The Editorial Board
Malam Aminu Kano, may Allah have mercy on his soul, must be turning in his grave.
He founded the Peoples Redemption Party on a clear and uncompromising belief: that Nigeria’s ruling elite were responsible for the corruption, poverty, illiteracy, and political exclusion that trapped millions of ordinary people in life-long poverty.
The PRP was built as a movement of resistance against elite domination and the abuse of political power. Its strength came from grassroots mobilisation, ideological discipline, and its identification with the talakawa, not from elite patronage or personality cults.
That ideological discipline is what kept the PRP alive for over fifty years despite lacking money, federal patronage, governors, or billionaire sponsors. The party endured because it stood for something larger than personalities and transactional politics.
Over the past two decades, from Argentina to Hungary, from India to Brazil, populist movements built on Aminu Kano’s mass mobilization, social justice, and the empowerment of ordinary people have transformed politics, won elections, and uplifted millions. Long before these ideas gained global prominence, Aminu Kano was their champion. This is his legacy to the world.
Today, that legacy faces one of the gravest threats in its history. Just as Aminu Kano’s vision appeared poised for a historic revival in Nigeria, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed arrived on the PRP scene like a wrecking ball, threatening in weeks what generations had spent decades building.
In less than four weeks as party chairman, he has plunged the movement Aminu Kano built into turmoil. He has exposed it to elite capture, weakened its moral foundations, opened the door to corruption, and ignited bitter internal conflicts that now threaten the unity and survival of the movement itself.
A political tradition that survived decades of repression, setbacks, and betrayal is now confronting a crisis of leadership that could undo generations of struggle and sacrifice.
PRP was never supposed to become another rehabilitation center for politically homeless elites searching for relevance after losing influence elsewhere. Yet many members now fear that this is precisely what it is becoming under Hakeem Baba-Ahmed.
Many party members increasingly view Hakeem’s leadership style as fundamentally at odds with the values and traditions that defined the PRP for decades. In a randomized survey of 750 party members across the 36 states and the FCT conducted to mark his first 30 days in office following the primary election fiasco, 72% of respondents expressed no confidence in his leadership and said they want him removed as chairman of the party.
His instinct for centralized control and personality-driven politics is driving the movement deeper into crisis. Despite his gentle demeanor and soft-spoken style, many members describe a pattern of condescension, intellectual arrogance, intolerance of dissent, and authoritarian decision-making.
His relentless focus on media appearances and public commentary, while neglecting the difficult work of resolving internal party challenges and engaging grassroots members across the states, has alienated much of the party’s rank and file. Rather than building relationships beyond the NEC and BOT circles in Abuja, he is widely seen as disconnected from the movement’s broader base.
Even more troubling to many members is what they perceive as a growing culture of elitism around his leadership, the very tendency the PRP was founded to challenge and defeat.
One example of his dictatorial style frequently cited is his tendency to suppress dissent whenever internal party issues arise that he finds uncomfortable. Members point to his repeated decisions to shut down discussions and restrict posting rights on the party’s WhatsApp forum, the movement’s principal platform for debate and engagement, limiting participation to a handful of administrators, including himself. Critics argue that this has effectively silenced members’ voices and curtailed internal free expression.
There is also growing concern that he sees party structures not as institutions to be strengthened, but as instruments of personal authority for himself and his political allies.
Rather than deepening internal democracy, his actions have fueled resentment, widened divisions, and accelerated distrust throughout the party.
One of Hakeem Baba-Ahmed’s strongest selling points during his campaign for PRP chairman was his reputation as a prominent media figure. Many members believed his public profile and communication skills would strengthen the party’s visibility and influence.
What many are now discovering, however, is that media prominence is not the same as leadership. Television appearances, newspaper columns, and press statements do not prepare someone to manage a national political party, navigate competing interests, build consensus, or oversee a credible primary election process.
As the crisis within the party deepens, many PRP members say they feel disappointed by what Hakeem Baba-Ahmed has come to represent since assuming leadership. For them, the gap between expectation and performance has become impossible to ignore.
Part of the problem appears to lie in Hakeem Baba-Ahmed’s political disposition and professional background. He spent most of his career as a bureaucrat. While he may understand the inner workings of government institutions, leading a political movement rooted in mass struggle, ideological conviction, grassroots organizing, and collective decision-making requires a very different temperament and political instinct.
His habits and assumptions of administrative office culture are poorly suited to a movement built on participation, debate, sacrifice, and accountability to its members. So he struggles to adapt.
This disconnect became even more pronounced within days of his emergence as party chairman. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed moved swiftly to install his younger brother as the PRP’s de facto financier. According to members of the party’s National Executive Committee, Datti Baba-Ahmed reportedly injected N50 million into the party’s coffers, fundamentally altering the internal balance of power within the movement.
For a financially struggling party historically sustained by ideology, sacrifice, and grassroots loyalty rather than wealthy patrons, the sudden emergence of a family-backed power structure immediately triggered fears that the PRP was being transformed from a political movement into a privately controlled family enterprise.
According to party leaders who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal affairs, what followed was not genuine party rebuilding but an elite capture operation presented as political revival.
In keeping with that approach, Hakeem immediately launched a media blitz, presenting himself as the architect of a grand opposition realignment. While consumed with publicity and elite political negotiations, he appeared to pay little attention to the party’s internal affairs or the urgent task of properly organizing, funding, and executing the PRP’s critical primary elections.
His apparent mission was to recruit high-profile political figures capable of transforming the party into an elite coalition vehicle. He openly courted Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and Rabiu Kwankwaso, men who represent precisely the establishment political culture the PRP was created to resist. PRP existed to confront entrenched privilege, not to negotiate with it.
When those efforts failed, the maneuvering reportedly moved underground. Donald Duke was allegedly approached through back channels, outside established party structures and without meaningful consultation with longstanding members.
According to multiple party insiders, the presidential ticket had effectively been designed in advance, with Duke earmarked as the presidential candidate and Datti Baba-Ahmed, the party chairman’s brother, positioned as his running mate.
Several insiders further alleged that Duke entered the race with assurances that the party ticket would ultimately be his and that he would compensate other presidential aspirants should a consensus arrangement be reached. To his surprise, other aspirants opted for direct vote to decide the party’s presidential ticket. If true, such an arrangement would suggest that the outcome of the primary was being shaped long before party members were given the opportunity to vote.
Decisions of enormous consequence were suddenly being driven by a small inner circle with little accountability to the party’s grassroots base. For many loyal members, this signaled a dangerous departure from the PRP’s historic identity.
Every attempt by the African Mind Journal to obtain comments from Donald Duke, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, and Datti Baba-Ahmed before publication was unsuccessful. Telephone calls were not returned. Should any of the individuals named wish to respond to the allegations contained in this article, the African Mind Journal will gladly publish their statements in full.
Hakeem And The Primary Election Fiasco
What many members now regard as the defining stain of his troubled chairmanship is his alleged role in widespread primary election rigging.
The primary election controversy has become one of the most damaging episodes of Hakeem Baba-Ahmed’s brief tenure.
According to party leaders, aspirants, and officials involved in the process, the primaries were plagued by serious irregularities. In several states, vote totals exceeded the number of verified eligible voters, raising damaging concerns about ballot manipulation and electoral fraud.
Even more troubling was the voter register itself. Party members say that the official voter roll submitted to INEC on May 4 and publicly declared by Hakeem Baba-Ahmed in a circular as the sole list of eligible voters was later replaced by Hakeem himself with a different, unauthorized register after the primaries had taken place. Critics argue that changing the voter list after the fact undermined the integrity of the entire exercise.
At the same time, funds designated for conducting primaries across states and local governments were reportedly withheld, creating confusion, disrupting the process, and weakening safeguards against manipulation.
Taken together, these actions have led many party members to question the legitimacy of the primaries and the credibility of the leadership that oversaw them.
Several state party chairmen and election coordinators described the deeper problem as one of poor leadership and gross mismanagement.
They accused Hakeem Baba-Ahmed of failing to properly plan, fund, coordinate, and supervise the elections.
In many polling units, voting was delayed for up to five hours because funds were not released to transport election officials and distribute voting materials. Oversight structures appeared weak or nonexistent, communication repeatedly broke down, and electoral logistics were often improvised at the last minute.
The gravest allegations involved claims that votes were bought, manipulated, and deliberately inflated to secure victory for Donald Duke, the very aspirant whose entry into the party was championed by Hakeem Baba-Ahmed.
For many within the movement, the scandal represented more than internal electoral misconduct. It exposed the same culture of political corruption that has steadily weakened democratic institutions across Nigeria for decades.
The implications extend beyond the PRP.
Political corruption and terrorism cannot be separated. Terrorism flourishes where electoral fraud destroys public trust, weakens state institutions, and shields criminal political networks from accountability.
A political system built on manipulation, impunity, and elite conspiracy creates the instability and institutional decay upon which violent extremism feeds. If the United States is serious about combating terrorism in Nigeria, it must confront and defeat its root cause: political corruption.
Immaculate Deception or Gross Incompetence
Whether by immaculate deception or gross incompetence, the result was the same: widespread distrust, internal bitterness, and the perception that the primaries had been engineered to produce a predetermined candidate.
These accusations have cast serious doubt on Hakeem’s leadership, weakened confidence in the party’s internal democratic processes, and pushed the PRP deeper into crisis.
Mr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed denies these allegations. However, party leaders interviewed by African Mind Journal maintain that the concerns are credible and warrant a full investigation. They are calling on the party’s Board of Trustees, assisted by independent experts, to conduct a thorough review of the primaries and take appropriate action if any wrongdoing is established.
This account is based on interviews, internal documents provided by party leaders, and the experiences of aspirants who participated in the party’s primary elections.
The Editorial Board of the African Mind Journal cannot remain indifferent to the unfolding crisis within the PRP because the party represents one of the last surviving political traditions in Africa rooted in mass liberation, social justice, and resistance to elite domination.
Allowing such a movement to succumb to elite capture, internal authoritarianism, and political opportunism would not only betray the legacy of Aminu Kano, but also weaken one of the few remaining ideological platforms committed to the political and economic emancipation of ordinary Africans.
For a movement founded to challenge elite domination, the tragedy is not merely the internal conflict consuming the party. It is the growing belief among party loyalists that the PRP is slowly being remade in Mr. Baba-Ahmed’s image.
Some of Hakeem Baba-Ahmed’s supporters portray him as a reformer capable of attracting wealthy political figures and improving the party’s electoral prospects. They also point to his success in securing the update of the party’s leadership profile on the INEC website as evidence of administrative effectiveness.
But a political movement cannot be revitalized by abandoning the very principles that sustained it. A party founded to defend the poor cannot survive by centering elite personalities and elite interests. Nor can anyone credibly invoke the legacy of Aminu Kano while importing the same elitist political culture he spent his life resisting.
If this continues, the PRP risks becoming what many Nigerian parties already are: vehicles for ambition, media optics, and temporary alliances with no ideological anchor.
And that would be the final betrayal of Aminu Kano’s legacy.
The PRP must now make a clear choice. It must either continue down the path of elite capture, internal manipulation, and personality-driven politics, or it must reclaim the founding principles that once gave the movement meaning and moral authority.
Hakeem Baba-Ahmed and Datti Baba-Ahmed should be removed from positions of influence within the party. The PRP must return to its original mission: resisting elitism, defending justice and equity, protecting internal democracy, and restoring the dignity of impoverished Nigerians whose interests the movement was created to serve.
Anything less may complete the transformation of the PRP into the very political order Aminu Kano spent his life fighting.
