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• Says FG running ‘voodoo economy’
From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has said the 2027 general election will be determined by Nigerian voters, not by the number of billionaires backing a political party or the amount of money available to it.
Makinde, who spoke at the APM North-Central Town Hall Meeting in Lafia, Nasarawa State, yesterday, said the task of governing Nigeria effectively required energy, planning and a clear understanding of the challenges facing the country.
The presidential candidate, while assuring that he had the energy required to pilot the affairs of the country, said he was prepared to tackle Nigeria’s challenges through his “Reset Nigeria Agenda.”
“Let me say this. This 2027 election will not be determined by politics, by pollsters, or by the number of multimillionaires in your party.
“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 senatorial zones in the state to listen to them, 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 also criticised the Federal Government over what he described as inadequate planning in relation to the expansion of Army divisions in the country.
He said he had examined the 2026 budget but could not identify a provision corresponding to the reported expansion.
“They 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. “If they have it in the budget that they prepared for 2026, let them bring it out. So, you cannot just wake up and say, well, without any plan, I am setting up or expanding Army divisions to tackle insecurity. There has to be a lot of planning that will go into this,” he said.
The Oyo governor also accused the Federal Government of running what he called a “voodoo economy,” arguing that increased allocations to states from the Federation Account had not translated into improved living conditions for Nigerians.
He said: “Yes, they claim we have more money, that is, the state governments. The state governments are collecting more money from the Federation Account. I am not arguing with that.
“Yes, in terms of the totality of the money, yes, we have more money, but has it translated to fighting hunger in our society? The answer is no.
“For us in Oyo State, when I came in in 2019, the state’s dependence on federal allocation was about 80-plus per cent. We worked really hard to bring it down. And you can go check the data. By 2022, we had gone down to 65 per cent in terms of our dependence on federal allocation.
“Then, by 2023, when they came on board with their voodoo economy, the resultant effect is that today Oyo State is back to almost 80 per cent dependence on federal allocation. That is their voodoo economy.”
The APM vice-presidential candidate, Alhaji Lawal Musa Daura, said Nigeria had suffered enough from what he described as leadership without effective results.
“For quite some time, people have been given the opportunity to rule this nation without really having an idea of how to fix it. I need to borrow a common phrase: it is always motion without movement.
Ours is going to be a movement for the betterment of Nigerians and Nigeria.
“We are result-oriented. We are focused on getting results to the extent that Nigerians will see and feel them. That is why we’re here. And, by the special grace of God, we are going to deliver,” he said.
