TDF Knocks Baba-Ahmed, Says Tinubu Not Out of Touch with Nigerians
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TDF Knocks Baba-Ahmed, Says Tinubu Not Out of Touch with Nigerians
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The Democratic Front, TDF has dismissed claims by the National Chairman of the People’s Redemption Party, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is out of touch with Nigerians over the prevailing economic hardship.
In a statement jointly signed by its Chairman, Mallam Danjuma Muhammad, and Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo, the group faulted Baba-Ahmed’s position, urging him to deploy his experience as a former Permanent Secretary and ex-Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters more constructively.
The group said Baba-Ahmed’s comments during a recent interview on Arise Television were misleading and failed to reflect a balanced assessment of the country’s economic realities.
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“We observed that Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed did not bring his knowledge and experience to bear as a former Permanent Secretary and Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters during his chat with Arise Television, where he made the erroneous statement about the President’s relationship with Nigerians,” the statement read.
The TDF said it rejected Baba-Ahmed’s claims in their entirety, noting that many of the indices of hardship he referenced predated the administration of Tinubu.
“We reject his claims in their entirety and remind him that all the indices of hardship he hyperbolises in drawing the wrong conclusion about President Tinubu’s responses to the plight of Nigerians were already in existence many years before the President assumed office in May 2023,” it added.
While acknowledging that economic data and lived experiences may sometimes differ, the group said it was inappropriate to draw sweeping conclusions without a fair comparative analysis of existing social and economic variables.
The statement further noted that Baba-Ahmed had previously identified fuel subsidy and multiple exchange rate regimes as major impediments to Nigeria’s economic growth before his appointment as presidential adviser.
“On a serious note, Baba-Ahmed will agree that Nigeria’s macroeconomic outlook has improved to the admiration of Nigerians and global economic players, even before the commencement of the ongoing war in the Gulf region,” the group said.
It attributed the recent rise in petrol prices partly to external factors, including tensions in the Middle East, which it said were beyond the control of the Federal Government.
“He should have attributed the recent increase in the cost of petrol to the war in Iran, which is not within the control of the Nigerian government or the President,” the statement added.
The group maintained that the Nigerian economy was gradually stabilising on the back of the administration’s reforms, stressing that attention should be focused on ensuring that the gains of such policies reach ordinary citizens.
“It is not true that the President is out of touch with the plight of Nigerians as wrongly conjectured by Baba-Ahmed. He was simply not fair enough to acknowledge the reduction in headline inflation to 15 per cent from 35 per cent, which led to a crash in food prices, as well as ongoing interventions such as the NELFUND initiative to support indigent students,” it stated.
TDF also accused Baba-Ahmed of overlooking key economic indicators, including improvements in the Purchasing Managers’ Index, which it said reflected expansion in the manufacturing sector and increased employment opportunities in the non-oil sector.
“These are the actual transmitters of economic gains that will alleviate poverty and hardship among the people, which Baba-Ahmed chose to ignore,” it said.
The group added that local refining of crude oil, subsidy removal, and tax reforms had boosted national revenue and increased allocations to the Federation Account Allocation Committee.
“As a former Permanent Secretary, we expect Dr Baba-Ahmed to know that sub-national governments have a primary responsibility to utilise FAAC allocations to reduce hardship. The Federal Government alone cannot address these challenges if states and local governments fail in their duties,” it said.
The group, therefore, urged critics to hold sub-national governments accountable rather than direct all blame at the President.
