**Group targets 20m votes for Tinubu-Shettima ticket, inaugurates nationwide structure

Vice President Kashim Shettima has charged transport operators mobilising support for the Tinubu administration ahead of the 2027 general elections to ensure that their nationwide political engagement remains peaceful, responsible and issue-based.

Shettima, who spoke through his Deputy Chief of Staff, Senator Ibrahim Hadeija, gave the charge on Monday at the Old Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja, during the inauguration of the national working committee and nationwide structures of Transporters for Tinubu/Shettima 2027 (TFT 2027).

The Vice President urged the transporters to deploy their extensive networks across the country to promote national cohesion, counter misinformation and disinformation, and encourage responsible political participation as they mobilise support for the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and himself.

“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,” Shettima said.

He warned against threats, intimidation, misinformation and electoral misconduct, stressing that political objectives should be pursued through peaceful and issue-based engagement.

“No political objective is improved by disorder, and no democratic process is strengthened by fear,” he said.

Shettima insisted that elections should not be treated as warfare but as an opportunity for citizens and political organisations to express their interests and preferences through a credible democratic process.

“Nigeria’s future must be argued in the open, tested by citizens and decided through credible elections,” he said.

The Vice President commended the transporters for organising across the various segments of the industry, including road transportation, railways, aviation, maritime, inland motorbike operations, logistics and pipeline transportation.

He described the transport sector as being at the heart of Nigeria’s economic productivity, noting that its efficiency determines whether farmers can move their produce to markets, manufacturers can distribute goods, traders can move their stocks and students can 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 said the strategic importance of transportation informed the Tinubu administration’s investments in highways, rail corridors, ports, clean mobility initiatives and logistics infrastructure.

“The administration has treated connectivity as an economic necessity,” he said.

Describing transport operators as “parallel ambassadors of the nation,” the Vice President urged them to work with government and other stakeholders to protect passengers, enforce traffic regulations and improve road safety.

He also challenged the operators to embrace emerging technologies reshaping the transportation industry, stressing that their support, expectations and engagement would be critical to the sector’s future.

Shettima subsequently declared the national working committee and its structures across the states and the Federal Capital Territory inaugurated, charging members to promote peaceful political engagement, safer transportation and national development.

The transporters, meanwhile, declared a target of more than 20 million votes for the Tinubu-Shettima ticket in the 2027 presidential election.

Speaking at the inauguration, Segun Obayendo, Technical Adviser on Transportation, Logistics and Innovation in the Office of the Vice President, said the initiative was designed to transform the numerical strength of transport operators into an organised political force.

Obayendo said the group had commenced the development of a digital membership database and was building structures from the national level through the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to the 774 local government areas and grassroots political units.

He said the initiative followed the realisation that transport operators could not effectively deploy their collective political influence while operating individually.

“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,” he said.

He said transport operators had traditionally supported successive governments individually but had failed to maximise the benefits of their collective strength because they operated in silos.

“The transporters you are seeing today are not the transporters of yesteryears. They were working individually, supporting every government of the day, but because they were working individually, they hardly got the full-blown dividend of democracy.

“But now we have come together. This is the game changer,” he said.

Obayendo said the group had initially projected an electoral mobilisation of about eight million votes but had raised the target to more than 20 million following the expansion of its structures nationwide.

“We are looking at over 20 million as the bottom line,” he declared.

He also expressed the group’s support for the administration’s transportation reforms, particularly the transition to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), saying the initiative was creating new opportunities for transport operators and providing an alternative to petrol-powered transportation.

Obayendo said transporters understood the economic difficulties associated with the removal of fuel subsidy but argued that the previous regime had become increasingly unsustainable given Nigeria’s growing population and limited resources.

“Our resources are not elastic,” he said, adding that the emerging CNG value chain was already creating economic opportunities for Nigerians and expressed optimism that the planned deployment of additional CNG-powered buses would help ease transportation challenges.

The transporters’ leadership subsequently urged members to return to their respective states and commence implementation of the nationwide mobilisation strategy, stressing that the political project had only just begun.