A former political adviser to President Bola Tinubu and a erstwhile spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed on Monday shredded the ambition of the Vice-President Atiku Abubakar-led political coalition to replace the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and unseat Tinubu in 2027.
Baba-Ahmed regretted that an opportunity to create a strong opposition to the ruling party “is being messed up by people who insist that they have to be the face of that opposition”.
Speaking on the Arise TV Morning Show, the frontline member of the NEF took the coalition now seeking registration as a political party to the cleaners, describing the faces behind it as “the wrong people” to design an opposition to the APC.
Driving the coalition alongside Abubakar are faces like the former governors of Kaduna, Rivers, Kano and Anambra States, Nasir El’Rufai, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Ibrahim Shekarau and Peter Obi respectively, former Senate President David Mark. Baba-Ahmed however insisted that “None of these people should lead or be seen in a position where they are determining who should be in the coalition”.
Nesmata.com.ng reports that the coalition has applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for registration under the name All Democratic Alliance, (ADA).
Baba-Ahmed, who expressed serious doubt about the likelihood of INEC registering ADA, stating that it would be “a miracle”, however opined that “I think the problem basically is that the wrong people are involved in designing an opposition to the APC and they shouldn’t be the people who should be doing this.
“There are five, six, seven people who are faces of a new coalition they attempt to cobble together, something that can represent for Nigeria the hope that President Tinubu’s APC can be effectively challenged, are the wrong people involved in this”.
The former presidential aide who recently resigned his appointment as political adviser in the office of Vice-President Kashim Shettima, said while “The option about registering a new party appears to be on the face of it the most attractive because it says okay, let’s all go in there on our own so you can get 50,000, 100,000 people go in registering to join the party”, he expressed worry that “As soon as they get there, they coalesce around the same old groups and persons that are there”.
He reasoned that the coalition opted for a new party “just simply to create a level playing field for everybody to feel comfortable”, avoiding going into another party to comply with certain requirements.
“We are not going to somebody’s party where we would be treated more like tenants than shareholders. We’re not going to join PDP because PDP has been wrecked by ineptitude and indifference and incompetence and Wike has come in there and has polluted the PDP room, and we don’t trust each other. This one goes in this direction; this one goes this way. And so, they have massive, massive problems”, Baba-Ahmed stated.
He said with the challenges they face, “they don’t have the time to fix all these gaps they have, and they are not willing to think outside the box and create real genuine alternative. What they are doing is simply handing over 2027 to President Tinubu”.
Distancing himself from the coalition, the radical politician said “I am just an observer who is watching with a lot of worry that an opportunity to create a strong opposition to the ruling party is being messed up by people who insist that they have to be the face of that opposition. There are divisions between them, among them; I talk to some of them, I have some idea about what they are doing wrong. But the most important thing that they are doing wrong is putting themselves forward.
“It’s a coalition of a few politicians who hope that they can arrive at some understanding and then open the door and say fellow Nigerians, this one will be this, this one will be that, and you can now come in. It’s the wrong way about it. None of these people should lead or be seen in a position where they are determining who should be in the coalition”.
Offering his advice, he said, “They can work behind the scene; what they need is a generational shift and a political shift away from who they are, what they’ve done, what they want to do. Different set of Nigerians who can give Nigerians hope. People who have become vice-presidents, contested three times; people who have become governors, ministers; these are not people who are saying give us trust. Trust us again to solve the problem that the APC is creating.
“This is the wrong thing and it’s very difficult to convince these particular politicians that Nigerians can see through you. They don’t have faith that you actually represent a different future from this government. You just want to replace President Tinubu. And if you replace President Tinubu, why aren’t you putting forward your ideas yet so that Nigerians can see?
“If you give us power, this is what we would do different…. Who are the younger Nigerians who should be in this party? Where is the youth, where is the energy, where is the concern that violence is destroying this country? Level of poverty is destroying this country. They are missing the point.
“They think politics is about them; it’s not. It’s about this country; it’s about the people of this country and there are millions and millions of Nigerians who desperately want to see a change. They don’t mind defeating the APC if they see credible Nigerians leading an opposition but the people who are leading in an attempt to create an alternative to APC, I’m not sure they’re any better than the APC itself. And that is what is the big disappointment”.