Dati Baba-Ahmed has emerged as running mate to Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections.
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.
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.
Obi’s candidacy has received massive support across the country especially among the youths and has metamorphosed into a campaign known as #Obidient Movement with the slogan: #TakeBackNaija.
Below are some things you probably don’t know about the Labour Party Vice Presidential candidate in the 2023 general election:
1. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed was born to the Baba-Ahmed family in Zaria, Kaduna State, in 1975/1976
2. He is among the thirty-three children of his father, Baba Ahmed, who was an Arab cattle-trader from modern day Mauritania, who later became a notable professor and expert on Islamic jurisprudence.
3. Baba-Ahmed has a BSc and MSc in Economics from the University of Maiduguri in Borno State.
4. He worked in the security Printing and Minting, Lagos before entering into politics.
5. In 2015, Baba-Ahmed was appointed as Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Hope Alive Foundation,
6. Baba-Ahmed was elected as House of Representatives member for Zaria Federal Constituency on the platform of All Nigeria People’s Party in 2003.
7. While in the position, he became known for speaking out against corruption and the Third Term Agenda of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
8. In 2006, while a Federal representative, he earned the title of Doctor of Philosophy when he completed his PhD studies at the University of Westminster.
9. Baba-Ahmed was founder and Pro-Chancellor of Baze University, an independent university located in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. which opened in April 2011.
10. In the April 2011 elections, Baba-Ahmed polled 366,398 votes in the contest for Senator and won the senator seat for Kaduna North from 2011 to 2012.
11. Baba-Ahmed was officially unveiled as the running mate of Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in the 2023 general election on Friday, July 8, 2022.
