Sunday Dare, the Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication to President Bola Tinubu, has launched a scathing response to recent comments made by the Labour Party’s 2023 vice-presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.
PUNCH Online reports that on Friday, while speaking as a guest on Arise Television, Baba-Ahmed called on Tinubu to give up contesting in the 2027 presidential election, advising that his time was up as Nigerians would demand for true democracy in 2027.
However, Dare, in a statement posted via his official X handle on Saturday, dismissed Baba-Ahmed’s views as incoherent and baseless, describing his arguments as “illogical” and his political projections as misguided.
“Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed’s ‘illogical logic’ was all over the place in his recent interview with a television channel. He peddled arguments that were flawed, devoid of reason and empty. He must have as well dropped from space, going by what he spewed out during the interview,” Dare wrote.
He went on to compare Baba-Ahmed’s political commentary to untrustworthy prophecies and questioned both his competence and credibility.
“Listening to Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed spurn his postulations about the political future of Nigeria and that of the incumbent President is like listening to the new year predictions of charlatan ‘prophets’ which never come through. Yusuf Baba Ahmed and his co-traveller Peter Obi are indeed a ‘double whammy’ in the Nigerian political space,” he said.
Taking a swipe at the former vice-presidential candidate’s logic, Dare added, “If listening to a Peter Obi interview was a punishment, listening to Baba-Ahmed, his defunct running mate, is a torment. His political logic is not fit for even a first-year political science class, and even then, they will query his postulations. He chose to base his political calculations on President Bola Tinubu not winning a second term given his antecedents and because Nigerians will decide at the polls among other things.”
According to Dare, Baba-Ahmed failed to consider the substance of Tinubu’s governance and reforms, instead engaging in theoretical musings without a grasp of political realities.
“He conveniently avoided the substance of performance and capacity. Unfortunately, he chose to walk into a lane he was unfamiliar with and chose to confront a politician he is no match for. If theories could fly, Yusuf Baba Ahmed and all the other Presidential Wannabes (PW) could have become President since,” he said.
“Politics is not for theorists or the faint-hearted nor the parochial. Politics is for those with a solid track record of performance, the courageous, far-sighted and gifted. Qualities he clearly lacks,” Dare continued.
He further accused Baba-Ahmed of dishonesty, stating, “Another thing Baba Ahmed lacks is the capacity for honesty, because that is the only way to describe his claim that President Tinubu is not fulfilling his campaign promises.”
Backing Tinubu’s economic reforms, Dare cited global validation, saying, “The positive impacts of the tough choices the President Tinubu has made in the interest of the country are already being felt, and the economic indices are there to prove this. Even the IMF recently acknowledged – ‘Tinubu’s Reforms have put the economy in a better position to navigate this external environment.’ Schimmelpfennig.”
Dare concluded with a bold projection for the 2027 general elections, stating, “In 2027, Baba Ahmed and the other PWs will need all the marines available to defeat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who in about two years has demonstrated his capacity to govern and to re-engineer Nigeria in a way hitherto unknown.
“Tinubu will win comfortably in 2027, no matter the volume of armchair theories and political conspiracies. His performance will clear the path.
“So, instead of running the circuit of television networks to peddle his poorly thought-out conjectures, Baba Ahmed should seriously consider how to rehabilitate his failed political career, an intervention he urgently needs. And if Datti Baba-Ahmed is smart he will simply keep quiet and leave politics for those equipped for that complicated art.”
