Buhari saw Tinubu as ‘Bad News’ for Nigeria — Baba-Ahmed

— PRP chairman says ex-president resisted pressure to back Tinubu in 2023 Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, national chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), has claimed that former President Muhammadu Buhari was reluctant to transfer power to President Bola Tinubu in 2023 because he considered him “bad news” for Nigeria. Baba-Ahmed spoke at a summit organised by the Northern Elders Forum, in a video published on Symfoni’s YouTube channel on Saturday. He said Nigerians should have questioned Tinubu’s presidential ambition when he declared “Emilokan”, meaning “it is my turn”, during the build-up to the 2023 general election.

“Nigerians ought to have known there was something wrong the day Tinubu said, ‘It’s my turn’. “We have a presidency of a country of 250 million people. To become president.” Baba-Ahmed said Buhari was reluctant to hand over power to Tinubu after considering the implications of his presidency for the country.

“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.

The PRP chairman criticised Tinubu’s administration, alleging that the country had deteriorated under his leadership. “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.

We cannot go below, beyond where we are,” Baba-Ahmed said. He, however, expressed confidence in Nigerians’ ability to overcome the country’s challenges, saying the nation had survived major crises in the past. We have seen crises bigger than this, and we survived it.

We survived it, and we will survive this one,” he said. “We will survive the four years of abuse, neglect, and plunder that Tinubu has caused because Nigeria has to survive for our children and their children.” ‘Every index of failure shows in this administration’ Baba-Ahmed accused Tinubu of prioritising his political ambition over the welfare of Nigerians, alleging that the administration had failed across key indicators. “We will not allow a president to fulfil an ambition that one individual alone can wreck his country, just to prove that he has the power and the money to do so,” he said.