Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed has been chosen by the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi as his running mate.
Labour Party national chairman, Julius Abure, said the unveiling Baba-Ahmed who is a former senator and founder of Baze University will be done in Abuja on Friday.
Obi settled for Baba-Ahmed, a politician turned academic after Dr Doyin Okupe, who had been the placeholder for the position resigned from the position.
Baba-Ahmed, who is in his 40s is the Proprietor of Baze University, Abuja and Baba-Ahmed University Kano.
Baba-Ahmed, who hails from Zaria, Kaduna State is one of the 33 children of his father, an Arab cattle trader, with roots in Mauritania.
He was born in 1975 and attended the University of Maiduguri, where he studied economics, up to the Masters level.
He did his NYSC at the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta.
Following his completion of national service, 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 also worked as a Banking Officer, First Bank of Nigeria Plc from July 1997 to Dec 1998 and then returned to become the Managing Director of Baze Research and Data Services Ltd in July 1999 – January 2003, before venturing into politics.
He was elected as a House of Representatives member for Zaria in 2003. During his tenure in 2006, he bagged an MBA from the University of Wales, Cardiff, and the same year he completed his Ph.D. studies, earning the title of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Westminster.
After leaving office in 2007, Baba-Ahmed returned to his Baze business group and founded Baze University Abuja in 2011. He is now the pro-chancellor.
The same year, he moved back to politics and won the Kaduna North senate seat, under the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
However, the electoral tribunal overturned his victory and he left office in 2012.
According to his biography published on the website of Baze University, Baba-Ahmed was inspired to set up the school to rectify the appalling educational system in Nigeria.
He hoped Baze University will contribute towards fixing the system in order for Nigeria to realize its potentials and address various challenges.
Sen. Datti Baba-Ahmed 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, Sen. Yusuf Baba-Ahmed was appointed as Chairman, the 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.
Sen. Baba-Ahmed is currently the Managing Director, Baze Research & Data Service Ltd, Chairman, Baze Construction Ltd.
A total of over 1000 people are employed by his companies including expatriates, and highly skilled professional Nigerians from the Diaspora.
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