A former Special Adviser on Political Matters to President Bola Tinubu, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has urged former Vice President and 2023 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to step aside from contesting in the 2027 general election.
Speaking on Politics Today, a programme aired on Channels Television on Thursday, Baba-Ahmed recommended that Atiku adopt a mentor-like role and instead support a more youthful candidate in the next election cycle.
According to Baba-Ahmed, fielding a younger and more dynamic figure could be the strategic edge needed to defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“If I have the chance to sit with Atiku, I would say to him – Sir, you have done your bit, you have held up the democratic process, you represented it well, your name has been written in gold, it’s time to yield the ground to a younger person; don’t run in 2027, play a fatherly role.
“Find a good and young person. If he were to field a younger person that is more capable with less skeletons in their cupboard, somebody with less liabilities, in age, health, and everything; they will take APC to the cleaners,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed also criticised the APC for being infiltrated by opportunists, stating that the party was accumulating the wrong kind of members.
He claimed that many of the political defections into the APC were driven by self-interest, particularly as some individuals sought to escape scrutiny by anti-graft agencies.
“APC is growing with the wrong people, all these defections is aimed at one thing, they are looking for positions or running away from EFCC.
“The people running into the APC from all over the place are actually a liability, it’s simple a refugee camp that will burst,” he added.
