Datti Baba-Ahmed Says None Of Them Can Fix It, And The NDC Called Him A Bitter Ex
Abuja · Monday 7 September 2026
Datti Baba-Ahmed, Peter Obi's running mate in 2023, has said that neither Obi nor Atiku Abubakar has the capacity to move Nigeria forward. The Nigerian Democratic Congress, which is now Obi's platform, responded through its director of new media, Theo Abu Agada, who described Baba-Ahmed as a "bitter ex".
That exchange is the whole state of the Nigerian opposition in two sentences.
What was actually said, and what was answered
Baba-Ahmed made a claim about capacity to govern. The reply addressed his motives. Those are not the same category of statement, and the substitution is deliberate: answering a policy criticism with a personal one avoids having to test the criticism.
The arithmetic underneath the insult
Nigeria's opposition heads into 2027 split across platforms, with Atiku on one and Obi on another, both having moved since 2023. The combined 2023 opposition vote was larger than the winning total. Split across two candidacies, it is not.
A divided opposition does not need to be unpopular to lose. It only needs to stay divided.
Why the "bitter ex" framing is a mistake
Because it concedes the point it is trying to deflect. If the strongest available answer to a former running mate is that he is personally aggrieved, the party has not offered voters a reason to think the criticism is wrong.
It also sets the tone for a campaign that will run for months. Parties that begin by insulting their own alumni tend not to find it easy to build coalitions later, and a coalition is the only arithmetic that changes the outcome.
The question that matters
Not whether Baba-Ahmed is bitter. Whether either opposition candidate intends to yield to the other, and if so, when. Every week that passes without an answer is a week the arithmetic stays where it is.
Reporting: Daily Post, Nigerian Bulletin and party statements.
Read next
- A Diaspora Group Has Attacked Atiku's Washington Lobbying
- Threatening Language From APC Figures Is Now A Documented Pattern
- Refiners Want Naira-For-Crude Back, And That Is A Bigger Ask Than It Sounds
Whatever the news does this week, somebody at home still has to eat. The Send Home boxes land as a food shop, a care package or a learning kit. Naira pricing here.
