Ahead of the 2027 election, the presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement, Seyi Makinde; the candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Peter Obi; the APM National Leader and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed; and other opposition figures have unveiled a “Reset Nigeria” agenda, expressing confidence that Nigerians’ votes will count in the next general election.

The unveiling took place on Monday during the inauguration of the APM presidential campaign office in Abuja.

Speaking at the event, Makinde rejected a return to fuel subsidy.

He, however, advocated domestic crude pricing for Nigerian refineries as an alternative to make petrol more affordable.

On May 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu, in his inauguration speech, announced the removal of petrol subsidy.

The policy led to higher prices of goods and services, although the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government has continued to argue that it has delivered substantial economic benefits.

Ahead of the 2027 election, former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, who had pledged during the 2023 campaign to scrap the subsidy if elected, now promised to restore it if elected president to ease the impact of its removal on Nigerians.

Atiku’s pledge has sparked mixed reactions among Nigerians.

Speaking on Monday, Makinde rejected Atiku’s proposal and offered an alternative to the way Tinubu was managing the post-subsidy era, questioning why crude supplied to Nigerian refineries should be priced as though the country did not produce crude oil.

He stressed that Nigeria’s oil must provide tangible and measurable benefits to Nigerians.

Makinde called for complete transparency across the petroleum value chain — from production and domestic crude allocation to refining, transportation, distribution, taxes, and retail margins.

He said: “I have spoken about the petrol pricing framework. Some people have asked whether I am suggesting that we bring back the old fuel subsidy. That is not my position. Let me explain my position very simply with this example.

“If a community grows food, the people of that community should not have to buy that food as though it travelled halfway around the world before reaching them. So, why should crude oil supplied to Nigerian refineries be priced as though Nigeria does not produce crude oil?”

Emphasising that Nigerians must benefit directly from their crude resources, Makinde said Nigerians deserved to know what they were paying for, who benefited from the payments and where inefficiencies were driving up the final price, stressing that this was what the Reset Nigeria agenda was all about.

The APM presidential candidate continued, “Nigerians must be able to see how the final price is reached. We need complete transparency across the petroleum value chain—from production and domestic crude allocation to refining, transportation, distribution, taxes and retail margins.

“That benefit should be built into the system from the beginning, through the price at which crude oil is supplied for domestic refining — not through an opaque intervention at the petrol pump after all the costs, inefficiencies and distortions have been added.”

He explained that the Reset Nigeria agenda was fundamentally about ending opaque systems and restoring public trust: “Government must show its workings. Nigerians must be able to see how decisions are made and how national resources are managed.”

Inviting Nigerians to join the Reset Nigeria movement, Makinde said: “Reset Nigeria cannot be a conversation among politicians alone. It must become a conversation in our homes, markets, schools, offices, farms, factories and communities.

“We want to hear from the trader who struggles whenever transport costs rise. We want to hear from the farmer who cannot afford to move produce to the market. We want to hear from the business owner whose costs rise every time the price of fuel changes.

“We want to hear from the young Nigerian who is working hard but can no longer see a clear path to a better life. This office belongs to that conversation. Its doors are open to Nigerians who believe that our country can work better than it does today. So, I invite you: join the Reset Nigeria conversation.”

He said he was aware that some people had already dismissed his presidential campaign as insignificant, but noted that he had faced similar doubts when he first sought to govern Oyo State.

Makinde recalled that many had doubted his chances against established political forces, only for the people of Oyo State to prove them wrong.

He said those dismissing his campaign were, in effect, disregarding the aspirations of millions of Nigerians, including traders, youths, farmers, workers and small-business owners who believed the country can be better.

“They may discount one candidate, but they cannot discount millions of Nigerians united behind a better future. Let us build a country in which government is transparent, leadership is accountable, and Nigeria’s resources work for the Nigerian people,” he said.

In his remarks, Obi called on political leaders and Nigerians at large to unite in the collective effort to rescue the country from poverty, hunger and insecurity.

The former Anambra State governor said Makinde was qualified to contest for the presidency, stressing that whoever emerges victorious in a credible election should be supported by all Nigerians to build a better country.

He stated, “What we are doing today is to show you that, for us, we don’t have desperation. We want the people of Nigeria to make their choice. Whoever they choose, all of us will come together to build a new Nigeria.

“We can’t all continue the way we are going today. Our people are hungry. Our people are poor. Our people are insecure. Whoever wins, genuinely, from a free, fair and credible election, we all want to work together to save this country from collapse.

“We declare here the social guarantee to assure you that we are changing the politics. We don’t want politics of quarrel, politics of disagreement. Let our quarrel be to feed our people. Let our quarrel be to pull our people out of poverty. We want a Nigeria where a child of nobody can be somebody without knowing anybody.

“That’s what we want. And all of us will work as a family. And I assure you that we remain united in our rescue for our dear country, Nigeria.”

The APM national leader and Bauchi State governor, Mohammed, warned President Bola Tinubu and other political opponents not to take Makinde for granted.

He stated, “This is to show you that we mean business. Whoever disregards or takes us for granted is doing so at his own peril.

“We are here to receive Nigeria, and now to bring you one of the best human capital Nigeria has ever produced at the sub-national and national levels. That is Engineer Seyi Makinde. I just want Nigerians to understand, especially the other candidates, and they will see the wonders of the world.

“He has done well for his people in Oyo State. This is the mobiliser, the manager of resources, an engineer par excellence, somebody who used little resources and did so much; he brought urban renewal to a level that nobody has ever done it.

“Even the rural areas are not neglected. With the huge population that he has and little resources, you have seen what he has done.

“So, I am not surprised that he single-handedly provided this office. He has been in the oil and gas sector, he has been in the private sector, and he has seen it all, with a remarkable résumé that is required to lead this country. A fair knowledge of the country, with humility and respect, and deep knowledge of governance.

“And that is why you can see that the Allied Peoples Movement is the only party that will give you hope. We have fewer problems. There is no party without problems, but among all the political parties in Nigeria, even the APC, the APM is the least troubled. This is because there is loyalty, the party is supreme, there is a duly constituted authority, and there is harmony.”

Mohammed said the APM remained committed to providing a new lease of life through strategic leadership, prudent resource management and accountability.

He continued, “And I think Nigerians would be pleasantly surprised by what my brother, whom I know very well and in whom I am well pleased, will do for Nigeria within a very short time to reset the country. He is the candidate.

“I want to tell Nigerians that this is an opportunity to build a new Nigeria, where everybody, man or woman, young or old, will have the opportunity to actualise his or her aspirations.”

Former Niger State Governor and Secretary to the Tanimu Turaki-led Peoples Democratic Party Board of Trustees, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, called for greater cooperation among opposition leaders ahead of the 2027 election, saying Nigeria needed to be reset and put on the path of progress.

He said insecurity had claimed lives and displaced many Nigerians, stressing that development, education and agriculture could not thrive without security.

He stated, “We had the first opposition meeting in Ibadan. Now, we have had the second meeting in Abuja. There is a need for cooperation among all the opposition leaders and candidates.

“There is a need to reset Nigeria and make it move forward. It is the responsibility of the government to provide security and improve the welfare of the people. We have lost so many lives, and many people have been displaced due to insecurity.

“With insecurity, there can be no development, education or agriculture. And that is why we are seeing Peter Obi and Makinde ensure that we unite and work together in all necessary aspects so that there will be a candidate. When the time comes, we shall direct the people towards that candidate.”

National Chairman of the APM, Yusuf Dantalle, said the party’s campaign for the 2027 general election marked the beginning of its mission to “reset Nigeria,” promising an issue-based campaign focused on competence, solutions and good governance.

Dantalle said the APM offered Nigerians an alternative anchored on integrity, sacrifice and service, while expressing confidence in the party’s chances in the election.

He described the Makinde/Lawal Daura ticket as a source of hope for Nigerians seeking improved governance, economic prosperity and national security, saying Makinde would provide compassionate and inclusive leadership as President.

The APM chairman also said insecurity would be tackled head-on under a Makinde/Daura administration, adding that Nigerians should be able to conduct their legitimate activities without fear of kidnapping or terrorism.

He urged Nigerians to support all APM candidates in the 2027 election.

He added: “With a competent vice-presidential candidate, Alhaji Lawal Daura, who once headed a critical security service in the country, insecurity will be tackled head-on.”

Dantalle pledged that the APM would run an issue-based campaign focused on practical solutions, competence, and the future of the country, rather than politics of bitterness, division, and hatred.

“This is our chance to build a strong, stable, united, prosperous, inclusive and just democratic society,” he said.

The event was attended by Daura, who is the vice-presidential candidate of APM; former Osun State Governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; national and state legislators; members of the APM BoT; members of the APM National Working Committee; and party faithful, among other dignitaries.

Source: punchng.com

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The Independent National Electoral Commission is set to deploy a real-time election readiness tracker to monitor preparations for the 2027 elections across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The tracker, which will give INEC’s leadership instant access to updates on logistics, recruitment and training of ad hoc staff, technology and other election preparations, is part of efforts to prevent last-minute operational failures ahead of the polls.

The INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan (SAN), disclosed this on Monday in Lagos at a two-day strategic operational workshop for administrative secretaries.

“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is set to roll out a first-of-its-kind, real-time readiness tracker that will allow the commission to monitor election preparations across all 36 sStates and the Federal Capital Territory instantly, as the national voter register approaches the historic 100 million mark ahead of the 2027 general election,” a statement signed by the commission’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mrs Victoria Eta-Messi, on Monday, read.

According to the statement, the workshop would produce a standardised, Excel-based Administrative Secretary Master Operational Tracker Template, which will be linked to the commission’s Election Monitoring and Support Centre dashboard and Election Project Plan.

Amupitan said INEC had historically lacked a dedicated and uniform mechanism for monitoring the operational responsibilities of administrative secretaries across the country.

He said the new system would change that by giving the Resident Electoral Commissioners, supervising national commissioners, the secretary to the commission and the headquarters “instant visibility” into the state of preparations.

The tracker, the statement said, would cover areas including distribution of election materials, training of ad hoc personnel and general state-level readiness.

Amupitan said the idea was to move the commission away from its traditional last-minute approach.

The chairman described the objective as replacing “reactive panic with proactive management.”

This is as the chairman also disclosed that the Continuous Voter Registration exercise, conducted in three phases between August 2025 and July 2026, had recorded a cumulative total of 10,772,421 new registrants, subject to ongoing Automated Biometric Identification System verification.

Amupitan further stated that the commission’s National Register of Voters was “approaching the 100 million mark,” reaffirming the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that no eligible Nigerian is disenfranchised due to logistical bottlenecks in PVC distribution.

Amupitan said Continuous Voter Registration was one of five major operational areas being reviewed at the workshop.

The others are logistics and materials management, electoral technology, optimisation of ad hoc staff and financial compliance.

The INEC boss said the tracker was not being designed merely for the 2027 election cycle, adding that it would serve as a permanent operational and onboarding blueprint for future administrative secretaries.

He said the commission was drawing lessons from recent off-cycle elections, particularly the Osun State governorship election, where disciplined logistics and functioning technology contributed to what INEC considered a transparent process.

“We are now working to replicate that standard nationally,” Amupitan said, according to the statement.

He said the commission had about six months to prepare for the 2027 general election.

The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections will be held on February 6.

Speaking on the preparations, the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof Ayobami Salami, described the workshop as timely, while commending the European Union, through its Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria programme, for supporting the exercise.

The Secretary to the Commission, Mrs Rose Oriaran-Anthony, said the workshop would ensure that the headquarters and state offices worked from the same Election Project Plan.

She added that each state delegation was expected to leave the workshop with a logistics risk register, an ad hoc recruitment and deployment plan and a stakeholder engagement plan covering the next three months.

Meanwhile, Amupitan has warned INEC staff that the pressure on the commission ahead of the 2027 election would be enormous.

At a separate South-West zonal interactive meeting and readiness assessment in Lagos on Monday, the chairman said the commission’s staff were effectively on the frontline of Nigeria’s democracy.

“The eyes of 200 million Nigerians, and the world, are fixed on us,” he said.

The meeting, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, marked the beginning of a six-zone tour by the commission to assess its preparedness for the 2027 elections.

Amupitan said the exercise was a departure from more than two decades of administrative practice in which zonal preparations were largely handled by headquarters directorates.

He said the real test of INEC’s preparedness would not be found in meeting rooms in Abuja but at local government areas, registration area centres and polling units across the country.

The chairman identified voter apathy, public distrust and the spread of misinformation and disinformation as major threats to the 2027 elections.

He said the competence and conduct of INEC’s field officers would remain the commission’s “strongest defence against false narratives.”

The commission said it was also refining its result management systems, including the recently introduced eEC8A, to improve the verification of results from polling units through the national collation centre.

Amupitan further warned INEC personnel against partisan conduct and administrative negligence, citing Section 26 of the Electoral Act, which requires relevant electoral and security personnel to take an oath of neutrality.

The commission said the South-West engagement would focus on logistics, technology, security, voter education, recruitment and stakeholder engagement as preparations intensify for the 2027 polls.

Source: punchng.com

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The presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement and Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has rejected a return to fuel subsidy, advocating instead for domestic crude pricing as a way of reducing petrol costs for Nigerians.

Makinde, who stated this on Monday while speaking at the commissioning of the APM presidential campaign office in Abuja, explained that his proposal was not a call for the restoration of the old subsidy regime but for Nigerian crude supplied to domestic refineries to be priced in a manner that reflects the country’s status as an oil-producing nation.

On May 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy during his inauguration, fulfilling a key campaign promise.

The policy led to higher prices of goods and services, although the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government has continued to argue that it has delivered substantial economic benefits.

Ahead of the 2027 election, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who also pledged during the 2023 campaign to scrap the subsidy if elected, has now promised to restore it if elected president to ease the impact of its removal on Nigerians.

Atiku’s pledge has sparked mixed reactions among Nigerians.

Reacting, Makinde rejected Atiku’s proposal and offered an alternative to the way Tinubu is currently managing the post-subsidy era, questioning why crude supplied to Nigerian refineries should be priced as though the country does not produce crude oil.

He stressed that Nigeria’s oil must provide tangible and measurable benefits to Nigerians. He stated, “We are opening another door for Nigerians to join the conversation about the future of our country. A conversation about what must change. A conversation about how we can make Nigeria work for every Nigerian. That is what Reset Nigeria is about. In the past few days, I have spoken about the petrol pricing framework. Some people have asked whether I am suggesting that we bring back the old fuel subsidy.

“That is not my position. Let me explain my position very simply with this example. If a community grows food, the people of that community should not have to buy that food as though it travelled halfway around the world before reaching them. So why should crude oil supplied to Nigerian refineries be priced as though Nigeria does not produce crude oil? Nigeria’s oil must provide a real and measurable benefit to Nigerians.

“That benefit should be built into the system from the beginning, through the price at which crude oil is supplied for domestic refining, not through an opaque intervention at the petrol pump after all the costs, inefficiencies and distortions have been added.”

He said Nigerians deserve to know what they are paying for, who benefits from the payments and where inefficiencies are driving up the final price, stressing that this is what the Reset Nigeria agenda is all about.

The APM presidential candidate continued, “Nigerians must be able to see how the final price is reached. We need complete transparency across the petroleum value chain—from production and domestic crude allocation to refining, transportation, distribution, taxes and retail margins.

“Nigerians should know what they are paying for, who receives what and where inefficiencies are increasing the final price. That is what it means to Reset Nigeria. It means that we stop accepting systems that nobody can explain. It means that government must show its workings. It means that Nigerians must know how decisions are made, how public resources are used and who benefits from them. It means that when Nigeria’s wealth grows, the lives of Nigerians must also improve.”

The Oyo State Governor said he was aware that some people had already dismissed his presidential campaign as insignificant, but noted that he had faced similar doubts when he first sought to govern the state. He recalled that many had doubted his chances against established political forces, only for the people of Oyo State to prove them wrong.

He said those dismissing his campaign were, in effect, disregarding the aspirations of millions of Nigerians, including traders, youths, farmers, workers and small-business owners who believe the country can be better. He declared that Nigerians own the country’s resources and, together, they can reset the nation.

The APM presidential candidate added, “But we count. Our voices count. Our experiences count. Our ideas count. And, together, our votes will count. That is why Reset Nigeria cannot be a conversation among politicians alone. It must become a conversation in our homes, markets, schools, offices, farms, factories and communities. We want to hear from the trader who struggles whenever transport costs rise.

“We want to hear from the farmer who cannot afford to move produce to the market. We want to hear from the business owner whose costs rise every time the price of fuel changes. We want to hear from the young Nigerian who is working hard but can no longer see a clear path to a better life.

“This office belongs to that conversation. Its doors are open to Nigerians who believe that our country can work better than it does today. So, I invite you: join the Reset Nigeria conversation. Ask questions. Challenge our ideas. Share your own ideas. Organise within your communities. Become a Resetter.

“They may discount one candidate. But they cannot discount millions of Nigerians united behind a better future. Let us build a country in which government is transparent, leadership is accountable and Nigeria’s resources work for the Nigerian people.”

Source: punchng.com

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