Hakeem Baba Ahmed has urged President Bola Tinubu to step aside in 2027, calling on the president to make room for a new generation of Nigerian leaders.
Baba Ahmed, who recently resigned as special adviser on political affairs in the office of the vice president, made the appeal in an open letter released on Wednesday.
“Step aside, not for your opponents, but for a new generation of Nigerians who can carry the nation forward with fresh energy and ideas,” he wrote. “Our generation has done its time. It would be a masterstroke if you and your party yielded the field to new voices and new leadership. That way, you could catalyse a peaceful, historic transformation and inspire a new political culture rooted in merit, unity, and progress.”
He called on the president to consider his legacy and reflect on the power he wields. “You hold what your opposition lacks: the power to reduce the harshness of life for the average Nigerian,” Baba Ahmed said. “Use it well. Watch 2027, yes, but don’t become consumed by it.”
While acknowledging the administration inherited an ailing economy and a tired populace, Baba Ahmed criticised what he described as Tinubu’s failure to turn initial goodwill into impactful governance. “The Renewed Hope Agenda is a set of campaign promises, not a coherent governance plan,” he wrote. He added that “more than half” of the president’s cabinet “has no business managing an administration tasked with improving security, livelihoods, or public trust.”
Baba Ahmed also warned against a shift in focus from governance to re election. “Two years is a long time, you can still achieve much. But if you shift attention now to electoral ambitions, you risk losing both governance momentum and public goodwill,” he said. “If you win again without reforming your style and strategy, you may spend four more years preserving failure. If you lose, your legacy could be wiped out in an instant.”
According to him, national dissatisfaction is rising. “The north is drifting from your leadership under the weight of economic hardship, insecurity, and alienation,” he said. “The east remains politically disengaged, while the south south is fragmented. The south west has been lukewarm, and its privileged position may become a burden. The north east is deeply wounded and can no longer be taken for granted.”
Baba Ahmed, who revealed he never met the president during his 18-month tenure in government, described Tinubu’s leadership as “disconnected and exclusive.”
“Your closed-door style of leadership, your apparent indifference to complaints of ethnic bias in appointments, and the perception that you frequently run the country from abroad while attending to personal matters have created the image of an isolated leader heading an insular administration,” he wrote. “Your inner and secondary circles do not reflect the discipline or inspiration necessary to transform Nigeria.”
He also criticised the administration’s communication approach. “You needed a strong engagement strategy, one capable of building national consensus or at least neutralising hostility,” he said. “Instead, you’ve appointed a crowd of spokespersons who often confuse rather than clarify your policies.”
In a recent statement, Baba Ahmed said the north would declare its stance on the 2027 presidency in the next six months. “We know nobody will become president without the north,” he said.