Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, former Special Adviser to the President
A former Special Adviser on Political Matters to President Bola Tinubu, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, says he does not regret working with the President but would not accept the opportunity to return if offered again.
Baba-Ahmed, who was appointed in 2023 to serve under the office of Vice President Kashim Shettima as a Special Adviser on political matters, resigned from his position in April.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, Baba-Ahmed said he stepped down because the Tinubu administration lacked the zeal to fix Nigeria.
Baba-Ahmed said he has no regrets about working with Tinubu. However, when asked if he would take the opportunity again, he replied, “The way the Tinubu government is going—no.”
He added, “Regretting going in, I don’t, I got out because there was no space, I didn’t see that fire, that commitment, zeal to fix the country that has been wrecked. I saw instead a country that is just getting worse.”
The former presidential adviser said he could not continue working with a government that, in his view, no longer holds the mandate of the people to bring about change—particularly in addressing poverty and insecurity in the North, which he claimed have worsened under Tinubu.
He said that although the President requested a personal meeting, he declined because he would have told him things he might not want to hear—including advising him not to run for a second term in 2027.
He said Tinubu should consider supporting a younger, more energetic candidate from within his party to run for the presidency in 2027, rather than seeking re-election himself.
‘I didn’t do any job’
Baba-Ahmed expressed regret that, although he had much to offer in terms of political advice, as was the basis of his appointment, he was not able to contribute meaningfully in that capacity.
“No, I didn’t do any job. I was supposed to be adviser on political matters to the President in the office of the Vice President, but I didn’t do any advising,” he said.
On the position of the Northern part of the country on Tinubu, Baba-Ahmed said that the North simply wants the President to fix Northern problems.
He listed insecurity, poverty level, joblessness, drugs, among the problems that people from the North want to see Tinubu fix. (Channels TV)
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