The National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, on Wednesday described President Bola Tinubu as a failure, arguing that worsening insecurity and financial hardship have left the administration with little to point out Nigerians forward of the 2027 common election.
Baba-Ahmed, who spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today, additionally questioned Tinubu’s reported plan to restrict his marketing campaign appearances, insisting that the president ought to personally meet Nigerians to elucidate his insurance policies and the hardship they’ve endured since he assumed workplace in May 2023.
“Tinubu inherited Nigeria, but what has he done with it? He inherited a poor country; he inherited weak institutions; he inherited poverty and insecurity. We don’t blame him, but he’s been in power for three and a half years. He is a failure,” he stated.
The PRP chairman challenged the president to elucidate why Nigerians had been experiencing higher hardship regardless of the administration’s financial reforms and repeated claims of progress, arguing that the consequences of presidency insurance policies on abnormal residents couldn’t be dismissed with financial statistics.
“Why doesn’t Tinubu commit himself to say, I will. I have the energy, I have the intention, I want to see Nigerians, I want Nigerians to see me, I want them to hear me explain why they are more hungry,” Baba-Ahmed stated.
Asked concerning the president’s reported intention to marketing campaign in just a few areas, he replied: “Yes, he has nothing to say to them, I’m telling you, he has nothing to say to Nigerians.”
He additional questioned the administration’s determination to depart marketing campaign actions to its representatives, saying the president couldn’t justify staying in Abuja to manipulate when, in his view, the federal government had failed to deal with the nation’s challenges over the previous three and a half years.
“The reason why he said, go, gentlemen, go and campaign for me. I will stay here in Abuja and run the country. You’re running the country now? For three and a half years, you didn’t run the country, now you remember that you are here to run the country?” he stated.
Baba-Ahmed additionally criticised the administration’s financial insurance policies, arguing that troublesome selections weren’t essentially good selections, significantly when their quick penalties included larger dwelling prices and deeper poverty.
“He (Tinubu) made some tough decisions but they were anti-people decisions, a tough decision doesn’t have to be a good decision,” he stated.
He questioned the attain and effectiveness of the federal government’s intervention programmes, significantly loans, towards the backdrop of kids unable to attend college due to insecurity in elements of the nation.
“You talk about creating loans, that’s good, but do you know how many millions of children that can’t go to school under Tinubu’s watch in this country? Children who live in territories taken over by bandits, kidnappers, and who can’t go to school at all?” he requested.
On safety, the PRP chairman alleged that the scenario had deteriorated below the present administration, whereas dismissing the federal government’s presentation of financial indicators as insufficient proof that Nigerians had been higher off.
“Security has gotten considerably worse, it has never been worse like this. All these things you mentioned, this is the propaganda. Unfortunately, for Tinubu, Nigerians are not going to buy it. Children are not going to school, life is more insecure, life is harder,” he added.
Baba-Ahmed argued that the president’s attraction for one more four-year time period would relaxation on a promise that present financial difficulties would finally ease, slightly than an admission that the reforms had already improved dwelling circumstances.
He additionally questioned the sequencing of the insurance policies, saying the federal government should have thought-about their quick results on households earlier than implementation.
“A thinking president will say let me do one or two things first, because I will impoverish people and the cost of transportation is vital and central to everything,” he stated.
Also, Baba-Ahmed stated Nigeria had didn’t study the mandatory classes from the #EndSARS protests, six years after younger individuals took to the streets in 2020 to demand an finish to police brutality and higher governance.
He argued that disbanding the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) had not resolved the underlying issues of police misconduct, lack of accountability and poor governance.
According to him, the judicial panels established after the protests raised expectations that these chargeable for abuses could be held accountable and victims compensated, however their suggestions had not been totally applied.
He cited using tear gasoline towards youths marking the sixth anniversary of the protests on the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos on Wednesday as proof, in his view, that little had modified.
“We have not shown our young people that protesting for good governance is not a crime. Until justice is served for those who died at Lekki and compensation is paid, the wound will remain,” Baba-Ahmed stated.
Emmanuel Addeh
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