BY TAIBAT UMMI YAKUBU

The National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has claimed that former President Muhammadu Buhari resisted pressure from political allies who wanted President Bola Tinubu to succeed him, alleging that Buhari had concerns about the consequences of a Tinubu presidency for Nigeria.

Baba-Ahmed made the claim at a summit organised by the Northern Elders Forum, where he criticised Tinubu’s administration and warned that the president’s ambition to secure a second term in 2027 should not be allowed to take precedence over the country’s interests.

According to the PRP chairman, Nigerians should have paid closer attention to Tinubu’s presidential ambition when he popularised the Yoruba expression “Emilokan,” meaning “it is my turn,” during the build-up to the 2023 general election.

In a video of the event published on Symfoni’s YouTube channel, Baba-Ahmed argued that the presidency of a country with approximately 250 million people should not be treated as a personal entitlement.

“Even Buhari saw Tinubu as bad news for this country. In fairness to him, he is not around him. Buhari resisted some people who insisted it had to be Tinubu,” he said.

He questioned the message behind Tinubu’s campaign slogan, suggesting that the phrase should have prompted Nigerians to examine the motivations behind his presidential ambition.

“Nigerians ought to have known there was something wrong the day Tinubu said, ‘It’s my turn’. Maybe we missed it,” Baba-Ahmed said.

“We have a presidency of a country of 250 million people. My turn? To do what? To become president?” he added.

The PRP leader also delivered a harsh assessment of Tinubu’s administration, accusing it of worsening the country’s difficulties across several areas of national life. He argued that the government’s record should be a major consideration as political parties begin preparations for the 2027 election.

“Now we are being depressed for having a president for three and a half years. He has dragged the country as low as it is possible to go. And it has to stop him. We cannot go below, beyond where we are,” he said.

Baba-Ahmed further accused the president of placing personal political ambition ahead of the welfare of Nigerians, warning against allowing the pursuit of another term to overshadow the country’s broader needs.

He also criticised Tinubu for allegedly failing to make a direct appeal to Nigerians for a second term, claiming that the president had relied on political associates to promote his re-election bid.

The PRP chairman extended his criticism to governors in the North, faulting them for what he described as their failure to adequately communicate the region’s economic challenges and growing dissatisfaction to the president.

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Despite his condemnation of the administration, Baba-Ahmed expressed optimism that Nigeria would eventually overcome its current difficulties, citing the resilience of its people and the country’s history of surviving major crises.

“We are very resilient people. We have seen crises bigger than this, and we survived it. We survived it, and we will survive this one,” he said.

He added that Nigerians would endure what he described as four years of “abuse, neglect, and plunder,” insisting that the country must survive for future generations.

Turning to the 2027 presidential election, Baba-Ahmed disclosed that opposition politicians were making efforts to establish a coalition capable of challenging Tinubu at the polls.

He described the initiative as an attempt to bring together political forces that might otherwise remain divided, arguing that cooperation would be necessary to mount a united challenge against the incumbent president.

“What we have seen is an incredible willingness for politicians to come together and say, let’s put aside some of our differences and see if we can actually create a momentum strong enough to remove this Tinubu,” he said.

Baba-Ahmed said the proposed alliance would field a presidential candidate and urged Nigerians opposed to Tinubu’s return to office to support whoever eventually emerges as its flag-bearer.

However, the coalition faces the challenge of reconciling the competing ambitions of opposition leaders, agreeing on a common candidate and building a shared political platform ahead of the election.

Tinubu won the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), succeeding Buhari after eight years of APC-led government.

Since taking office, Tinubu’s administration has introduced major economic reforms, including the removal of the petrol subsidy and changes to foreign-exchange management. The government and its supporters have defended the measures as necessary steps towards stabilising public finances and reforming the economy.

However, the reforms have coincided with a significant increase in the cost of living, leaving many households concerned about their purchasing power and ability to meet basic needs.