Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo and presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM), says the 2027 elections will not be swayed by political calculations, pollsters, or the number of multimillionaires in a political party.
Speaking on Monday at the APM north-central town hall
meeting in Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa state, Makinde said the electorate
will decide the outcome of the elections.
“Let me say this. This 2027 election will not be determined
by politics, by pollsters, or by the number of multimillionaires in your
party,” he said.
“This election is not going to be determined by the number
of millionaires you have in your corner, or how many billions you have to
spend. This election will be determined by the people of Nigeria.
“You need a lot of energy to be able to serve and govern our
people effectively, and Makinde has the energy to reset Nigeria. If you go to
Oyo state today, as I’m talking to you, we have started the process of
preparing the 2027 budget.
“What we normally do is go around the geopolitical zones in
the state to listen to them [the people], to know what they would like us to
include in the budget. This is what we have been doing for the past seven
years.”
Makinde criticised the federal government’s budget process,
saying it is often delayed and fails to reflect the needs and aspirations of
Nigerians.
“They [FG] expanded army divisions to 12. I was looking at
the budget for 2026. I was looking for the item in that budget relating to the
expansion of those army divisions. I did not see it,” he said.
“If they have it in the budget that they prepared for 2026,
let them bring it out. You cannot just wake up without a plan and expand army
divisions to tackle insecurity. There has to be a lot of planning that will go
into this.”
Makinde admitted that state governments were receiving more
funds from the federation account but said the increased allocation has not
addressed hunger.
“Yes, they [FG] claim we [state governments] have more
money. I am not arguing that. Yes, in terms of the totality, we have more
money, but has it translated to fighting hunger in our society? The answer is
no,” he said.
“For us in Oyo state, when I came in 2019, the state’s
dependence on federal allocation was about 80 percent plus. We worked really
hard to bring it down. And you can go check the data. By 2022, we had reduced
our dependence on federal allocation to 65 percent.
“Then, by 2023, when they [FG] came on board with their
voodoo economy, the resultant effect is that today Oyo state is back to almost
80 percent dependence on federal allocation. That is their voodoo economy.”
Makinde described himself as a “resetter” who is “prepared
to tackle the challenges faced by this country through our reset agenda”.
“The reset agenda can be completed in four years. After all,
we had a head of state in this country who, for 10 months, was able to end
military rule and usher in the democracy we now enjoy in Nigeria,” Makinde
said.
“So, we can reset this country, reset and give Nigeria a new
security architecture, reset and give Nigeria a new path for education, reset
our economy utilising data, science and logic, and reset our socio-political
environment in four years. That is our agenda.”
Also speaking, Lawal Daura, APM vice-presidential candidate,
said Nigerians are yearning for a change and “tremendous” improvement.
“I would like to state that ours is politics with sincerity,
politics with honesty, politics with commitment, politics with dedication and
politics with focus. It is not politics built on lies or deceit,” he said.
Yusuf Dantalle, APM national chairman, said successive and
current administrations had done their best, but their efforts had not been
enough.
“It is not translating into development. For that reason, we
can’t continue to do the same thing and expect different results. If we must
get different results, we have to do something different,” he said.
Dantalle said Nigerians should work with those who have been
“tested and have proven beyond reasonable doubt that they have the wherewithal
and capability to take Nigeria to the next level”.
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