07 June 2026 2:27 am WAT POGU ByVincent KaluThehot button issue troubling Nigerians today is the galloping deterioration of the security situation of the country, which has been made stark by the abduction of children from a school in Ogbomosho, Oyo State.This particular, heart-rending incident, in which children as young as three years were kidnapped and have been held underinhumane conditions, hit with the force of a sledgehammer just like the abduction of the Chibok school girls by Boko Haram. That incident galvanized the nation, leading to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, which became a touch-point of opposition to the continuation of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, and ultimately laid the foundation for his electoral loss in 2015.Against this background and the multiple crises in parties as well as the seemingly shoddy preparations for the 2027 General Election, the hacking of the backend of the key server of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which houses the comprehensive details of registered voters, the President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Bitrus Pogu, has said these happenings may mar the 2027.He said that some political parties might realise too late that they would not be on the ballot because of the factions created within their folds.In this interview, Pogu speaks on these and other national issues agitating the minds of Nigerians.What are your expectations of the 2027 general elections?It is unfortunate that we are going into the election year with a lot of confusion. Confusion in terms of which political parties will even be recognisable by the time the election comes around. The judgement of about a month ago is still confusing; full of divergent interpretations.We don’t know the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is going to be recognised eventually by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The African Democratic Congress (ADC) still has a lot of unresolved issues as the judgement appears to have recognised the existence and authority of David Mark, but still allows the state chapters, which Mark and co met, as the authentic group as interpreted by some. If that is the case, what is the fate of those who didn’t pick nominations on the platform that is going to be recognised? So, we have such confusion all over the place and this confusion might linger, and we don’t know if some of them would be resolved before the election. If people bought nomination forms and have been selected to be contestants on one or the other of the platforms, only God knows the kind of confusion that would be created if the time allowed by the electoral law lapses and no changes have been made. So, 2027, which is supposed to be a year of election, is going to be a year of confusion.It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Thehot button issue troubling Nigerians today is the galloping deterioration of the security situation of the country, which has been made stark by the abduction of children from a school in Ogbomosho, Oyo State.This particular, heart-rending incident, in which children as young as three years were kidnapped and have been held underinhumane conditions, hit with the force of a sledgehammer just like the abduction of the Chibok school girls by Boko Haram. That incident galvanized the nation, leading to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, which became a touch-point of opposition to the continuation of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, and ultimately laid the foundation for his electoral loss in 2015.Against this background and the multiple crises in parties as well as the seemingly shoddy preparations for the 2027 General Election, the hacking of the backend of the key server of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which houses the comprehensive details of registered voters, the President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Bitrus Pogu, has said these happenings may mar the 2027.He said that some political parties might realise too late that they would not be on the ballot because of the factions created within their folds.In this interview, Pogu speaks on these and other national issues agitating the minds of Nigerians.What are your expectations of the 2027 general elections?It is unfortunate that we are going into the election year with a lot of confusion. Confusion in terms of which political parties will even be recognisable by the time the election comes around. The judgement of about a month ago is still confusing; full of divergent interpretations.We don’t know the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is going to be recognised eventually by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The African Democratic Congress (ADC) still has a lot of unresolved issues as the judgement appears to have recognised the existence and authority of David Mark, but still allows the state chapters, which Mark and co met, as the authentic group as interpreted by some. If that is the case, what is the fate of those who didn’t pick nominations on the platform that is going to be recognised? So, we have such confusion all over the place and this confusion might linger, and we don’t know if some of them would be resolved before the election. If people bought nomination forms and have been selected to be contestants on one or the other of the platforms, only God knows the kind of confusion that would be created if the time allowed by the electoral law lapses and no changes have been made. So, 2027, which is supposed to be a year of election, is going to be a year of confusion.It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Thehot button issue troubling Nigerians today is the galloping deterioration of the security situation of the country, which has been made stark by the abduction of children from a school in Ogbomosho, Oyo State.This particular, heart-rending incident, in which children as young as three years were kidnapped and have been held underinhumane conditions, hit with the force of a sledgehammer just like the abduction of the Chibok school girls by Boko Haram. That incident galvanized the nation, leading to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, which became a touch-point of opposition to the continuation of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, and ultimately laid the foundation for his electoral loss in 2015.Against this background and the multiple crises in parties as well as the seemingly shoddy preparations for the 2027 General Election, the hacking of the backend of the key server of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which houses the comprehensive details of registered voters, the President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Bitrus Pogu, has said these happenings may mar the 2027.He said that some political parties might realise too late that they would not be on the ballot because of the factions created within their folds.In this interview, Pogu speaks on these and other national issues agitating the minds of Nigerians.What are your expectations of the 2027 general elections?It is unfortunate that we are going into the election year with a lot of confusion. Confusion in terms of which political parties will even be recognisable by the time the election comes around. The judgement of about a month ago is still confusing; full of divergent interpretations.We don’t know the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is going to be recognised eventually by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The African Democratic Congress (ADC) still has a lot of unresolved issues as the judgement appears to have recognised the existence and authority of David Mark, but still allows the state chapters, which Mark and co met, as the authentic group as interpreted by some. If that is the case, what is the fate of those who didn’t pick nominations on the platform that is going to be recognised? So, we have such confusion all over the place and this confusion might linger, and we don’t know if some of them would be resolved before the election. If people bought nomination forms and have been selected to be contestants on one or the other of the platforms, only God knows the kind of confusion that would be created if the time allowed by the electoral law lapses and no changes have been made. So, 2027, which is supposed to be a year of election, is going to be a year of confusion.It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. This particular, heart-rending incident, in which children as young as three years were kidnapped and have been held underinhumane conditions, hit with the force of a sledgehammer just like the abduction of the Chibok school girls by Boko Haram. That incident galvanized the nation, leading to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, which became a touch-point of opposition to the continuation of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, and ultimately laid the foundation for his electoral loss in 2015.Against this background and the multiple crises in parties as well as the seemingly shoddy preparations for the 2027 General Election, the hacking of the backend of the key server of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which houses the comprehensive details of registered voters, the President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Bitrus Pogu, has said these happenings may mar the 2027.He said that some political parties might realise too late that they would not be on the ballot because of the factions created within their folds.In this interview, Pogu speaks on these and other national issues agitating the minds of Nigerians.What are your expectations of the 2027 general elections?It is unfortunate that we are going into the election year with a lot of confusion. Confusion in terms of which political parties will even be recognisable by the time the election comes around. The judgement of about a month ago is still confusing; full of divergent interpretations.We don’t know the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is going to be recognised eventually by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The African Democratic Congress (ADC) still has a lot of unresolved issues as the judgement appears to have recognised the existence and authority of David Mark, but still allows the state chapters, which Mark and co met, as the authentic group as interpreted by some. If that is the case, what is the fate of those who didn’t pick nominations on the platform that is going to be recognised? So, we have such confusion all over the place and this confusion might linger, and we don’t know if some of them would be resolved before the election. If people bought nomination forms and have been selected to be contestants on one or the other of the platforms, only God knows the kind of confusion that would be created if the time allowed by the electoral law lapses and no changes have been made. So, 2027, which is supposed to be a year of election, is going to be a year of confusion.It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Against this background and the multiple crises in parties as well as the seemingly shoddy preparations for the 2027 General Election, the hacking of the backend of the key server of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which houses the comprehensive details of registered voters, the President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Bitrus Pogu, has said these happenings may mar the 2027.He said that some political parties might realise too late that they would not be on the ballot because of the factions created within their folds.In this interview, Pogu speaks on these and other national issues agitating the minds of Nigerians.What are your expectations of the 2027 general elections?It is unfortunate that we are going into the election year with a lot of confusion. Confusion in terms of which political parties will even be recognisable by the time the election comes around. The judgement of about a month ago is still confusing; full of divergent interpretations.We don’t know the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is going to be recognised eventually by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The African Democratic Congress (ADC) still has a lot of unresolved issues as the judgement appears to have recognised the existence and authority of David Mark, but still allows the state chapters, which Mark and co met, as the authentic group as interpreted by some. If that is the case, what is the fate of those who didn’t pick nominations on the platform that is going to be recognised? So, we have such confusion all over the place and this confusion might linger, and we don’t know if some of them would be resolved before the election. If people bought nomination forms and have been selected to be contestants on one or the other of the platforms, only God knows the kind of confusion that would be created if the time allowed by the electoral law lapses and no changes have been made. So, 2027, which is supposed to be a year of election, is going to be a year of confusion.It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. He said that some political parties might realise too late that they would not be on the ballot because of the factions created within their folds.In this interview, Pogu speaks on these and other national issues agitating the minds of Nigerians.What are your expectations of the 2027 general elections?It is unfortunate that we are going into the election year with a lot of confusion. Confusion in terms of which political parties will even be recognisable by the time the election comes around. The judgement of about a month ago is still confusing; full of divergent interpretations.We don’t know the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is going to be recognised eventually by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The African Democratic Congress (ADC) still has a lot of unresolved issues as the judgement appears to have recognised the existence and authority of David Mark, but still allows the state chapters, which Mark and co met, as the authentic group as interpreted by some. If that is the case, what is the fate of those who didn’t pick nominations on the platform that is going to be recognised? So, we have such confusion all over the place and this confusion might linger, and we don’t know if some of them would be resolved before the election. If people bought nomination forms and have been selected to be contestants on one or the other of the platforms, only God knows the kind of confusion that would be created if the time allowed by the electoral law lapses and no changes have been made. So, 2027, which is supposed to be a year of election, is going to be a year of confusion.It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. In this interview, Pogu speaks on these and other national issues agitating the minds of Nigerians.What are your expectations of the 2027 general elections?It is unfortunate that we are going into the election year with a lot of confusion. Confusion in terms of which political parties will even be recognisable by the time the election comes around. The judgement of about a month ago is still confusing; full of divergent interpretations.We don’t know the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is going to be recognised eventually by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The African Democratic Congress (ADC) still has a lot of unresolved issues as the judgement appears to have recognised the existence and authority of David Mark, but still allows the state chapters, which Mark and co met, as the authentic group as interpreted by some. If that is the case, what is the fate of those who didn’t pick nominations on the platform that is going to be recognised? So, we have such confusion all over the place and this confusion might linger, and we don’t know if some of them would be resolved before the election. If people bought nomination forms and have been selected to be contestants on one or the other of the platforms, only God knows the kind of confusion that would be created if the time allowed by the electoral law lapses and no changes have been made. So, 2027, which is supposed to be a year of election, is going to be a year of confusion.It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. What are your expectations of the 2027 general elections?It is unfortunate that we are going into the election year with a lot of confusion. Confusion in terms of which political parties will even be recognisable by the time the election comes around. The judgement of about a month ago is still confusing; full of divergent interpretations.We don’t know the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is going to be recognised eventually by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The African Democratic Congress (ADC) still has a lot of unresolved issues as the judgement appears to have recognised the existence and authority of David Mark, but still allows the state chapters, which Mark and co met, as the authentic group as interpreted by some. If that is the case, what is the fate of those who didn’t pick nominations on the platform that is going to be recognised? So, we have such confusion all over the place and this confusion might linger, and we don’t know if some of them would be resolved before the election. If people bought nomination forms and have been selected to be contestants on one or the other of the platforms, only God knows the kind of confusion that would be created if the time allowed by the electoral law lapses and no changes have been made. So, 2027, which is supposed to be a year of election, is going to be a year of confusion.It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. What are your expectations of the 2027 general elections?It is unfortunate that we are going into the election year with a lot of confusion. Confusion in terms of which political parties will even be recognisable by the time the election comes around. The judgement of about a month ago is still confusing; full of divergent interpretations.We don’t know the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is going to be recognised eventually by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The African Democratic Congress (ADC) still has a lot of unresolved issues as the judgement appears to have recognised the existence and authority of David Mark, but still allows the state chapters, which Mark and co met, as the authentic group as interpreted by some. If that is the case, what is the fate of those who didn’t pick nominations on the platform that is going to be recognised? So, we have such confusion all over the place and this confusion might linger, and we don’t know if some of them would be resolved before the election. If people bought nomination forms and have been selected to be contestants on one or the other of the platforms, only God knows the kind of confusion that would be created if the time allowed by the electoral law lapses and no changes have been made. So, 2027, which is supposed to be a year of election, is going to be a year of confusion.It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. It is unfortunate that we are going into the election year with a lot of confusion. Confusion in terms of which political parties will even be recognisable by the time the election comes around. The judgement of about a month ago is still confusing; full of divergent interpretations.We don’t know the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is going to be recognised eventually by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The African Democratic Congress (ADC) still has a lot of unresolved issues as the judgement appears to have recognised the existence and authority of David Mark, but still allows the state chapters, which Mark and co met, as the authentic group as interpreted by some. If that is the case, what is the fate of those who didn’t pick nominations on the platform that is going to be recognised? So, we have such confusion all over the place and this confusion might linger, and we don’t know if some of them would be resolved before the election. If people bought nomination forms and have been selected to be contestants on one or the other of the platforms, only God knows the kind of confusion that would be created if the time allowed by the electoral law lapses and no changes have been made. So, 2027, which is supposed to be a year of election, is going to be a year of confusion.It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. We don’t know the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that is going to be recognised eventually by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The African Democratic Congress (ADC) still has a lot of unresolved issues as the judgement appears to have recognised the existence and authority of David Mark, but still allows the state chapters, which Mark and co met, as the authentic group as interpreted by some. If that is the case, what is the fate of those who didn’t pick nominations on the platform that is going to be recognised? So, we have such confusion all over the place and this confusion might linger, and we don’t know if some of them would be resolved before the election. If people bought nomination forms and have been selected to be contestants on one or the other of the platforms, only God knows the kind of confusion that would be created if the time allowed by the electoral law lapses and no changes have been made. So, 2027, which is supposed to be a year of election, is going to be a year of confusion.It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. It’s going to be sad if these things are not resolved within time so that we can have a rancor-free election. It is just likely to be the tripartite kind of contest we had in 2023 – President Tinubu against Peter Obi and Atiku. The PDP is just using Jonathan for their purposes. Jonathan, to me, is not one who has accepted.So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. So, we are going into the contest in a similar manner in terms of contestants as we went through in 2023. The only difference is that this time, Obi is contesting with Kwankwaso rather than with Datti. However, Kwankwaso has his own followership, and it might make a difference.But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. But, within the short period, there’s adequate confusion on ground, given that Kwankwaso is playing his game in the north, while Obi, as usual, is passively watching. The Middle Belt, which came out strongly for Obi in 2023, may not be that strong this time, because lots of Middle Belters feel they would prefer this time to support Mr. President. So, these confusions are there.In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. In the Southwest, we also have this similar confusion. Some part of Afenifere feels the man in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), though not popular at the national level, is their candidate, while some of them, very few of them, want to identify with Mr. President.So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. So, there’s a lot of confusion, including the fact that they’re even talking about the National Democratic Congress (NDC) having two different logos. The logo which the INEC has in its records is totally different from what is being displayed out there. This is another sphere of confusion.So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. So, I think 2027 is going to be full of surprises; that is, if we get there with the insecurity situation which is persisting and increasing in tempo. With the involvement of the Americans, some of whom are on ground, the uncertainty is going to continue in the next few months. With all these, I can tell you that there is going to be confusion and I pray we’ll get there safely to watch the display of the confusion. Really, at this point, we don’t know whether we’re going to be able to do that.The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. The opposition parties accused the ruling party of creating confusion in their parties. What is your take on this?Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Yes, we cannot run away from the fact that the APC has done its job, but the opposition is supposed to do its own job too. The APC is destabilising the opposition, but the opposition parties have allowed their flanks open for that. This shows that our politicians are only out there for themselves rather than for the nation. If somebody is coming to mess your house up when your intention is to build the house, and not to look for your own personal gains, you wouldn’t allow him to infiltrate. This shows the behaviour and characters of our politicians.Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Even though there are many political parties with their presidential candidates, in the long run, I think it’s still a tripartite kind of thing if the APC survives as one united group.The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. The only political party that is a real united opposition, but for the mess they are creating for themselves in the primaries is the NDC, apart from the APC itself. All these others are fringe, small units that would affect or reduce the monopoly of some of the larger ones in their home base; like Seyi Makinde and the man on SDP, will certainly affect whatever Mr. President will get from the Southwest, whether we like it or not. The APC seems to be depending more on the Middle Belt and other fringes from other parts of the country, which will add value to what they are doing.The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. The Middle Belt is also a shopping area for Peter Obi of the NDC. And if we assess the situation and if things are going to run normally, I think the NDC would give APC a good fight in the next election.Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Now, the north is keeping quiet, but I can assure you that Atiku is going to make some wonderful showings in the region because the north is always the north, and would think of its own rather than someone else. More so, they feel that Mr. President has favoured his people more than anybody else, and they feel that they are not very well in his government. I don’t know which index or indices they use to make such deductions, but from their utterances, this seems to be the situation.So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. So, let’s wait and see, because it’s going to be an interesting outing if we go in safe and in one piece.When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. When some of these parties realise that they may not be on the ballot, we may have a crisis on our hands, and may God save us if the election doesn’t even fall.On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. On May 15 2026, about 45 students of a school in Oyo State and some of their teachers were kidnapped.The same day, about 42 students were also kidnapped in mass by suspected Boko Haram in Borno.Why is the Oyo kidnap incident drawing national attention while nothing is being heard of the Borno abduction?Other NewsKillings won’t end if govt continues to negotiate with bandits -Pogu, president, Middle Belt ForumInsecurity, killings may lead to Nigeria’s disintegration –Pogu, MBF leaderPogu, MBF leader: We won’t allow North use Middle Belt as cannon fodder againIn this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. In this country, if you have people who speak up for you, people will know you. Oyo is surrounded by people who are enlightened, and have access to the news media both print and electronic; who have access to bloggers, people who use the social media to propagate their interests. Unfortunately, Mussa is the village in-between Chibok and Lasa, close to the river called Ilazara. I know the area very well; there are about three villages that make up Mussa, and it is in Askira/Uba Local Government Area.A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. A night before the abduction of those kids, these same terrorists were in the Chibok area and they killed up to eight or so people in two or so villages. People didn’t even talk much about that; people are killed in that area on a regular basis. Nobody is talking about it because the media is interested in what fits the new narrative. The new narrative is that insurgency has gone to the south, especially the Southwest, the home of Mr. President and that should be amplified. But, all the same, insurgency is on the increase; they are killing, maiming, abducting and using ransoms to help themselves in funding the terrorism or insurgency that’s going on.This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. This is an unfortunate development, but the truth remains that we are not united as a people; we should rise up and tell Mr. President that even if it is his political opponents that are pushing and propagating the insecurity, he should stand up and do the needful.We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. We have a National Security Adviser (NSA), who is supposed to coordinate and advise him on issues of insecurity. There are technologies out there today – drones, etc, which can help in surveillance. These people cannot be hiding, their locations should be known. We have satellites belonging to Nigeria, not even external, that could be used to know where these people are in real time.Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Now, the people within the government and the security apparatus of the country that are aiding and abetting these issues should be addressed. He either does it or else Nigerians will boot him out. Insecurity is the main thrust; next to it, of course, is the economy, which needs to be addressed squarely for him to get the kind of support he requires to come back. He shouldn’t take it jokingly because Nigerians are not taking it jokingly.What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. What should be the strongest point or campaign message in the 2027 elections?The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. The first, is addressing insecurity, and the second will be addressing the economy because if Nigerians are secure, they’ll go to their farms without terrorists killing them, and without being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Nigerians are peace loving, and obedient citizens.The devaluation that came to this country after Mr. President assumed office has rendered our currency incapable of sustaining existence. God has so blessed us. Farmers got inputs last year and produced a lot of crops, they bought fertilisers at a high cost, but unfortunately, they cannot sell their produce with real gain to be able to recover from what they have spent on input and that is a serious issue.So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. So, the economy is a serious issue. Whatever Mr. President would do, and others who are going to try to unseat him, is to assure Nigerians that they can improve the economy after promising Nigerians that they would squarely address the issue of insecurity in general. That should constitute what they will use to win the hearts of Nigerians, and then of course, their track record in terms of consistency – that is people who can say, yes, ‘this is my track record. I have done this and that and I have fulfilled all promises or majority of promises I have made in the past, and this time you can trust me to do the same.’ That will also matter because we have politicians who think telling lies just to get to power like what the APC did in 2014 going to 2015; castigating Jonathan and saying all sorts of things in order to get to power, and they got to power and here is where we are. That meant that things they said were just a bunch of lies. So, Nigerians are quite enlightened, and they know what they will do. Anything short of telling them the truth and honestly telling them that, yes, we can convince you that we will do what we are saying. That would constitute the most important aspect in the campaign.Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Mr. President has two advisers – National Security Adviser (NSA), and Adviser on Homeland Security. Why have the two? If you feel Ribadu is not doing the job, remove him, and let’s have the man you want, who can do the job. Before General Musa came in on board as a minister of Defence, we had three Fulani controllinwg our security – Ribadu, as the NSA; the minister who was booted out and replaced by Musa, is a Fulani, and the minister of state for Defence is a Fulani, all having dented records, especially the ministers, and yet he still keeps them there. Why?You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. You have people that others continue to point out as liabilities and then you are keeping them there. What does that mean? It requires some serious thinking. Mr. President shouldn’t take Nigerians for a ride. He should do the needful if he wants to be reelected.Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Again, he still has his Muslim Muslim ticket, which people are now saying will affect him because Christians will think of what will happen after 2031. Is he going to hand over to another Muslim, which means that he has created an Islamic lineage in leadership of this country at the time when the insurgents are expanding; people who profess and say Allah Akbar before they kill?Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Now, this is going to affect him whether he likes it or not because people out there are not fools; they are watching. There are also the native Hausa people. Before now, no Hausa man cared about whether there’s Hausa-Fulani, but today, Hausa people have started crying out that they’re being dominated by the Fulani and they don’t want the term Hausa-Fulani any more. It should be a campaign issue. Hausa would want to be on board and part of the government, and not to be used or deceived by Fulani under the guise of religion. So, these are issues that will influence votes in the north particularly, and in other parts of Nigeria.You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. You mentioned that the north will vote Atiku. How do you situate that against north and south power rotation?Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Atiku has always breached that north and south power rotation code. In 2019, people from the south all decided not to participate in the primaries of PDP and left it for the north. He contested with Peter Obi as his deputy. They didn’t win in the Nigeria terminology of winning. He left for Dubai. He came back in 2022, and by this time, based on the power rotation, it was supposed to go to the south, but he insisted that it should be left open and he picked the ticket with the assistance of Tambuwal. That is what destroyed PDP today. People like Nyesom Wike took up the fight and ensured that he destroyed the party. This created problems for the party, and PDP is a skeleton of what it was.Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Atiku has been destroying the north-and-south gentlemanly agreement. In 2023, he did that, and now he’s doing the same thing.When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. When we have such politicians, who for either desperation or whatever purpose want things to either go their own way rather than allowing national cohesion, etc. to carry the day, we will continue to have problems because I can assure you, supposing he wins, do you think the south will take it lying low? I don’t think so.These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. These are the problems we are going to face whether or not the elections will go through smoothly, we don’t know. But we know there are factions in the ADC and the judgement is not even very clear because state executives are claiming what David Mark and his team are doing at the centre is an illegality. They still have some court cases here and there. Rotation is good for this country. Abacha did something very good by introducing geopolitical zones, and if we still have people who are opposing the plurality of the nation for their personal gains or personal reasons, we will continue to face problems. We are still brushing up on a nation; we are still trying to address some fundamentals of nationhood, while doing that, we are still battling a constitution that has allowed Sharia to start rearing its head because the constitution puts it that way in the 1999 constitution, which is the Abdulsalam constitution. With all these, it is high time we sacrificed for the nation rather than for ourselves.Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Nigerians had expected the Tinubu administration to fast track state police policy, but the IGP Disu said that would be implemented in the next five years. What is your position on this?It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. It is the insincerity of government. The governors who constitutionally would forward whatever the bill is to their legislative arms to legislate on and send back to the National Assembly for inclusion into the constitution and implementation were not allowed to do that.However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. However, the Presidency decided to send the thing to the IGP and maybe, who knows, if it went with the instruction that resulted in the outcome that we now know. It is frustrating the efforts of addressing insecurity in real time. We know that lots of the insecurity challenges we are having is through aiding and abetting of insecurity by forces within the security architecture in the country.If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. If security architecture is not being sabotaged, with all the gadgets out there, how could these poorly equipped insurgents with little surveillance would just come and over run our security formations, battalions, even brigades. It is unfortunate. The issue is that state police should come to stay and it should be a campaign issue. People who love their lives and love their ancestral lands would vote for anybody who is ready to guarantee safety and security.That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. That is a constitutional thing. We are told that the purpose of government is security and welfare of the people. Are we provided with real security in this country? The answer is no. It didn’t start with this government, but for some reason, it is on the increase, in spite of all the efforts being made.The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. The issue of state police remains on the front burner. If we are copying the American system, we should also have county police – the local government police. Let policing come down to the doorstep of the ordinary man. Let soldiers do their job of ensuring the protection of the territorial integrity of the nation, and let police do their job to secure the land within the country. Mr. President should do the needful, and not just play politics with people’s lives. Tags: