Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Tinubu’s political adviser, resigns
By Jeffrey Agbo
President Bola Tinubu’s political adviser, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has resigned his appointment.
Sources in the Presidency said the former spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) resigned a fortnight ago, reports Daily Trust.
According to the sources, Baba-Ahmed’s resignation was hinged on personal reasons.
It was not immediately clear if the Presidency had accepted his resignation.
Baba-Ahmed was appointed Special Adviser on Political Matters in the Office of Vice President Kashim Shettima in September 2023.
Over the past 17 months, he has represented the presidency at several public fora.
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In April 2024, he clashed with the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, when the latter said northern appointees must not remain silent in the face of intimidation or misrepresentation of the Tinubu administration.
Matawalle’s remarks came after Baba-Ahmed criticised the former’s dismissal of the NEF as a “political paperweight”. That position by the minister was in reaction to the group’s statement that the North had made a mistake voting for Tinubu in 2023.
Baba-Ahmed had argued that the Tinubu administration would have been better served if Matawalle had highlighted his achievements as a minister—along with those of other northern appointees—rather than attacking the NEF.
Matawalle fired back, insisting that government appointees had a duty to defend and promote the administration they served.
Baba-Ahmed’s departure marks the second high-profile resignation from Tinubu’s administration after Ajuri Ngelale stepped down as Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Media and Publicity on September 7, 2024.
