You'd think putting together a presidential campaign team after three and a half years in power wouldn't be an easy task, but the opposition says President Bola Ahmed Tinubu managed to scrape together a squad of political lightweights. The Allied Peoples' Movement didn't hold back on Saturday, declaring that the newly constituted Tinubu Campaign Council is completely dead on arrival before the 2027 race even properly kicks off.
According to the party's national publicity secretary, Abubakar Yusuf, the team's nothing more than an assembly of yes-men and discredited figures. They argued that the list shows the President's declining political standing and his inability to pull in credible people who actually have public goodwill and loyalty on their side.
If after three and half years in power, President Tinubu couldn't garner the capacity to assemble a credible team, then he has no business being in charge of a nation as complex and demanding as Nigeria, Yusuf said.
At the center of the opposition's heavy criticism is the appointment of Abdul-Aziz Yari, the former governor of Zamfara State, who was picked to serve as the director-general of the campaign. The party didn't let him off lightly, pointing out that insecurity and the general suffering of everyday people worsened in Zamfara during his time in office.
Beyond individuals, the opposition painted the entire campaign structure as a safe haven for known political sycophants and ideology turncoats. They claimed the council's filled with former governors who recently faced massive public rejection in Osun State and politicians looking for cover from ongoing corruption allegations.
To back up their fiery stance, the party dropped some grim statistics about the current administration's scorecard. They claimed that 628,000 Nigerians have been killed and over 2.2 million others, including innocent children, abducted since the President took office.
The economic front isn't looking any better in their books. They alleged that over 140 million citizens have been pushed below the poverty line, national unemployment is sitting stubbornly at 33 percent, and infrastructure has collapsed across the country.
How can any well-meaning Nigerian campaign for an administration that's ruined our economy with ill-advised and ill-implemented anti-people policies resulting in the crippling of our national productive sectors? the party asked.
Looking for a way out of the current national crunch, the party wasted no time promoting their own alternative. They're putting forward Seyi Makinde as their presidential candidate, claiming he's the right man to mount a serious challenge against the incumbent.
They insist their candidate comes armed with a proper blueprint focused on securing lives and property, driving industrialisation, creating massive youth employment, fixing national infrastructure, and cleaning up the public service. They urged voters not to lose hope, painting a picture of a new beginning under a proposed Makinde and Daura ticket.