Former presidential aide and political analyst, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has claimed that both President Bola Tinubu and former President Muhammadu Buhari pursued the presidency more out of personal ambition than a desire to govern or transform the country.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, Baba-Ahmed asserted that Buhari, in particular, had no clear intention of running Nigeria effectively, saying his quest for power was largely self-serving.
“About six months into Buhari’s presidency I resigned my membership of the party because I could see then that I didn’t think that Buhari became president to run the country,” he said, adding, “I think he just wanted to become a president, just six months into that and I left.”
Baba-Ahmed, a member of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and former chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in his state, said he had played a pivotal role in the transition from the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) into the APC coalition with Tinubu’s political group.
While distancing himself from the emerging African Democratic Congress (ADC) coalition, he emphasised that he remains with the PRP and had no intention of jumping ship.
“I haven’t. I have a party. I’m a member of the PRP,” he clarified.
Drawing a parallel between Tinubu and Buhari, he said both leaders were motivated by their prolonged struggles for power rather than a genuine desire to lead for the public good.
“I think there are some similarities between Tinubu and Buhari, they both wanted to become president for personal reasons more than anything else,” Baba-Ahmed said. “I think that they have laboured in the political process for so long that it became about them and that is the wrong reason to seek political power.”
He concluded with a pointed reminder about the purpose of leadership.
“You want power so that you can govern people and improve things, it must never be about you.”
