In a revealing interview on Daily Politics on Trust TV, political analyst and former spokesperson of the Northern Elders Forum, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, offered a scathing assessment of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the current position of its most prominent figure, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, amid ongoing internal crises and shifting coalition talks.
Speaking on the party’s internal struggles and the influence of Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and former Rivers State governor, Dr. Baba-Ahmed said: “He’s been in politics, but he’s been out of power since 2007… He has unfortunately not been able to keep the PDP together or resist the threat of Wike.”
Baba-Ahmed expressed concern over Atiku’s declining influence in the party he once dominated: “If somebody like Wike can come into PDP and mess it up with a huge colossus like Vice President Atiku, who was a product of PDP, who did everything for the party, shouldn’t that ask you about his politics? Right now, Wike is a lot more influential in the PDP than him. Wike was just a governor. Now he’s a minister.”
He pointedly questioned Atiku’s political judgment and capacity: “Where did he lose the ball? Where did he drop the ball?”
While expressing personal respect for Atiku, Baba-Ahmed raised doubts about his next political move: “If he’s contemplating leaving PDP, he can only leave it for people like Wike. Now doesn’t that tell you just what is his standing?”
Recalling his own firsthand experience in government and elections during the Obasanjo-Atiku era, he added: “I was a Federal Permanent Secretary when him and Obasanjo became President and Vice President. I was in INEC as Secretary when they won their second election. I knew how powerful PDP was.”
Addressing reports of Atiku considering exit strategies or coalition realignments, Baba-Ahmed warned: “If all these coalition talks involve Vice President Atiku Abubakar walking out of PDP, literally what he’s saying is that he has lost a war… If he leaves and he goes into a coalition that either has nothing to do with PDP or has his little portion of PDP, I think it’s a terrible, terrible setback for the Waziri. Seriously.”
He concluded by questioning the strategic wisdom behind current coalition plans that appear to sideline the PDP rather than strengthen it:“One of the options is they are not even talking about, look, let’s all go into PDP, reinforce it, even if we have to cause a faction… All these people running away from PDP into APC, the party has not been factionalised.”
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