Ex-Villa aide Baba-Ahmed says, Tinubu prefers “getting advice from people he hasn’t appointed officially”
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
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“The President is really genuinely isolated, whether it’s by choice or circumstances – we don’t understand – the bottom line is that he ought to be available a little more to the people he had trusted to run ministries, departments or to advise him and that’s a problem for the country, not so much for him ….
“If you hear people close to him [Tinubu] speak about Nigeria, it’s like we live in two different worlds, that is the most frustrating thing for me.
“We will leave the Villa, go home and watch real people talk, we know how desperate the country is, how difficult life is, the insecurity level – how high it is, people are losing hope” – Baba-Ahmed.
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Former Vice Presidential Political Affairs Adviser, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu is isolated, generally by design, because he does not have time for his aides, choosing instead to take counsel from hand-picked cronies outside the government.
Tinubu does not have time for a lot of people working for him in the Villa and Nigeria will be a better place if he makes himself more available to those around him, Baba-Ahmed declared on Arise Television.
“I think I met the President three times in the mosque in the Villa and we shook hands while I was there,” he recounted.
“I never had the chance to sit down with Tinubu, I think part of the problem is that he never really had time for people like us, I’m not sure he had time for a lot of the people working for him.
“The President is really genuinely isolated, whether it’s by choice or circumstances – we don’t understand – the bottom line is that he ought to be available a little more to the people he had trusted to run ministries, departments or to advise him and that’s a problem for the country, not so much for him.
“The President of Nigeria is hugely a powerful person and also carries a lot of responsibilities in his shoulders.
“So if he is not going to look for solutions to problems from the people he appointed – there are only two options left – is he getting advice from the wrong people or is he getting no advice at all?
“If you hear people close to him [Tinubu] speak about Nigeria, it’s like we live in two different worlds, that is the most frustrating thing for me.
“We will leave the Villa, go home and watch real people talk, we know how desperate the country is, how difficult life is, the insecurity level – how high it is, people are losing hope.
“Sometimes they ask, what are you doing there, we thought with people like you, we won’t be seeing some of these things, are you guys really advising the President on some of these things?
“It all amounts to this idea that the President is getting advice from the people he hasn’t appointed officially ….
“I believe that if Tinubu was more open to suggestions and advice and if he had higher quality of people handling sensitive positions for him, and he makes himself available where they talk to him, I think the country will be better.”
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