contested the primaries together. In 2023, we contested again, with me as a vice-presidential candidate elsewhere, when his vice president had left him. And, for God’s sake, in 2027 again.
“There is a need for a new generation of Nigerian leaders, and they do exist. A whole new generation is waiting for a new leader to lead them to a new party.
“There are good Nigerians capable of solving Nigeria’s problems, but they are discouraged by an expensive, difficult and treacherous system filled with godfathers and broken promises.”
Baba-Ahmed said Nigeria is not short of competent citizens, but argued that the current political structure makes it difficult for new and reform-minded politicians to participate meaningfully.
He added that many emerging leaders are willing to transform Nigeria’s political system but are constrained by what he described as deliberate structural barriers designed to maintain the dominance of a narrow political class.
