Politics
Who will decide Nigeria in 2027?
By Prof. Chiwuike Uba, Ph.D.
Nigeria is fast approaching the 2027 general elections, yet the real contest is not on campaign posters or ballot boxes. It has already begun—in boardrooms, in party offices, in the flow of money, in the manipulation of structures, and in the quiet shaping of who gets to govern. For too long, Nigerians have been presented with outcomes already negotiated behind closed doors. Waiting for INEC’s timetable is already too late to influence the forces that truly determine the country’s future.
Elections in Nigeria have never truly begun on the day campaigns are officially announced. They start long before, in elite negotiations, in the capture of party structures, in the shaping of narratives, in the exclusion of credible aspirants, and in the slow sidelining of citizens from decisions that are supposed to belong to them. If Nigerians wait until campaign posters appear, they will already be late to their own future.
The months ahead are not merely a prelude to voting. They are the battleground on which who can run, what can be discussed, what is possible, and who ultimately governs will be decided. This is the moment to set the stage, define the agenda, and establish the talking points capable of mobilising the critical forces that can shift Nigeria from managed elections to people-driven choices.
Understanding the political economy of elections in Nigeria is essential to this task. Elections do not operate primarily as contests of ideas. They function, largely, as political investments. For many actors, elections are not about service but about access: access to state power, public resources, institutional protection, and economic advantage. This is why politics has become one of the most capital-intensive ventures in the country. Nomination forms cost fortunes. Delegates are monetised. Party structures are purchased. Courtrooms replace party members. Godfathers replace citizens.
In this political economy, power precedes the people, not the other way around. Those who control resources often determine who controls parties. Those who control parties often determine who appears on the ballot. And those who appear on the ballot frequently determine what choices Nigerians are permitted to make. This reality explains why elections repeatedly reproduce leadership that does not reflect the competence, character, or aspirations of the majority. Until this political economy is confronted, technical reforms alone will remain insufficient.
Public attention often fixates on election day, on voter cards, turnout figures, polling units, and result sheets. Yet the most decisive rigging in Nigeria often happens long before the first vote is cast. It happens in the hijack of party structures at ward, local government, and state levels. It happens in the imposition of ad hoc executives loyal to money rather than members. It happens in the weaponisation of court orders to determine party leadership. It happens in the systematic exclusion of credible aspirants through inflated costs and manipulated processes. It happens in the conversion of delegates into commodities.
By the time candidates emerge, the people are often presented not with options, but with outcomes already negotiated. If Nigerians want to truly decide who governs them, then citizen engagement must shift upstream, into party processes, civic pressure, community organising, professional associations, student movements, faith-based networks, labour platforms, and issue-driven coalitions. The struggle for 2027 will not be won primarily at polling units. It will be won in who controls the processes that produce the names on the ballot.
Candidate emergence remains the point at which democracy most often dies. In functional democracies, parties recruit leaders. In Nigeria, leaders often capture parties. Primaries have increasingly become ceremonial endorsements of decisions taken elsewhere. Consensus is frequently a euphemism for coercion. Aspirants who lack access to large war chests are screened out, not by ideas, but by price tags.
The consequences are severe. Competence becomes secondary to capacity to pay. Integrity becomes less valuable than loyalty to patrons. Vision loses to violence, inducement, and litigation. Citizens must therefore insist that 2027 is not merely about who wins elections, but about how candidates emerge. Transparent primaries, open membership systems, verifiable delegate lists, and community scrutiny of aspirants must become national demands, not internal party favours. If Nigerians do not democratise the gate, they cannot democratise the state.
Beyond party capture, Nigerians are painfully familiar with the manipulation that characterises voting itself: voter suppression, logistical sabotage, intimidation, inducement, technological interference, result rewriting, and the judicialisation of outcomes. These practices do more than distort numbers. They hollow out citizenship. When announced results consistently fail to reflect lived realities at polling units, people stop seeing elections as instruments of choice and begin to see them as rituals of legitimisation. Participation declines. Cynicism grows. Extremism finds space. The social contract erodes.
The danger before Nigeria is not merely flawed elections. It is the steady normalisation of disbelief. Rebuilding confidence requires more than promises. It demands organised citizens who monitor processes, protect polling units, document outcomes, challenge illegalities, and refuse to retreat once votes are cast. Democracy is not an event. It is a sustained confrontation with power.
Increasingly, however, even voting and collation are no longer seen as the final arbiters of electoral outcomes. Across election cycles, Nigerian courts have gradually replaced voters and, in many instances, the electoral commission itself as the institutions that ultimately decide who governs. Candidates who never meaningfully campaigned, who were rejected at primaries, or who lost at the polls have emerged victorious through judgments. Entire mandates have been conferred or withdrawn not at polling units, but in courtrooms.
This growing judicialisation of politics represents one of the most profound distortions of Nigeria’s democracy. Courts are no longer merely resolving disputes arising from elections. They are increasingly determining the substance of electoral outcomes. Technicalities eclipse popular will. Procedural errors overshadow millions of votes. Party paperwork sometimes outweighs public mandate. In this environment, elections become provisional exercises, pending judicial confirmation, and citizens are subtly taught that their votes are only the opening arguments in a much longer legal contest.
The dangers of this trend are far-reaching. It weakens the authority of INEC and erodes public confidence in the electoral process. It relocates political struggle from communities to court registries. It privileges those with the resources to sustain prolonged litigation over those with genuine grassroots support. It transforms judges, rather than citizens, into the final constituency that candidates must court. Even more troubling is what this does to the judiciary itself. A system repeatedly dragged into the centre of partisan warfare becomes vulnerable to pressure, inducement, blackmail, and political bargaining. Whether fair or not, public perception hardens. Many Nigerians already view the judiciary as the most corruption-infested arm of government, a belief fuelled by contradictory rulings, last-minute injunctions, forum shopping, and judgments that appear to defy both logic and popular reality. As courts increasingly decide political destinies, they also increasingly inherit the anger, suspicion, and delegitimisation that follow contested power.
When every major political contest ends in litigation, the judiciary is forced into roles it was never designed to play. It becomes an alternative electoral commission. It becomes an extension of party warfare. It becomes a bargaining arena for elite settlements. In the process, its moral authority is compromised, its institutional integrity is strained, and its image as an impartial arbiter is steadily eroded. A judiciary that should stand above politics is gradually being submerged within it, and a society that loses faith in its courts risks losing one of the last anchors of constitutional order. The tragedy is not only that votes are displaced, but that justice itself becomes politicised. As confidence in judicial neutrality weakens, citizens are less inclined to seek redress through lawful means. Rumours replace rulings. Ethnic and partisan interpretations replace legal reasoning. Violence and self-help gain appeal. What should resolve conflict instead multiplies it.
Another critical layer that must not be ignored is the growing security economy around elections. Across Nigeria, political competition is increasingly intertwined with armed groups, cult networks, criminal gangs, and militarised state responses. Elections are no longer only contests of influence but theatres of fear. Communities are threatened into silence. Turnout is suppressed through insecurity. Opponents are discouraged not only by money, but by risk. When violence becomes a campaign strategy, citizenship becomes a hazard. Democracy cannot thrive where participation endangers life, and no election can be truly free when fear shapes who can speak, organise, or vote.
Equally decisive in modern elections is control of narrative. Media capture, algorithmic manipulation, propaganda networks, and paid disinformation now shape political reality as much as party structures. Lies travel faster than manifestos. Ethnic and religious frames are amplified to distract from material failures. Opponents are delegitimised not only through courts, but through coordinated digital assaults. In this environment, citizens are not only voters; they are targets. The battle for 2027 will also be a battle for truth, and without civic media literacy and independent journalism, even technically sound elections can be socially corrupted.
Nigeria approaches 2027 as one of the youngest nations on earth, yet one of the oldest political systems in practice. A country whose median age sits below twenty continues to be governed largely by structures, figures, and cultures detached from youth realities. This demographic contradiction is not merely unfair; it is destabilising. When a political system systematically excludes its largest population block from meaningful participation, it accumulates anger, alienation, and exit. Youth disengagement is not apathy; it is often a verdict. Reclaiming the political process is therefore not optional for Nigeria’s young people. It is existential.
The cost of compromised elections is not abstract. It is measured in collapsing infrastructure, failing schools, unaffordable healthcare, deepening poverty, runaway inflation, and the normalisation of insecurity. When leaders do not emerge from popular accountability, they rarely govern through it. When power is acquired through manipulation, it is exercised through extraction. Nigeria’s governance crisis is not separate from its electoral crisis; it is its consequence. Every rigged process eventually becomes a rigged economy, a rigged justice system, and a rigged social order.
Nigeria’s democratic failures are compounded by what happens after elections. Civic energy often collapses once results are announced or cases concluded. Office holders return to isolation. Campaign promises dissolve into silence. Constituency relationships disappear. Without structured post-election accountability, even well-conducted polls can yield unresponsive governments. Democracy does not end at inauguration. It begins there. Budgets, appointments, policy choices, and institutional reforms must become sites of organised citizen engagement, otherwise electoral victories, even when genuine, quickly lose meaning.
Ultimately, the struggle for 2027 is not only political; it is moral and generational. It is about whether Nigerians will continue to hand over the future to closed circles or reclaim it for open society. It is about whether children inherit institutions that protect them or systems that prey on them. History will not only record who won elections. It will record who stood when democracy was being hollowed out, and who chose comfort over country.
The ongoing political crisis in Rivers State offers Nigerians a real-time lesson in how the struggle for 2027 is already unfolding. The face-off involving the former governor, the sitting governor, and a State House of Assembly widely perceived as still being controlled by the former power structure is not merely a local quarrel. It is an early expression of the deeper contest over who controls political machinery, institutional loyalty, and ultimately, the future electoral outcomes.
At its core, the Rivers crisis is not about personalities. It is about capture. Capture of the legislature. Capture of party structures. Capture of state institutions. Capture of political destiny. When a sitting governor governs under the shadow of a predecessor’s continuing grip on the assembly and party apparatus, it exposes a fundamental weakness in Nigeria’s democracy: elections may change office holders, but they often fail to dismantle entrenched power networks. The will of the electorate becomes secondary to internal elite settlements.
This kind of political warfare, fought through impeachments, parallel assemblies, court orders, and federal alignments, is not an exception. It is a preview of what awaits the country if citizens remain disengaged from the foundational layers of politics. Rivers State today mirrors, in concentrated form, the national struggle between democratic choice and elite continuity.
Equally instructive is the growing wave of defections by governors, legislators, and political heavyweights into the ruling party. While party switching is legal, its pattern in Nigeria often reveals less about ideology and more about survival, access, and protection. These defections weaken opposition parties and reduce electoral competition. They encourage a politics of convenience rather than conviction. They concentrate power in ways that make institutional capture easier. They signal to citizens that elections are less about public mandate and more about proximity to federal authority.
When political actors migrate en masse toward the centre of power, democracy begins to resemble a one-way traffic system. The danger is not merely the dominance of one party, but the erosion of meaningful alternatives. Without strong, credible, and organised opposition platforms, elections risk becoming formalities rather than choices. For 2027, this trend raises urgent questions. Will Nigerians be offered genuine options, or will the political marketplace be so tilted that outcomes are largely predetermined before campaigns even begin?
Nigeria’s past elections, from the early years of the Fourth Republic to the most recent cycles, reveal consistent patterns: logistical failures, monetisation of votes, violence and intimidation, abuse of incumbency, selective enforcement of rules, inconsistent application of technology, prolonged litigation, and frequent divergence between polling-unit realities and final announcements. Each election cycle has produced not only winners, but wounds. Mandates have often been settled in courtrooms rather than communities. Public confidence has risen briefly, only to decline again. Hope has repeatedly given way to fatigue. Outcomes have too often reinforced existing power blocs rather than disrupt them.
From heavily disputed results to elections where turnout collapsed in many urban centres, the story has been the same: Nigerians vote, but structures decide. This historical experience must shape how citizens approach 2027. Not with naïve optimism. Not with fatalistic withdrawal. But with organised, informed, and strategic engagement aimed at breaking these entrenched cycles.
The most important work of the 2027 elections is not for politicians. It is for citizens. Now is the time to define the national agenda so that jobs, security, education, healthcare, inflation, governance reform, institutional accountability, youth inclusion, restructuring of public finance, and the political economy of development dominate public discourse. Personalities must not replace problems.
It is time to occupy the civic space so that town halls, community dialogues, professional forums, religious platforms, campuses, labour spaces, and digital communities become arenas of political education rather than entertainment. It is time for citizens, especially young people and professionals, to engage political parties early, to join them, contest internal positions, monitor congresses, and disrupt the idea that parties are private estates.
It is time to build issue-based coalitions that cut across ethnicity, religion, and region, organised around concrete demands capable of shifting the balance of power away from isolated outrage toward coordinated influence. It is time to establish red lines: no more opaque primaries, no more monetised delegates, no more violent congresses, no more judicial substitution of candidates, and no more stolen mandates without sustained resistance.
Elections do not fail in Nigeria because Nigerians do not vote. They fail because Nigerians are structurally excluded from the processes that make voting meaningful. The year 2027 offers a choice beyond candidates. It offers a choice between continuing as spectators in elite transactions or emerging as organised stakeholders in national direction.
The question before the country is no longer simply, “Who will win?” It is, *“Who will decide?”*
If Nigerians set the stage, define the agenda, mobilise critical forces, and remain engaged from party formation to post-election accountability, then 2027 can mark the beginning of a new political culture: one where leaders emerge from society, not above it; where results reflect citizens, not arrangements; and where power answers, not commands.
Democracy does not arrive on election day. It is built, patiently and courageously, before it. God is with us!
About the Author
Prof. Chiwuike Uba, Ph.D. is an economist and governance expert with over 25 years of experience in public financial management, policy advisory, and development consulting. He has authored multiple publications on fiscal policy, governance, and the political economy of development. He can be reached at chiwuike@gmail.com.
President Bola Tinubu on Thursday held closed door talks with governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, otherwise known as the Progressives Governors‘ Forum, at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Thursday’s meeting is the latest in a back-to-back series of engagements with governors and top chieftains of the party at Aso Rock to resolve the crisis trailing the controversial Presidential Campaign Council list released by the party last Saturday, August 23, 2026.
The governors marched to the President’s office shortly before 4:00pm on Thursday, after emerging from a separate session of the National Economic Council chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
The consultations, which began since Wednesday, were aimed at reviewing and reworking the PCC list which has continued to generate controversy since its release.
The ruling party had faced severe backlash over the inclusion of some controversial party chieftains, particularly those currently facing corruption charges.
It was also alleged that some key sections of the party were not carried along in the drafting of the PCC list.
Multiple party sources, who spoke with The PUNCH on Thursday, said the meeting, which initially held from around 4pm to 11pm on Wednesday, could not be concluded.
Consequently, the meeting continued on Thursday after the regular NEC meeting.
As of press time on Thursday, The PUNCH could not confirm the extent of the changes made to the list.
However, sources close to the APC governors and party heavyweights said the list had been reviewed.
One of the sources said the initial list had been deleted from the party’s X handle and that a new list would be posted as soon as the President approves the deliberations at the meeting and the proposed changes.
“The list is part of the main agenda of the meeting. You can notice that the other controversial list has been deleted from the Twitter handle of the party,” a top source close to the APC governors said.
Also speaking on the list, another top party chieftain said, “Can you believe that the party was not carried along in the formation of the list? The President’s Special Adviser on Political Matters and a few persons in the Presidency came up with the list.
“You can see the backlash that has trailed it. The President is handling the matter, and it is believed that some changes will be made after the two-day meeting.”
Meanwhile, further findings by our correspondent showed that the party would double down on social intervention programmes ahead of the January 2027 poll.
It was learnt that this was part of the ruling party’s plan to reach out to Nigerians and ameliorate the suffering of the masses.
The APC had recently released the complete membership list of its 2027 Presidential Campaign Council.
As earlier reported, President Bola Tinubu will chair the council, with Vice President Kashim Shettima and APC National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, serving as vice chairmen I and II respectively. Senator Abdulaziz Yari was named Director-General, while Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, will serve as Secretary.
The expanded list, numbering 223 entries, adds directorates covering finance, extractive industries, education, manufacturing and MSMEs, support group coordination, faith-based mobilisation, protocol, labour union relations, special duties, stakeholders’ mobilisation, community support, digital operations, grassroots engagement, and welfare.
Following series of controversies that trailed the list, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, said later that adjustments would made to the list where necessary.
Dare said the list remained valid because the campaign structure was not yet complete, with several subcommittees still to be constituted.
“As it is with every other list, there’s a room for subcommittees. Those subcommittees have not been formed, and so many other names will come into that subcommittee,” he said.
Dare also referred to a statement issued by the APC, insisting that the party had not withdrawn the list.
“But of course, there will be adjustments. The list is not cast in stone, just like every other list,” he added.
Asked whether the expected changes amounted to a review of the council, Dare drew a distinction between the two terms, saying the changes would only be made where necessary.
“Not a review, just adjustments where necessary,” he said.
Explaining the distinction, Dare said a review would amount to a broader overhaul of the existing structure.
“Review is wholesale, this is not wholesale,” Dare said.
He added that the planned subcommittees would provide room for more party members and political stakeholders to be accommodated within the campaign structure. (PUNCH)
Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has said Nigeria must move from an economy driven by consumption and imports to one built around production, investment and job creation.
Obi made the declaration on Friday while outlining his economic agenda for the 2027 presidential election, saying the country had the resources, population and entrepreneurial capacity required to build a more productive economy.
He said the key question for any government should be whether Nigerians were actually becoming better off.
“Are Nigerians better off than they were four years ago? Can they afford food, education, and healthcare? Can businesses produce, expand, and create jobs?” Obi asked.
He said his administration, if elected, would place agriculture, manufacturing, agro-processing, technology, construction, energy, creative industries and services at the centre of economic development.
According to him, Nigeria must “produce more of what we consume, process more of what we produce, and compete more effectively in global markets.”
Obi said his economic plan would include improving agricultural productivity through better security for farming communities, irrigation, rural roads, storage facilities, finance and market access.
He also promised to strengthen manufacturing and agro-processing to enable Nigeria to export more finished products and derive greater value from its natural resources.
The former Anambra State governor said government must also create conditions that allow entrepreneurs to invest, employ workers and expand without unnecessary regulatory and infrastructure barriers.
He stressed that public finances would be managed with greater discipline, insisting that government spending must have clear purposes and measurable results.
“Every naira should have a clear purpose, and major public investments should have measurable outcomes,” he said.
Obi also identified Nigeria’s large and growing young population as an economic opportunity rather than a burden, saying government must invest in education, technical training and human capital to enable young Nigerians to contribute productively to the economy.
He said the country’s economic objective should not simply be growth in statistical terms, but an economy capable of producing more, creating jobs, generating wealth and improving living standards.
“The goal is not growth for its own sake, but an economy that produces more, employs more people, creates wealth, and improves living standards,” he said.
Obi, who is campaigning alongside former Kano State governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, said their different governing experiences had led them to a common conclusion that Nigeria must invest in its people and manage public resources responsibly.
He urged voters to examine the records and proposals of all presidential candidates as the 2027 campaign progresses.
MY ADDRESS TO MARK THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE 2027 PRESIDENTIAL AND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CAMPAIGNS
21 August 2026
Dear Compatriots,
Members of the Press,
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,
Wednesday, 19 August 2026, marked the official start of the campaign period for the 2027 Presidential and National Assembly elections.
There is no doubt that this is a defining moment for our democracy. This moment gives Nigerians the opportunity to assess the records, ideas, and plans of those seeking their mandate to lead their country at a time of grave uncertainty in our rapidly changing world.
I consider myself quite privileged to be one of those seeking your mandate to deal with these challenges facing our country.
I enter this contest with one firm conviction: Nigeria can work, and Nigeria must work.
Nigeria faces several serious challenges. Some of them are indeed of existential proportions.
According to the IMF, 63%, or over 140 million Nigerians, live at or below the national poverty line, while humanitarian agencies estimate that 35 million people will need food assistance during the 2026 lean season. About 3.6 million Nigerians remain internally displaced, largely because of conflict and insecurity. Each year, millions of young people enter the labour market, yet too many struggle to find productive opportunities. Weak infrastructure, unreliable power, insecurity, and the excessive cost of doing business continue to burden households and constrain enterprise.
These are more than statistics. They reflect the daily realities of Nigerian families, farmers, workers, students, and businesses.
Yet I do not believe Nigeria lacks the ability to overcome these challenges. We have the people, resources, market, talent, and enterprise. What we must do now is turn these strengths into security, productivity, and shared prosperity.
LEADERSHIP MUST DELIVER RESULTS
My successful private-sector experience, studies in institutions of repute on policy and business matters, and my service as Governor of Anambra State have shaped my understanding of public leadership. Government must manage resources responsibly, set clear priorities, and measure the outcomes of its decisions. Public office is not a reward; it is a responsibility to the people.
In Anambra, I prioritised the foundations of long-term development: education, healthcare, infrastructure, fiscal discipline, and institutional capacity. I do not present that record as perfect, but as an experience from which Nigerians can draw their own conclusions.
Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso brings a different but complementary governing experience.
As Governor of Kano State, he focused strongly on education, technical training, scholarships, infrastructure, and human-capital development. His administration’s investments in education and skills showed an understanding that the people are a state’s most important long-term resource.
Our experiences are different, but our conclusion is the same: Nigeria must invest in its people and manage public resources with discipline.
BUILDING AN ECONOMY THAT WORKS
Nigeria needs more than reactive reforms. We must focus on the questions that matter:
Are Nigerians better off than they were four years ago? Can they afford food, education, and healthcare? Can businesses produce, expand, and create jobs? Can young people find productive work? Can farmers work safely and get their produce to market?
These are the measures that matter.
With your mandate, our economic agenda will put production, investment, enterprise, and human capital at the centre of how we lead.
We will raise agricultural productivity by securing farming communities, expanding irrigation, improving rural roads and storage, and linking farmers to finance and markets. We will also strengthen manufacturing and agro-processing so Nigeria can export more finished goods and capture greater value from its resources.
We will create a business environment where entrepreneurs can invest, hire, and grow without unnecessary regulatory or infrastructure barriers.
And we will manage public finances responsibly. Every naira should have a clear purpose, and major public investments should have measurable outcomes.
The goal is not growth for its own sake, but an economy that produces more, employs more people, creates wealth, and improves living standards.
SECURITY IS THE FOUNDATION
No nation can prosper when its people cannot live, farm, travel, or do business safely. Insecurity has displaced millions of Nigerians and continues to disrupt agriculture, education, trade, and investment. Our response must therefore be comprehensive.
We must improve intelligence gathering and coordination among security agencies, strengthen policing and border management, and make better use of technology. We must also support lawful community-based systems that identify threats early and enable effective responses.
The imperative of decentralising security management, but with strong systems of coordination between the levels, is critical to our plans.
Security policy must also address the conditions that make vulnerable young people susceptible to criminal recruitment. Farmers cannot produce food if they cannot reach their farms safely. Children lose the chance to learn when they cannot attend school safely. Businesses cannot create jobs when they cannot move goods securely.
FROM CONSUMPTION TO PRODUCTION
Nigeria, with a population now above two hundred million and projected to continue growing rapidly, has one of Africa’s largest domestic markets and labour forces. That is an opportunity we must seize to turn the future of our country around.
Nigeria cannot import its way to prosperity. We will produce more of what we consume, process more of what we produce, and compete more effectively in global markets.
We will deploy our experiences in public funds management, the private sector, and the civil service to turn our population into productive human capital, our natural resources into value-added industries, and our domestic market into an engine for investment and enterprise.
Agriculture, manufacturing, technology, construction, energy, creative industries, and services all have important roles to play. Nigeria does not lack opportunities; what it needs are the systems that enable its people to turn those opportunities into prosperity.
OUR YOUNG PEOPLE ARE OUR GREATEST ASSET
I reject the idea that Nigeria’s young population represents a burden. It represents an enormous opportunity, but only if we prepare young Nigerians to participate productively in the economy.
We will improve basic education, strengthen universities, and expand technical and vocational training. Nigeria needs doctors, engineers, scientists, and lawyers, as well as technicians, mechanics, builders, nurses, farmers, programmers, manufacturers, artisans, and entrepreneurs. Our goal is to secure a high demographic dividend from our youth bulge.
HEALTH IS HUMAN CAPITAL
A productive economy requires a healthy population, yet Nigeria’s health indicators remain deeply concerning. According to available data, Nigeria’s primary healthcare system is very poor, with infant and maternal mortality among the worst globally. We will strengthen healthcare, improve maternal and child health, expand access to essential medicines, and equip healthcare workers to serve effectively.
EVERY REGION MUST BECOME PRODUCTIVE AND PROSPER
Nigeria’s diversity is an economic strength. Each region has distinct assets, and national policy must unlock those assets while connecting them to one productive economy.
The North-West can expand agriculture, livestock, irrigation, agro-processing, and manufacturing while strengthening education and security.
The North-East can speed up reconstruction, restore livelihoods, and expand agriculture, education, enterprise, and regional trade.
The North-Central can strengthen food production and processing while developing its mineral resources responsibly.
The South-West can build on its strengths in manufacturing, technology, finance, trade, and the creative economy.
The South-East can expand its entrepreneurial and industrial strength through better infrastructure, stronger connectivity, and greater access to investment.
The South-South can derive greater value from oil and gas while expanding maritime services, fisheries, agriculture, and other productive sectors, supported by stronger environmental protection.
The Federal Capital Territory must demonstrate what efficient urban planning, transportation, housing, sanitation, security, and public services can achieve.
Every region must produce. Every region must contribute. Every region must benefit.
A DIFFERENT STANDARD OF GOVERNANCE
Sustainable development requires more than reactive reform. Reform is not the goal; better lives are. The World Bank’s April 2026 Nigeria Development Update makes clear that Nigeria’s challenge is to turn economic reform and stabilisation into improved livelihoods, stronger human capital, wider opportunities, and inclusive growth. We will pursue practical reforms that deliver lasting results, combining fiscal discipline with productive investment, as Senator Kwankwaso and I have demonstrated.
We will cut wasteful spending while protecting investments that create jobs and expand productive capacity. We will raise public revenue without stifling businesses and invest in education, healthcare, security, and infrastructure because they are foundations for future prosperity, not costs to defer. We will also build institutions that endure beyond any single administration. That is the standard by which every government should be judged.
Fellow Nigerians,
The campaign period gives every citizen an opportunity to join the national conversation. I urge Nigerians to examine each candidate’s record and proposals, ask tough questions, and demand evidence behind every promise.
We should debate ideas without hatred, compete without violence, and disagree without weakening the bonds that unite us. When Nigerians make their choice, that choice must be respected.
Democracy does not end on election day. Citizens must continue to demand transparency, accountability, and results from those entrusted with the mandate to govern.
Nigeria’s challenges are real, but so are its opportunities. We have the people, resources, enterprise, and creativity to build a safer, more productive country. Our task is to turn these possibilities into results. We have the credentials, experience, and record to collaborate with Nigerians on this transformative journey.
Our journey will be harder if we do not unite as one people and one nation. A united Nigeria, guided by shared purpose and a commitment to fairness, justice, and equity, will make transformation easier, strengthen our institutions, and help us hold our leaders accountable.
Finally, the 2027 election must be guided by capacity, competence, compassion, character, and commitment. Our campaign will focus on the urgent concerns of Nigerians and not on ethnicity or religion. Nigerians must reject and disregard any campaign driven by propaganda, ethnicity, religion, elitism, or cronyism.
As my team and I travel across the country, we will listen to Nigerians, understand their needs and concerns, and assure them that we have the competence, character, and compassion to lead and reset Nigeria for the benefit of all.
Nigerians deserve leaders who will engage them, listen to their concerns, and present clear solutions to unite the country, defeat insecurity, pull people out of poverty, drastically reduce hunger and the number of out-of-school children, improve education and healthcare, and build growth that serves everyone, especially the most vulnerable. Every candidate must be willing to present their credentials, defend their records, and subject their vision to open scrutiny.
No candidate should hide behind the high walls of power, send proxies or surrogates to the hustings, and expect Nigerians to entrust them with the leadership of the country. Every candidate seeking the presidency must have the courage to come before the people, answer their questions, defend their records, and subject their vision to public scrutiny.
True leadership requires presence and empathy. No one can lead from the front without standing with communities across Nigeria devastated by banditry, criminality, terrorism, and flooding. You cannot truly lead people you are unwilling to visit, listen to, and understand.
Today, I make this clear commitment: my running mate and I will take our message directly to Nigerians. We will listen to them, understand their concerns, and engage them openly. We will not delegate this duty to proxies. We will answer questions, defend our record and character, and present our plan to rebuild Nigeria. Any presidential candidate who lacks the resolve to travel across the country, meet the people, and respond to their questions lacks the capacity to govern it.
I commit to commencing the journey of resetting Nigeria by uniting it, securing it on the path of economic and inclusive growth, and moving our country from consumption to production.
A New Nigeria is possible.
God Almighty bless Nigeria. -PO
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