Niger: Group asks information minister to contest for governorship

By Sunday Ani

Niger Progressives and Prosperity Promoters (NPPP) has urged the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malagi, to contest the 2027 governorship election.

In a statement by its Convener, Dr. Ibrahim K. Mohammed, the group described Malagi as the ideal candidate, highlighting his calm, strategic, results-oriented leadership style, national experience and ability to deliver without theatrics or corruption.

It emphasised that the call transcends party lines and urged youths, elders, professionals, farmers and community leaders to rally behind competence for the state’s progress, describing the moment as a critical crossroads where delay risks further decline.

“There comes a moment in the life of a people when patience expires and silence becomes betrayal; Niger State has reached that moment. Our state stands at a dangerous crossroads rich in land, water and people, yet poor in outcomes and blessed with opportunity, yet trapped in underperformance.

“What we suffer today is not a lack of promises, but a surplus of them. Not a lack of travels, agreements or signatures, but a tragic absence of results.

“Mohammed Idris Malagi must hear the cry of the masses, the unpaid pensioners, the poor farmers that have not seen fertilizer for their farms and the teeming unemployed youths to contest for the governorship of Niger State in 2027.

“This is no longer a suggestion; it is a call to duty. The people are tired of leadership that manages decline instead of driving development. “They are tired of carefully crafted speeches that produce no schools, no hospitals, no security, no water and no agricultural value chain. “They are tired of a system that looks sophisticated on paper but rotten in practice.

“Malagi represents a fundamentally different leadership model; one rooted in calm authority, strategic thinking and execution, not noise, lousiness or theatrics.

“His leadership style is not impulsive or erratic. It is measured, deliberate and intelligent. He listens, analyses, decides and delivers. He does not confuse activity with productivity or visibility with value. He shares responsibility and respects views and dialogues.

“At the national level, he has demonstrated a deep understanding of how power, policy and institutions truly function not in theory, but in reality. He has mastered the ability to articulate vision clearly and earn public confidence without intimidation or propaganda.

“He has the discipline to operate under intense pressure while maintaining clarity, composure and direction with the capacity to move complex systems from decision to implementation, not endless committees, fraudulent entities and excuses.

“This is executive leadership and this is governor-level competence. Niger State does not need a power monger who monopolises authority at the expense of good governance. It needs a leader already tested by complexity.

“Niger State cannot afford more four years of experimental governance, another cycle of foreign trips with no domestic impact or another administration that signs agreements while communities remain abandoned.

“It does not need another sophisticated corruption network dressed up as reform of New Niger. An agenda of multiple corruption must not be allowed to continue to be governed by a system that looks modern but delivers poverty.”