A public affairs analyst, Olumide Obayemi, has condemned President Ahmed Tinubu’s former aide, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, for his continued intervention in Nigeria’s opposition politics.
This comes after Baba-Ahmed, who was the former spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum, suggested that Nigeria’s former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, should step aside in the contest for the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate for the 2027 election.
Reacting, Obayemi, who is the convener of the Omoluabi Coalition, in a statement on Friday described Baba-Ahmed’s comment on Atiku as duplicitous, partisan, and calculated to weaken the opposition ahead of 2027.
According to Obayemi, since exiting the administration of Bola Tinubu, Baba-Ahmed has conspicuously avoided any serious critique of a government that has presided over unprecedented economic hardship, social dislocation, and national despair.
He noted that Baba-Ahmed has instead channeled his energy disproportionately against the opposition, particularly the African Democratic Congress, ADC, raising legitimate questions about where his true loyalties lie.
“It is both ironic and revealing that a man who claims non-partisanship has found nothing fundamentally wrong with an administration that has wrecked livelihoods but finds endless fault with an opposition seeking to rescue the country.
“No individual, certainly not Hakeem Baba-Ahmed has the moral or democratic authority to criminalize political demands simply because he disagrees with them, the Coalition said.
“Supporters of Peter Obi are entitled to their views, just as supporters of Atiku Abubakar or any other aspirant are. Democracy does not require silence; it requires engagement.”
