2027: Shettima tasks transporters on peaceful mobilisation for Tinubu
• Group targets 20m votes for Tinubu-VP ticket
Vice President Kashim Shettima has charged transport operators mobilising support for the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to conduct their nationwide campaign peacefully and responsibly, The Nation Newspapers reported.
Shettima, at the inauguration of the National Working Committee and nationwide structures of Transporters for Tinubu/Shettima 2027 (TFT 2027) at the State House in Abuja yesterday, told them that no political objective can be advanced through intimidation, disorder and misinformation.
The Vice President, represented at the event by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Senator Ibrahim Hadeija, inaugurated the National Working Committee and structures of TFT 2027 across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
He advised members of the group who vowed to deliver 20 million votes for Tinubu to leverage their extensive networks across the country to promote national cohesion, counter misinformation and encourage responsible political participation.
He said: “As you set out for this nationwide assignment, I appeal to each of you to remember that political participation places an obligation on those who organise others.
“No political objective is improved by disorder, and no democratic process is strengthened by fear.”
The Vice President told members of the group that elections must not be approached as warfare but as a democratic contest in which citizens and political organisations freely canvass their positions and preferences.
“Nigeria’s future must be argued in the open, tested by citizens and decided through credible elections”, he said.
Shettima commended the transport operators for building a coalition cutting across road transportation, railways, aviation, maritime, inland motorbike operations, logistics and pipeline transportation.
He described transportation as a critical artery of the Nigerian economy, noting that the efficiency of the sector determines the ability of farmers to move produce to markets, manufacturers to distribute goods, traders to move stocks and students to reach schools.
“Every kilometre saved, every bottleneck removed, every port made more efficient and every safer journey completed adds to national productivity”, he said.
Shettima also advised the group’s members to combine their political mobilisation with the promotion of safer transportation and national development.
Technical Adviser on Transportation, Logistics and Innovation in the Office of the Vice President, Segun Obayendo, revealed that the group initially projected eight million votes for the Tinubu-Shettima ticket but now targets 20 million.
“We are looking at over 20 million as the bottom line”, he said, adding that the organisation is not only developing a digital membership database but establishing structures from the national level, states and the FCT to the 774 local government areas in the country.
“We started putting our structures together and realised that politics without structure is labour without coordination. Without structure, it is as good as praying for the wind or walking into the dark,” Obayendo said.
