In a recent report on AIT TV, In a recent analysis of Nigeria’s political landscape, political commentator Akeem Baba-Hamed urged veteran leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to adopt a more supportive, rather than leading, role in the party’s future direction.
Highlighting the example of Atiku Abubakar, a founding member of the PDP and its former vice president who has contested presidential elections three times, Baba-Hamed described him as a hero of democracy but questioned his continued presidential aspirations.
He said, “You have a very prominent member of the PDP, a founding member of the PDP, a vice president for eight years. He competed three times, contested three times, President Atiku, highly respected person. Would you respect, and I’ve made this public, would you respect him? I think he should be a hero of democracy, but I don’t think he should aspire to even lead this country. I think he should be a father figure. He should be involved in the building of an alternative to APC. But he should bring in new blood, new perspectives, new people and say the future belongs to you. We will stand behind you.”
Baba-Hamed emphasized the need for the PDP to foster younger, more energetic leadership that is detached from long-term power struggles. “Those faces should not be the ones that are telling Nigerians give us power and we will do different. So you expect them to be at the background? Absolutely,” he stated.
He also pointed to the importance of senior politicians recognizing when to step aside. “If you have contested for vice president, for presidency, three times and you don’t get it, and you’re approaching 80 years old, for goodness sake, I mean something should tell you that it’s time to be a father.”
Baba-Hamed suggested that Atiku Abubakar might consider ending his presidential ambitions to pave the way for a new generation. “My gut feeling is if Atiku would say, ‘I’ll call it quits as far as aspiring to be president is concerned,’ but I have a condition: I may be in consultation with a few people, a decided set of people who step in in our place. And if I do that, I want you and you and you, the key people involved in this, all of us stand up. None of us is going to contest for the presidency.”
He further cautioned against recycling leaders who have been entrenched in power without producing significant change. “We want younger people, more energetic people, healthier people, not people who have just simply been so exposed to power they can’t live outside power. If you give those people power, they are just going to be like president of Tinubu’s government. What is going to be the difference? What are they saying to Nigerians? And this is what is missing.
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