LABOUR Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi has unveiled Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed as his running mate.
Obi announced Baba-Ahmed as his running mate at the LP national headquarters in Abuja on Friday.
Obi said Baba-Ahmed was eminently qualified to bring his private sector and academic achievements to bear in the drive to rescue Nigeria from the primitive politics of ethnicity.
Obi added that the party will anchor its manifesto in coming days on the 17 goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Speaking when he was formally unveiled in Abuja on Friday, Baba-Ahmed said he accepted to be Obi’s running mate because he believes in his capacity to make Nigeria live up to its billing.
He added he also trusts that Obi would not mismanage the nation’s wealth, adding that the Labour Party’s outing as Anambra governor lends credence to that.
The Director General of the Peter Obi Campaign Organization, Dr. Doyin Okupe, who has been a Vice Presidential candidate placeholder, had stepped down on Thursday.
His resignation was to pave way for the substantive running mate from the northern extraction to balance the geopolitical and religious considerations.
The LP entered into merger talks with the Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s New Nigeria Peoples Party, (NNPP). However, the talks collapsed due to the inability of the parties to agree on who would be the eventual flag bearer if the merger arrangements had scaled through.
Obi’s candidacy has received massive acceptance across the country especially among the youths and has metamorphosed into a campaign known as #Obidient Movement with the slogan: #TakeBackNaija.
The LP presidential running mate, Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed is a 46 year old academic, businessman and politician.
He was a member of the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2007, and was elected Senator for Kaduna North, in Kaduna State, in April 2011 running on the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) ticket, with a remarkable record for sponsoring important bills and motions in short time.
The Kaduna-born politician is a graduate of Economics from the University of Maiduguri.
In 2011, Senator Baba-Ahmed established Baze University, an independent university located in Abuja, and Baba-Ahmed University, Kano (Awaiting License).
In 2015, Baba-Ahmed was appointed as Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Hope Alive Foundation, which campaigns for post-service economic survival of corps members who suffered permanent disability during service.
