Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi are political office seekers and not true opposition leaders, former Labour Party vice-presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, has said pointedly.
Prompt News Online reports that Atiku and Obi were presidential candidates of the PDP and Labour Party respectively in the 2023 general elections.
Baba-Ahmed, who was speaking on Trust TV’s Daily Politics, questioned the response of opposition politicians to the worsening security situation in parts of the country, particularly following recent bomb blasts in Borno State.
He posited that true opposition leadership requires direct engagement with citizens affected by insecurity rather than commentary from a distance.
“Before he (Tinubu) went to the UK, there were two deadly bomb blasts in Borno. Tell me, in all these opposition leaders, who has led us to go and walk on the streets of Maiduguri?” he asked.
Baba-Ahmed recalled how President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and late former President Muhammadu Buhari visited Maiduguri during the height of the insurgency years ago, arguing that such actions demonstrated solidarity with affected communities.
“Is that not what Tinubu and the late Baba Buhari did in 2013 or 2014? They went and walked on the streets of Maiduguri, shaking hands with people and all that,” he said.
The former vice-presidential candidate argued that many opposition figures have limited their interventions to social media statements rather than taking practical steps to identify with victims of insecurity.
“No, it’s not enough that they are tweeting about it, that’s child’s play. They are not opposition members, they are office seekers,” Baba-Ahmed stated.
While expressing disappointment with the broader opposition movement, he singled out former Rivers State governor and ex-Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, for praise.
“There is an outlier among them. I’ve always told you, if I have my way, Amaechi is an excellent material, but I don’t have my way,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed also revisited his political relationship with Obi, revealing that he had disagreed with some of the former Anambra governor’s political decisions.
“I’ve been in support of Peter LP in any case, but Peter left where I said he should leave. He went somewhere and he left again where I told him it was not suitable for him,” he added.
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