2027: Sanwo-Olu urges electorate to hold candidates accountable with votes

. Says Govs have no excuses
.Stop blaming Tinubu for North’s insecurity, Fintiri tells Northern leaders

Chinwe Odita, Political Editor and Blessing Taiwo

Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said Nigerian voters are ready to bring ledger of accountability of various candidates to the polling units, saying they will vote base on performance.

Speaking on Thursday as a guest lecturer at the Freedom Online 7th Yearly Lecture in Lagos, Sanwo-Olu stated that the media should engage in patriotic journalism to guard against disinformation.

The Governor spoke on the theme, ‘2027 Election: Economy, Security and Nigeria’s Future, saying that the reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu, though painful but are healing.

The Governor stressed that with the result of the reforms, “excuses have been removed, and the electorate knows it.”

Dignitaries at the event included former Ogun State Governor, Senator Gbenga Daniel, former Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who was the chairman of the occasion and Peoples Democratic Governorship candidate in Ogun, Ladi Adebutu.

Others were, former Special Adviser to late President Muhammadu Buhari on Media, Femi Adeshina, The Aare Onakankafo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, President of Nigerian Guild of Editors, Eze Anaba, who was the Chief host, former NGE President among others.

The host, Gabriel Akinadewo publishers of Freedom Online was admirably on hand to receive eminent personalities.

Sanwo-Olu said, “We have already seen the shape of the campaign. Barely two weeks in, opposition politicians have reached for the fuel subsidy as their instrument of choice. We will see more of this. We will see promises that no treasury on earth could honour. We will see coalitions form, dissolve and re-form, sometimes within the same week. This has been the pattern of every election season in this country, and 2027 will not be the exception.

“The subsidy was not removed because anybody enjoyed removing it. It was removed because it had become a hole in the national purse through which the money for roads, schools and hospitals was draining away, and because much of that money was never reaching the ordinary motorist it was supposed to help. In the 2023 election, every major candidate promised to remove it. Only one of them was in a position to do it, and he did it on his first day in office.

“I will not stand here and tell you that it has been painless. It has not. Lagosians have felt it at the pump, at the market, and in the price of a bag of rice, and any governor who tells you otherwise has not been listening to his own people. But the measure of a reform is not whether it hurts. It is whether it heals. And the evidence that this one is healing is now arriving, quarter by quarter.

“For us in the All Progressives Congress, the position that follows is a simple one. We intend to stay the course, to deepen the reforms, and to make sure that the benefits reach, quickly and visibly, the people who bore the cost,” he stated.

Speaking on security ahead of the elelctions, Governor Sanwo-Olu said, “The first, in the communities where banditry and insurgency persist, insecurity touches everything: whether candidates can campaign, whether INEC can move its materials and its people safely, whether voters will come out at all. INEC’s own leadership has spoken openly about the threats to this election, and the Commission and the security agencies must plan for them now, not in December.

“The second is a matter of perception. People vote on how safe they feel. And I believe Nigerians can see, because they are not blind, that this President has taken the security of this country as seriously as any Commander-in-Chief since 1999.

Giving a breakdown of what President Tinubu had done on security, he added, “In July, the President approved the expansion of the Nigerian Army from eight divisions to twelve, with 28,000 additional personnel and new divisional headquarters in Makurdi, Ilorin, Jalingo and Benin City, closer to the theatres where they are needed.

“The Navy has a new Special Operations Command. Police training has been decentralized. Forest Guards and Mining Marshals now operate in spaces that were, for years, simply ungoverned. A new presidential office coordinates homeland security. And in May, in a joint operation with our American partners, some of the most wanted terrorist commanders in the Lake Chad Basin were taken off the battlefield.

“Then there is State Policing. When it is completed, it will rank among the most consequential reforms in the history of this country, and I want to say something about it from experience rather than theory.”

He explained that Lagos has been running a version of the State police for almost twenty years. “The Lagos State Security Trust Fund, created in 2007, pools contributions from the private sector and the State to equip the police and the other agencies that keep this city safe. Our Neighborhood Safety Corps puts men and women from every community on the ground in that community.

“The lesson of two decades is not complicated. Security works best when the people who pay for it and the people who depend on it can see, and hold to account, the people who provide it. That is the whole argument for State Policing in a single sentence.

“The President understands this because he governed this State. His conviction about devolving power to the grassroots is the same conviction behind his fight for full financial autonomy for local governments, which the Supreme Court affirmed in July 2024. State Policing will require amendments to the Constitution, which means the National Assembly and our State Houses of Assembly. Whoever sits in the next Assembly, I hope they will finish the job.”

Sanwo-Olu pointed out, “We speak of the economy and security as though they were two subjects. They are one. Poverty feeds insecurity, and insecurity strangles the very economy that would cure poverty. When a farmer cannot go to his farm, the nation gets hungrier. When a school is not safe, the country gets another cohort of children who never learned to read. And the reverse is just as true. The most effective security policy is a job, and the surest guarantee of a job is a country safe enough to invest in.

“Lagos is the proof. Every business that opens in this city is a vote of confidence in the safety of this city. We did not attract the Lekki Deep Sea Port, or build the blue and red rail lines, or draw the investment that has made Lagos the technology capital of Africa, by accident. We did it because, first, people had to believe that Lagos was safe enough to bet on. That is the nexus. I have not read about it. I have lived it for seven years.”

Speaking on the elelctions, the Governor noted, “Our elections have improved. Anyone who covered the elections of the 2000s, as many in this hall did, knows how far we have come, and much of that distance was travelled on this party’s watch: the Electoral Act of 2022 and now the Electoral Act of 2026, and the technology that verifies voters and transmits results. But this is not the moment to rest on our oars. INEC must be ready in every polling unit on the 16th of January and again on the 6th of February, and each of us has a duty to help it be ready.

“I want to say something about the President and this process, and I want to say it with a recent example, because an example is worth more than an assurance.

“Nineteen days ago, on the 15th of August, the people of Osun State elected a governor. The candidate of my party, the President’s party, lost. The incumbent, Governor Ademola Adeleke, of a different party, won by more than sixty thousand votes. The President did not sulk and he did not equivocate. He picked up the telephone the following day, congratulated the winner, urged him to unite the State, and thanked INEC and the security agencies for a peaceful and transparent election. Governor Adeleke has since publicly thanked the President for ensuring a level playing field.

“Think about what that means. There was a time in this country when “federal might” was a phrase that a ruling party used without irony. Under this President, the ruling party can lose a state, in the South-West, in an election year, and the sky does not fall. That is what a maturing democracy looks like. This President is a lifelong democrat, and he means to leave behind a stronger democracy than he inherited, not only for Nigerians but as an example to a continent that badly needs one.

The Governor charged his party, the All Progressives Congress, opposition parties, Peoples Democratic Party, African Democratic Congress, Nigeria Democratic Congress and others to abide the electoral law for a successful process.

He noted, “And let me add one sentence for every candidate and every party, my own included. A mandate is only as strong as the process that produced it. No office in this land is worth the life of a single Nigerian, and no victory won by the wrong means is a victory at all.”

Governor Sanwo-Olu added, “you cannot discuss 2027 and leave out the 36 governors. Nigeria is not one economy but thirty-seven: 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory. The people who manage those economies will decide much of the outcome of this election, whether they mean to or not.

“Voters may not be economists, but they are excellent accountants. They know whether their State built the road it promised. They know whether the primary health center has a nurse in it. They will bring that ledger with them to the polling unit.

“Let me be candid with my colleagues, because I have sat where they sit for seven years. Under this President, the States have had it very good. Since the subsidy was removed, the monthly allocations to States and local governments have more than doubled in naira terms. The President has done his part; the money is arriving. What is done with it is on us. The excuses have been removed, and the electorate knows it.”

Sanwo-Olu maintained, “There is a future beyond 2027, and it is a bright one. The President has set the destination: a one-trillion-dollar economy by 2030. I know there are people who scoff at that number. People also scoffed at reserves of fifty billion dollars, and at a billion dollars a month in remittances, and at a stock market worth more than 150 trillion naira. Set the target, do the work, and let the scoffers keep the score.

“We have moved past the era when every election felt like the one that might end the Republic. When the 2027 elections are done, 2031 will come, and then 2035, and 2039. That confidence, which our parents never had, is itself an achievement of this democracy, and we should say so.

“I will not disguise my hope for the outcome. I expect my party to win, and I expect a second term for President Tinubu to consolidate the Renewed Hope agenda, because an unfinished reform is the most expensive kind. But whatever the outcome, I expect the election to be peaceful, I expect the loser to concede, and I expect Nigeria to add one more milestone to its record.”

While speaking on the media, he stated, “The fourth estate holds immense power in an election season, and power carries obligation. To whom much is given, much is expected.

“I am not asking for a compliant press. A compliant press is of no use to a democracy; it flatters the powerful and abandons the public. I am asking for a rigorous press. Check the facts, mine included. Call out disinformation wherever it comes from, including from my own side. In the weeks ahead, the most dangerous lies will not come from newspapers. They will come from anonymous accounts and doctored videos, and you are the institution best placed to answer them.

“I am asking you to look where others do not. Our deputy governorship candidate in Lagos is a woman, extending a tradition in which women have held that office four times out of seven since 1999, including an unbroken run from 2007 to 2019. Women remain badly under-represented in our Politics; cover the women who are running. Young people are trying to break in; cover them too.

“And I am asking you to tell the whole story. I am not asking you to hide this country’s problems. I am asking you to give the same energy to what is working: the business that opened, the student who got the loan, the town whose road finally arrived. There is a place for patriotism in journalism. Patriotism is not propaganda; it is the refusal to let those who wish this country ill have the last word about it.

“One hundred and thirty-five days from now, Nigerians will do something no generation before ours ever did: elect a President, peacefully and on schedule, for the eighth time in succession.

“Nigeria’s future will not be decided on the 16th of January. It will be decided by what we do with the mandate that the 16th of January produces: whether we finish the reforms or abandon them halfway; whether we complete State Policing or leave it on the drawing board; whether we turn our young people into a dividend or a grievance; whether we build the one-trillion-dollar economy or merely talk about it.

“Our elders say that one hand cannot lift a load onto the head. The Federal Government has a part. The States have a part. INEC has a part. And you, the fourth estate, have a part that no one else can play.

” Let us lift this load together, and let 2027 be remembered not as the election Nigeria survived, but as the election at which Nigeria came of age,” Sanwo-Olu concluded.

Speaking as a guest of honour, Senator Daniel congratulated the organisers for choosing a subject of profound importance to Nigeria’s future.

He noted, “Nigeria cannot have a strong economy without security, and it cannot have lasting security without a strong economy,” saying the two are inseparable.

He added, “Security is not merely a matter for the military, police and other agencies. It is also an essential part of economic infrastructure.

“When farmers are afraid to cultivate their land, food production suffers. When roads are unsafe, the cost of transporting goods rises. When businesses spend excessively on protection, their competitiveness declines. When communities live in fear, investment is discouraged.”

However, he submitted, “Nigeria must not be defined only by its challenges. We possess enormous potential: a young population, a dynamic entrepreneurial culture, a growing technology sector, strong financial institutions, a vibrant creative economy and businesses succeeding across Africa.”

The chairman of the occasion, Mohammed said, “as we look toward 2027, our collective duty, as citizens, as media, as leaders, is to strengthen the foundations already being laid, not merely to critique them.

“It is important to note, first, that security is the precondition for economic growth. No business thrives in an atmosphere of uncertainty, and no foreign or local investor deploys capital where safety cannot be guaranteed. In turn, political stability depends on economic inclusion. When young people are gainfully employed and see a clear path to self-actualisation, the political space becomes far less susceptible to manipulation and electoral violence.

“Second, the 2027 election must be viewed not merely as a contest for power, but as a commitment to continuity and nation-building. Politics must never be allowed to override governance. The real measure of our democratic progress is whether our electoral outcomes strengthen institutions, bolster investor confidence and guarantee peace across our communities.

“It is also important to acknowledge that the Federal Government is confronting some very difficult challenges in the areas of security and economic reform. These are not challenges that can be solved overnight. They require consistency, patience, institutional strengthening and, above all, national cooperation.

“The efforts being made by the administration to stabilise the economy, attract investment, improve security and create a more sustainable foundation for growth deserve constructive engagement from all stakeholders.”

Meanwhile, Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa state, has urged Northern leaders to stop blaming President Bola Tinubu for the insecurity affecting the region.

Fintiri made this known during the Adamawa stakeholders’ engagement of the All Progressives Congress (APC), held on Thursday in Yola.

The governor challenged Northern leaders to take responsibility and seek lasting solutions to the insecurity ravaging the region, rather than engaging in blame games.

“Why is it that Northerners always complain whenever a Southerner is the President of the country?

“This is what happened to former President Goodluck Jonathan. He was accused by Northerners of creating the conditions for Boko Haram terrorist activities in the region.

“But honestly, we are all aware that Boko Haram members are our people, not people from Southern Nigeria.

“Now, we are under President Tinubu’s administration, and Northerners are still complaining and accusing Tinubu of the insecurity,” Fintiri said.

The governor accused some Northern leaders of shirking their responsibilities by failing to provide good governance and address the challenges confronting their people.

Fintiri said Tinubu had not cheated Northern Nigeria since assuming office, urging Northern leaders to stop shifting blame for the problems confronting the region.

“We, as leaders from the North, should stop running away from our problems and blaming others for our failures.

“Tinubu, as far as I am concerned, did not cheat us, the people of Madagali Local Government Area, where I come from,” he said.

On the economic situation in the country, Fintiri said the Tinubu administration had made significant progress in improving the nation’s economy.

He also criticised the practice of street begging, saying, “Islam discourages begging, yet some people continue to send children from poor families to the streets to solicit alms.”

On rumours concerning the credibility of the APC governorship candidate and the party’s chances in the 2027 general elections in Adamawa, Fintiri said the APC was not a party for any particular tribe or religion.

He said every member of the party was important, including those who contested and lost during the party’s primaries.

“You should not allow rumours to determine your political advantage because, as far as I am concerned, we do not have any party other than the APC in Adamawa.

“The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has gone and is no longer in Adamawa, not to talk of something called the ADC,” he insisted.

Fintiri urged APC stakeholders in the state to return to their respective local government areas, wards, and polling units and mobilise support for the party.

He expressed optimism that the party would deliver victory for its candidates from the presidential to the councillorship elections in the 2027 general elections.

Fintiri vowed that no individual would come to Adamawa and rig the 2027 election against the state, declaring: “I swear by Almighty Allah that no person born of a woman will come to Adamawa and rig us out.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gov. Fintiri was the APC Adamawa Northern Senatorial candidate for the 2027 election.

Among the party’s stakeholders in attendance were Sen. Umaru Bindow, former governor of the state; Sen. Binta Masi; serving Senators; members of the House of Representatives; and party executives, among others.

For a better society

Follow us across our platforms:

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/championnewsonline/
Facebook – https://web.facebook.com/championnewsonline
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/champion-newspapers-limited/
https://x.com/championnewsng/

You can also like and comment on our YouTube videos.
https://youtu.be/QIBfD1tT80w?si=R4Qf3so2LxYu3GC2