Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed, the 2023 vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party and running mate to Peter Obi, has dismissed the coalition-backed African Democratic Congress ADC as a grand deception, alleging that many of those who ruined Nigeria under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration are now seeking refuge in the party ahead of the 2027 elections.
Speaking during a late Friday interview on Channels TV monitored in Abuja, Baba-Ahmed said Nigeria’s fundamental problems are rooted in flawed leadership recruitment processes that have consistently produced corrupt and self-serving politicians.
According to him, electoral fraud has been the breeding ground for insecurity, corruption and the collapse of national institutions.
“Insecurity is derived from electoral fraud. Corruption is aggravated by the kind of elections we conduct. The destruction of our youth and our judiciary is guaranteed by the fraudulent electoral system we run,” he declared.
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The former Senator also criticized the Buhari years. When reminded that some of those who served in the Buhari administration are now in the ADC masquerading as Nigeria’s potential messiahs, he said the late former president himself served in the corruption-soaked General Sani Abacha regime.
According to him, Nigeria is still today recovering money traced to the Abacha administration.
Baba-Ahmed said Nigerians were grossly disappointed after investing enormous expectations in the former president. He described Buhari’s government as one of the most corrupt in Nigeria’s history.
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Speaking about the Abacha regime in which Buhari served as Chairman of the now-defunct Petroleum Trust Fund PTF, Baba-Ahmed said Nigerians were disappointed in the former president.
“Nigerians were absolutely disappointed. He (Buhari) was a gentlemen who had no trade to his name. So the first thing to do after coming out of detention and everything was politics. During the Abacha time, the arch enemy of Abacha became friends with this one, gets an appointment and when he got that appointment, it was a different story from the leadership of 1984/’85. There was no longer truth. There was no longer justice. It was corruption and corruption and corruption.
“Everybody knows how corrupt that (Abacha) government was. Up till now, money is still being claimed by the federal government as stolen during that period. Those who came to power in 2015 were like wolves. Corruption started afresh, and the whole system was about party and campaign contributions”.
Baba-Ahmed alleged that the political “ecosystem” around Buhari had always been motivated by self-interest rather than service.
“From 2003 to 2015, it was all about campaign contributions. Without party money, the ecosystem around him would starve. The ecosystem was about party contributions. It happened again in 2007, 2011 and then 2015. So when they got power, they were like wolves ” he said.
On the defection of some former Buhari allies to the ADC, Baba-Ahmed was unequivocal: “They are deceiving us. The ADC is a deception. Those who ruined Nigeria between 2015 and 2023 cannot now come under a new platform and claim they want to fix the country.”
He insisted that he remains firmly in the Labour Party and loyal to Peter Obi. “I am in Labour Party, for God’s sake. I am a Peter Obi man, and I want him to contest again in 2027,” he stressed.