Hakeem Baba-Ahmed is a former political adviser to President Bola Tinubu and ex-spokesperson of the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF). In this interview monitored on Arise Television, he speaks on the 2027 general election and insecurity in the country, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports
A lot of people are bothered about Nigeria’s political transition towards 2027, and the coalition of opposition has registered their resentment, alleging that the Electoral Act is obnoxious and an attempt to compromise democratic institutions in the country. But there are some who would say that the opposition is not mustering enough nerve to challenge and to hold government accountable.
What do you make of this drive by the opposition? I don’t think my understanding of the situation agrees with your last sentence. I think the opposition has a lot of problems, but certainly it is not its failure to take on the administration. There is lack of sufficient transparency on the part of the government.
There are a number of things going on that are important for Nigerians to know and to understand. And we’re not too sure exactly what it is that has been decided. We would like to see, for instance, the final decision regarding all the amendments to the taxation law we still haven’t seen it. You hear about many different versions of the same law. And now we have some grumblings around amendments to the Electoral Act. So, it’s important that the administration itself acknowledges that it has problems and takes a step to raise its level of transparency and let Nigerians know.
We want to know what exactly all these batteries of amendments represent in one print, so that we know what the journey between now and the elections represent. Regarding whether the opposition itself is just merely blaming the government; I would say that I think up to a point the opposition itself needs to do a lot of work. It’s playing the defensive game instead of putting the government on the defensive.
And there are problems it is sitting on that are likely to bite it. I’m hoping that we can get the leaders to realise that they have very little time to sort out massive problems relating to the identity of the opposition, who is what, who is not in, who is not out, and who has a problem with being part of a team and who doesn’t. These are very serious issues. Nigerians don’t have time to sort out the problems of the opposition, and the opposition needs to rise to the occasion.
The Nasir El-Rufai saga represents a very good opportunity when I think the opposition should demand transparency and more accountability on the part of the government. But except for the comment made by Vice President Atiku Abubakar, I haven’t seen much effort to try and insist that one of the key figures in the opposition is treated strictly in accordance with the law of the country. So, there is a problem with the opposition, but there’s also a problem with the government.
Recently it was reported that the Nigerian government paid a terrorist ransom to rescue students of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Niger State from bandits; up to N14 million per head. The government has vehemently denied such ransom payment. In your view, what does this do to the image of Nigeria and how does it also affect the general insecurity and the fight against terrorism and banditry?
If we’re honest with ourselves, paying ransom to free hostages is not new in Nigeria. Not necessarily the government, but virtually every family whose members have been abducted or kidnapped have paid something to get their people freed. What I cannot say categorically is whether the government actually paid for the release of those school children.
I don’t have the evidence for it, and I’m not in a position to confirm this. But I am curious, like everybody else as to what motivated bandits who have kidnapped hundreds of children to release such large numbers. Was there a deal, and why they did it? But it’s also not fair to speculate on the basis of what one doesn’t know.
What is your thought on how the relationship between Abuja and Washington DC seem to be developing, and ahead of 2027, how significant do you think the Donald Trump factor will be in determining what will happen in our next election?
First of all, I’m one of those Nigerians who are outraged and shocked that Nigeria has virtually handed over our sovereignty to the United States. When I saw the document that listed all these activities and actions that some congressmen like Riley Moore are going to take to President Donald Trump, demanding outrageous violations and assaults on who we are as a country, our sovereignty, our integrity, our unity, our internal affairs, our security, the way we live, I couldn’t believe it. This is something Nigerians should condemn without reservation.
It appears that this administration has handed over Nigeria to the Americans lock, stock and barrel. How can a team that has come to Nigeria many times, operating under the allegation and the assumption that they are investigating the so called genocide against Christians can go back, do a lot of work, and then up the ante and go to say to a president who always leans towards a narrow constituency involving the far right of America and some Nigerians who are apparently very powerful as lobbyists in the US, to denigrate Nigeria, pitch us against each other, and virtually turn Nigeria into a colony. That’s basically what that is. What worries me is what appears to be the indifference of millions and millions of Nigerians who know what Nigeria was and is.
There are non-Muslims who think this is a good thing for Nigeria, and there are Muslims who are outraged that even contemplating issues like removing Sharia, blasphemy laws, relocating Fulani people from where they are virtually amounting to ethnic cleansing. These are things that will worsen inter-community relations in Nigeria. They shouldn’t be tolerated, and we should demand that our president says to the Americans openly that there are limits to what this relationship involves.
But above all, we want to know exactly what these agreements involve. Have we handed over our country to America completely and totally? We are no more an independent country. America will decide from Washington, who lives with whom and who lives where, and which religion should be favoured and which one should not be favoured. This is a very serious issue, and for me, this is capitulation of the worst order, and President Tinubu has a lot of explaining to do.
Recently, we saw attacks on some political actors in Edo State, Peter Obi and the rest. What do you think the security agencies should be doing ahead of the elections to make sure that we don’t see any more of this potential violence ahead of the 2027 elections?
They certainly should do a lot more than they’re doing. The people we’re talking about, who were attacked in Edo are the very top leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). If they can be attacked in the manner they were attacked, then I don’t see how anybody outside the government can campaign between now and 2027.
If campaigning becomes a life and death issue, and thugs and criminals are just let loose on the opposition, then I just don’t see how the election that we’ll have in 2027 will be free and fair.
So, if we have a plan to allow a level playing field for the opposition, if we intend to have opposition meet Nigerians under peaceful environments and say who they are and what they intend to do, then those in charge of our security need to do a lot more work. This is just not good enough and it is really scary. In the next three, four months, when the campaigns really heat up, we’re going to see a lot of violence.
How much of a factor is President Trump going to be in our next elections; will he decide who our next president will be?
We hope not, and he should not be. He would like to be, but he should not be. Nobody outside Nigeria should be a factor in the manner in which Nigerians decide who their leader is. America will like to call the shots in everything in Nigeria but we should not allow it to happen.
