Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesperson for the African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, has suggested that Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed may be experiencing what he described as a “post-political identity crisis” following his 2023 presidential campaign with Peter Obi.
Okonkwo made the comment during an interview on Arise TV’s Daybreak on Tuesday while responding to recent remarks by Baba-Ahmed about the leading contenders for the 2027 presidential election.
Baba-Ahmed, who served as Obi’s running mate in the 2023 election, had argued that none of the major presidential contenders had the capacity to move Nigeria forward.
Reacting to the position, Okonkwo said Baba-Ahmed’s experience during the 2023 campaign and the subsequent crisis surrounding the Labour Party may have influenced his current assessment of Obi.
“I understand why he made his comment about Peter Obi, because we were in the same trenches together, and I can tell you that he may be suffering from what I call post-political identity crisis,” Okonkwo said.
According to him, participants in the 2023 political movement entered the campaign with strong expectations that it would usher in a different political direction for Nigeria.
He said the movement attracted supporters who were motivated largely by what they could contribute to the political project rather than what they expected to receive from it.
“For the first time in my life, I saw people coming into an association for what they can give, and nobody was talking about what he can take, what he can receive,” he said.
Okonkwo, however, blamed what he described as the “incompetence and incapacity” of Obi to manage the affairs of the Labour Party for the eventual disillusionment among some members of the movement.
He argued that supporters had provided resources for the political project and expected effective leadership in return.
“When everything is provided for you, the people are willing to do something for you. They were willing to provide resources. They were only asking for one thing, and that’s leadership. And you could not provide it,” Okonkwo said.
The ADC spokesperson also referred to an earlier statement attributed to Baba-Ahmed in which he reportedly said he could no longer do anything for Obi after the Labour Party experience.
Okonkwo interpreted the remark as evidence that Baba-Ahmed had lost confidence in his former political principal.
“That was why in his own words, he said after Labour Party, he couldn’t do anything again for Peter Obi. In other words, after what happened in Labour Party, I lost confidence in him. I was there with him,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed and Obi contested the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the Labour Party, with their campaign attracting significant support across the country.
Baba-Ahmed has since expressed a critical view of the leading contenders ahead of the 2027 election, maintaining that several of them had previously been part of the political establishment responsible for Nigeria’s current challenges.
Okonkwo’s latest remarks add another dimension to the disagreement over the legacy of the 2023 Labour Party presidential campaign and the political relationships that emerged from it.
