5th April 2025, NewsOrient, News, Governance And Development. Political Analysis. Photo Credit: Daily Trust,
By Samuel Egburonu, Editor

News of the discreet resignation of Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, as Political Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Government, is eliciting concern and wide speculations within Aso Rock powerhouse and across Nigeria.

NewsOrient reports that the concern and wide speculations are mainly because of the fact that Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, an appointee said to have enjoyed relative visibility in the power game in Aso Rock, did not formally state his reasons for the resignation.

The secrecy associated with the resignation in Aso Rock has also added to the wide speculations.

Informed observers of Nigerian current polity also noted that Baba-Ahmed, who before his appointment as a Political Adviser in the Presidency, served as the spokesman of Northern Elders Forum, has, of recent, been directly criticized and discreetly condemned by some interest groups as one of the northern political appointees allegedly ‘keeping silent in the face of northern political marginalization.” So, his eventual, discreet resignation from his Aso Rock plum job is being associated with the current thinking of his ‘people’ or his supporters.

News of his resignation was first made public on Friday morning, April 4, 2025, although insiders said the resignation is over a week old.

One of the earliest reports on this development, by Daily Trust, quoted “unnamed impeccable sources in the Presidency” as confirming yesterday that the former spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) tendered his resignation about two weeks ago.

“The sources said Dr. Baba-Ahmed did not provide details of the reasons for his decision, only stating that it was on personal grounds.”

Although as at the time of filing this report for NewsOrient, it was not yet certain whether the Presidency had accepted Baba-Ahmed’s resignation, some Nigerians who spoke to NewsOrient on this development earlier today said the resignation of such a key Adviser and an influential northern elite says so much about the current happenings in Nigeria’s seat of power, Aso Rock.

“Keen observers of the power game in Aso Rock cannot be surprised over the news of Dr Baba-Ahmed’s resignation from his appointment in this government. I expected this to happen long ago. Baba-Ahmed truly belongs to Northern Elders Forum (NEF). This group’s position on leadership of this Federal Government is clear enough. There is nowhere Baba-Ahmed will remain comfortable in Aso Rock without first abandoning the ideals and thinking of Northern Elders Forum,” Alhaji Sanihu Tanaki told NewsOrient this morning.

Another respondent, Dr Mubarak Idris told NewsOrient in Lagos: “News of Dr Baba-Ahmed’s resignation is long expected. 2027 Presidential Election is no longer far from now. I know where Baba-Ahmed’s Northern Elders Forum stand today ahead of 2027. We are already in the era of political realignments and so we expect such resignations, alignments and political reengineering here and there.”

NewsOrient recalls that Baba-Ahmed, a key figure in Northern Elders Forum, was appointed Special Adviser on Political Matters in the Office of Vice President Kashim Shettima in September 2023.

He was ever since then projected as a key appointee in the Presidency and thus represented President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in many important events.

But NewsOrient first observed Baba-Ahmed’s current political dilemma a year ago following the bitter clash he had with the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Mohammed Matawalle, over the position of Northern Elders Forum (NEF).

The matter became public knowledge when the Minister, Matawalle, in April 2024, said openly that some northern appointees, like Baba-Ahmed, “must not remain silent in the face of intimidation or misrepresentation of the Tinubu administration.”

Considering that the remark came soon after Dr Baba-Ahmed openly criticised Matawalle’s dismissal of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) as a “political paperweight,” informed observers noted a serious crack and the brewing political dilemma that will face Dr Baba-Ahmed.

This is also because the Minister’s position was a direct reaction to the Northern Elders Forum’s statement that “the North had made a mistake voting for Tinubu in 2023.”

In his reaction to Matawalle’s criticism, Baba-Ahmed wrote: “Scathing criticism of NEF by the junior minister of defence, Matawalle, is ill-advised. He could have done a better job for this administration if he identified contributions of especially northern ministers and other appointees like me to improving security and reducing poverty in the North.”

This ugly encounter worsened when Matawalle fired back and said: “Dr Baba-Ahmed’s relationship and affinity with the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) is well known…

“As an appointee of this administration, it is his responsibility to work for its success, protect and defend the government against unjust and vicious attacks from those who hide under ethnic and other primordial interests to heat up the polity for myopic reasons … “Every appointee of President Tinubu, including Dr. Baba-Ahmed, owes the government a duty to promote, elucidate, and advance its good works and commendable efforts across all sectors.

“As appointees from the North, we must take a stand, be unequivocal, and be counted among those working for the success of this administration. This is not the time to keep quiet in the face of intimidation and misrepresentation of the efforts and achievements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

Since this public encounter exactly a year ago, keen observers have monitored the delicate power game and have predicted that the matter will be eventually resolved through clear realignments before the 2027 political battle.

With the report of Dr Baba-Ahmed’s resignation, it seems the envisaged realignments ahead of 2027 Presidential Election has indeed taken root.

~ Published By NewsOrient Network

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