Former Labour Party vice-presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed has described the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari as the most corrupt government Nigeria has ever experienced.
Baba-Ahmed made the allegation while speaking on MIC On Podcast With Seun Okinbaloye, where he was asked to assess President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies, particularly the removal of fuel subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market.
He argued that no economic policy, regardless of how well designed, could succeed if corruption remained entrenched in government.
“Whatever policy, however beautiful it is you bring, that is laced with corruption, it will never work,” Baba-Ahmed said.
Explaining his assessment of the Buhari administration, he said corruption was responsible for what he described as the former president’s failure in office.
“Why did Buhari fail so spectacularly? It’s because of corruption, I’m sorry. May his soul be rest in peace. All of us are on that journey, and we’ll go and account for what we did,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed went further to describe the Buhari administration in strong terms, saying: “There has never been a corrupt government like Buhari’s government, and immoral government like Buhari’s government.”
He also linked his criticism of Buhari to the 2023 presidential election, accusing the former administration of failing to deliver on its promise of conducting a credible election.
According to him, Buhari had promised that the 2023 election would be free and fair, but events surrounding the transmission and collation of results did not meet that expectation.
“After failing in all the indices that he said, he went to hunger. He promised that I have failed in ABC, but I promise you a free and fair, legit election. What did we see on that Wednesday before the Saturday’s election in 2023?” he asked.
Baba-Ahmed alleged that the electronic results platform was switched off on election day, forcing officials to resort to manual recording of results.
“Late Baba Buhari of blessed memory was promising the whole world this election would be credible. On Saturday, they switched off IREV, and they were writing the results by hand, and they violated the constitution,” he alleged.
Responding to the question on Tinubu’s economic policies, Baba-Ahmed said the current administration would equally struggle to achieve its objectives if corruption was allowed to undermine its policies.
“So, to answer your question, whatever policies you bring, so long as there is corruption, you are wasting your time, and that is exactly what happened,” he said.
Baba-Ahmed was Peter Obi’s running mate on the Labour Party platform in the 2023 presidential election, in which the duo finished third behind Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party.
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