Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who once worked in the Presidency, has delivered one of the bluntest verdicts yet on the government he served.
Now national chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Baba-Ahmed was previously special adviser on political matters in the office of Vice-President Kashim Shettima, and earlier served as secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). He spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday 20 October 2026.
The charge sheet
- Hardship: he said the administration had made life harder and that Nigerians had yet to benefit from its policies, adding that official economic statistics did not reflect daily reality.
- Insecurity: he said many children cannot go to school at all in territory held by bandits and kidnappers, and that the Abuja–Kaduna highway is still unsafe.
- Infrastructure: he argued that oil revenue should have paid for more roads.
- The campaign: he said President Bola Tinubu should defend his own record rather than leave it to others.
On 2027
Baba-Ahmed predicted that Tinubu would struggle to win the presidential election on 16 January 2027, warned that insecurity could stop people in the North from voting, and raised concerns about money being used to sway voters. He urged INEC to communicate more clearly about how results are announced, while agreeing that only officials authorised by law can declare a winner. He also called for a national census.
The article reporting the interview carried no response from the Presidency.
