Datti Baba-Ahmed questions how Rabiu Kwankwaso would convince the North to back Peter Obi on a joint 2027 ticket after their past rivalry
Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, Peter Obi’s running mate in the 2023 presidential election, has asked how Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso could persuade northern voters to back an Obi-Kwankwaso ticket in 2027.
Also read: Atiku Fires Back Over Age Question, Challenges Tinubu
Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed spoke in an interview published on Friday 28 August 2026. He said such support was “very unlikely”, based on what he met while campaigning for Peter Obi three years ago.
“I said it is very unlikely that the North will support Peter Obi. Very unlikely, because I know what I have faced. If you want me to repeat, when I jumped onto the ticket, I had to contend immediately with ID card,” he said.
He recalled taking Peter Obi to Borno, Kano and Zaria and introducing him to influential figures, including in Borno. “I smuggled Peter Obi to Borno, to the Caliphate, to Kano, to Zaria, to market him. So I sorted that problem of ID card, mosque demolition.”
Those lines refer to identity and religious controversies that dogged the 2023 Labour Party campaign in parts of the North. They remain disputed political claims, not settled history.
Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed also asked how Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso would now explain criticisms he once aimed at Peter Obi when the two men were rivals.
He compared his own 2023 role to staff work. “Call me 2 a.m., I will jump up.” Then he asked of any new partnership: “So will age allow, will ego, will seniority, will all those things allow him?”
The remarks landed as opposition names shop for 2027 alliances. Atiku Abubakar has said Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso left the ADC-centred coalition. Talk of an Obi-Kwankwaso ticket is still speculation.
Online reaction split between those who called Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed bitter and those who said politics has no permanent friends. Neither Peter Obi nor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso had issued a matching reply in the report.
Also read: Atiku Fires Back Over Age Question, Challenges Tinubu
A joint ticket can be announced on paper. Convincing voters who heard the opposite story in 2023 is the harder task he is pointing to.
