Datti Baba- Ahmed , Labour Party Vice Presidential Candidate during the 2023 general election
As the battle lines for the 2027 general election begin to harden, Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed has drawn a sharp line against political defections, firing pointed shots at the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and distancing himself from the path taken by his former principal, Peter Obi.
Baba-Ahmed, the Labour Party (LP) vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 election, declared he would not abandon the party that gave him a national platform, insisting that loyalty and consistency must matter in Nigerian politics.
Speaking Wednesday at a press conference held at the Labour Party National Headquarters in Abuja, the former Kaduna North lawmaker made it clear that he has no intention of following Obi into the ADC, despite the growing momentum behind the coalition-backed party.
“I won’t follow Obi’s path,” Baba-Ahmed stated firmly, pushing back against speculation that he might defect ahead of 2027.
His comments come against the backdrop of a major political realignment. On December 31, 2025, Peter Obi and several prominent South-East political leaders officially announced their move from the Labour Party to the ADC, a coalition platform positioned to challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the next general election.
Obi, who contested the 2023 presidential election on the LP ticket but lost to President Bola Tinubu of the APC, dumped the party barely two years after the polls, pitching his tent with the ADC as part of a broader opposition strategy.
But Baba-Ahmed is unimpressed.
He dismissed the ADC coalition outright, describing its membership as “disgruntled politicians,” a remark that underscored his skepticism about the motives driving the new alliance.
The 56-year-old politician stressed that his commitment remains with the Labour Party, pledging to make himself available to contribute to what he described as the urgent task of fixing Nigeria ahead of 2027.
While Obi’s defection has energized the ADC and reshaped opposition politics, Baba-Ahmed’s defiant stance signals an emerging internal rift within the broader reform movement that rode on the Labour Party wave in 2023.
As Nigeria inches closer to another election cycle, his blunt rejection of the ADC and refusal to trail Obi may deepen debates over loyalty, ideology, and the future direction of opposition politics in the country.
