By Paul Eso

Baring any last minutes changes, Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, will on Friday, be announced as the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party’s candidate, Mr. Peter Obi

The choice of running mates has become a big issue for presidential candidates and their parties including the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, warranting most of them to resort to what’s now known as ‘placeholders’.

Okupe withdraws
The Director General of the Peter Obi Campaign Organization, Dr. Doyin Okupe, who has been a VP candidate placeholder, has withdrawn from the presidential race. His resignation was to make way for the substantive running mate from the north to balance the geopolitical and religious considerations.

Okupe in a tweet Thursday via his verified Twitter account, said: “This afternoon, I submitted my withdrawal letter from the position of the Vice Presidential candidate of the Labour Party to INEC. A replacement will be announced by the national chairman of the party shortly. I feel greatly blessed to have been part of the foundation of success for the LP”

The LP entered into merger talks with the Sen. Rabiu 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 standard flag bearer if the merger arrangements scaled through.

Obi’s candidacy has received massive acceptance across the country especially among the youths and has metamorphosed into a movement known the OBIdient Movement with the slogan: #TakeBackNaija.

Speaking on his choice of running mate on a television interview on Wednesday, the LP presidential candidate disclosed that he preferred a younger person. Therefore, it was not surprising to many when the name of 46 years old cerebral academic was reported as the potential VP candidate.

Who’s Baba-Ahmed?

Sen. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed is a 46 year old Academic, Businessman and Nigerian politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2007, and was elected Senator for Kaduna North, in Kaduna State, Nigeria in April 2011 running on the Congress for Progressive Change ticket, with a remarkable record of the credit of sponsoring important legislation in a very short time.

Baba-Ahmed has four degrees; a BSc and MSc in Economics from University of Maiduguri, a MBA from University of Wales, Cardiff and in 2006, he successfully completed his PhD studies, earning the title of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Westminster.

READ ALSO: All you need to know about Peter Obi, LP candidate

After his service year at University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Ogun state, he worked as Projects Co-ordinator, Baze Research and Data Services Ltd. and as Officer II in the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, Lagos. He worked as a Banking Officer, First Bank of Nigeria Plc from July 1997 to Dec 1998 and then came back to become the Managing Director of Baze Research and Data Services Ltd in July 1999 – January 2003, before venturing into politics.

In 2011, Sen. Baba-Ahmed established Baze University, an independent University located in Abuja, and Baba-Ahmed University, Kano (Awaiting License). Using his studies abroad as a benchmark, he noted that the Nigerian educational system was “appalling”. This inspired the birth of Baze University, “to contribute towards fixing the system in order for Nigeria to realize its potentials and address various challenges”.

He’s the Pro-chancellor of Baze University Abuja where the Baze University Hospital which is said to be the biggest private hospital in Africa is domiciled.

Sen. Datti is a well accomplished philanthropist. Among many of his corporate social responsibility projects; he built and donated two junior secondary schools with total capacity of 4,000 students. It is worthy of note that the schools have graduated over 6,000 students to date.

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.

Baba-Ahmed was popular for his principled activism. During the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, he was among lawmakers who opposed letting Obasanjo run for a third term.

In May 2006 he said he would not run for reelection unless action was taken to investigate allegations that members had been bribed to support the constitutional changes needed for a third term presidency.

In 2007 he took the Independent National Electoral Commission to court over conduct of past elections. He was known for speaking out against corruption.

Sen. Baba-Ahmed is currently the Pro-Chancellor of Baze University, Managing Director, Baze Research & Data Service Ltd, Chairman, Baze Construction Ltd. His companies employ a total of over 1000 people including expatriates, and highly skilled professional Nigerians from the Diaspora.