"An Opportunistic, Piece-Meal Approach": PRP National Chairman Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed Rejects Tinubu's State Police Bill on Channels TV
Appearing on Channels TV’s Politics Today with Seun Okinbaloye, the National Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, delivered a scathing critique of the federal government’s newly transmitted State Police Bill.
While acknowledging the systemic failure of the centrally controlled policing model, Baba-Ahmed strongly argued that President Bola Tinubu’s administration lacks the moral authority and public trust to oversee such a deep constitutional restructuring.
Describing the legislative push as "suspicious" and timed to serve a hidden political agenda ahead of the 2027 elections, the veteran northern political strategist warned that handing over independent security forces to subnational governors without comprehensive institutional safeguards would only compound Nigeria’s complex security crisis.
The Timing Dilemma: Why the PRP Views the Bill as a Political Measure
Baba-Ahmed pushed back firmly against the narrative that opposing state police at this stage equals letting citizens die. He contended that the timing of the bill—introduced after three years of administrative drift and close to the next election cycle—points toward a partisan effort to equip state governors with personal security apparatuses to suppress localized opposition during upcoming polls.
Structural Deficits: The Absence of a SWOT Analysis in Governance
Drawing on his background as an academic and a former political insider, Baba-Ahmed identified a lack of rigorous, analytical planning as the primary weakness of the current executive era. He cited the immediate, unscripted declaration that "subsidy is gone" during the 2023 inauguration as an example of enacting massive policy choices without analyzing their vulnerabilities, an erratic pattern he claims is being repeated with the security sector.
"They never did a SWOT analysis for anything. You don't embark on policies without a SWOT analysis... The very day President Tinubu was sworn in, by his own admission, the issue about removing the subsidy thing was not even in his speech. You don't undertake a policy measure of this magnitude without putting it through the most basic elements... What he meant is that life is going to be a lot more difficult."
The 2027 Balance: Confronting the APC "Self-Delusion"
When challenged by the host regarding the ruling party’s string of recent off-cycle and local by-election victories as proof of their ongoing popularity, Baba-Ahmed attributed those wins to severe judicial pressure on opposition structures and a reliance on open financial inducements at the polling booths. He maintained that the electorate remains desperate for alternative leadership that focuses on transparency, reducing poverty, and structural reform.
"The APC has won the gold in terms of self-delusion... They think that winning elections brings in huge amounts of money. What happened in Ekiti? If you ask a lot of the people who went to vote there, this open display of money, giving people money for votes—this is not how you run a country."
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