Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed, the 2023 vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party has dismissed the coalition-backed African Democratic Congress ADC as a grand deception, which could be an indirect warning to his principal, Peter Obi not to have anything to do with its members.
Speaking during a late Friday interview on Channels TV in Abuja, Baba-Ahmed said, many of those who ruined Nigeria under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration are now seeking sanctuary in the ADC, in a bid to grab power in 2027.
“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 clearly stated 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 said
According to him, Nigeria’s fundamental problems are rooted in flawed leadership recruitment processes that have consistently thrown up corrupt and self-serving politicians.
He said 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 said.
The former Senator also criticised the Buhari years, reminding everyone that the late former president himself served in the corruption-soaked General Sani Abacha regime.
Baba-Ahmed described Buhari’s government as one of the most corrupt in Nigeria’s history.
On Buhari serving as Chairman of the now-defunct Petroleum Trust Fund PTF, he stressed that Nigerians were disappointed in the former president.
“Nigerians were absolutely disappointed. He (Buhari) was a gentleman 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 archenemy of Abacha became friends with this one, got 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”.
He added 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,” Baba-Ahmed said.
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