• Bauchi governor warns against infiltration of APM
• Opponents not enmity, Momoh cautions against divisive rhetoric

Governor of Oyo State and Allied People’s Movement (APM) presidential candidate, Seyi Makinde, has taken a swipe at the Federal Government’s fiscal management, stressing that Nigerians can no longer tell which budget the President Bola Tinubu administration is operating.

Speaking yesterday at the South-West town hall meeting in Akure, Ondo State capital, Makinde said the Federal Government was confused.

Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, who is also an APM senatorial candidate, hailed Makinde for the Akure outing, stating that he was able to do it due to his capacity, pedigree and energy.

Meanwhile, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Channels Media Group, Dr John Momoh, has urged political parties to refrain from utterances capable of fuelling disunity in the country as political opposition is not enmity.

While emphasising that he operated a full budget cycle with performance consistently above 70 per cent, Makinde emphasised that energy, not age, would decide the 2027 presidential race.

At the town hall meeting attended by party leaders, stakeholders and supporters from across the six South-West states, the presidential candidate stressed that APM offered a superior model of governance, describing the party as the only answer to the problems bedevilling Nigeria.

On why he was contesting when the South-West already had someone in the presidency, Makinde recalled the 1999 precedent, when the entire country ceded the presidency to the South-West, but Olusegun Obasanjo and Olu Falae contested.

“Under the Tinubu administration right now, we don’t know which budget they are even operating on for Nigeria. Is it 2023, 2024, or the 2026 budget? And then they are coming with the United Nations (UN) budget to say, look, this is the UN budget.”

“In Oyo State, when I became governor, we met a budget where performance had always been around 28 and 30 per cent.

We sat down, and over the past years, budget performance in Oyo has exceeded 70 per cent. It’s not a one-year thing, but something that we do year in, year out.”

Makinde further stated that the South-West must say no to the politics of deceit and nepotism, describing the APM as a reset agent and urging the people to get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

The Bauchi governor urged party members to beware of detractors, saying some people, out of desperation, had begun trying to infiltrate the party’s ranks to cause destruction.

He said, “What remains is for us to really continue to do more work, so that the resetting of this country, which we believe is the only way out, will begin in earnest. Therefore, after May 29, we hit the ground running. Not by hardship, not by scaring people, and not by getting people confused, but by trying to reduce their pains and then make them once again feel that they are indeed citizens of Nigeria.”

Momoh, while presenting a keynote entitled, ‘Narratives That Build Nations In Diversity, Public Relations Leadership And The Future of Nigeria’ at the 38th Dr Sam Epelle Gold Paper Lecture in Yola, Adamawa State, yesterday, noted that a “divisive appeal to ethnicity or religion could turn a neighbour into a suspect”.

He explained that democracy needed vigorous debate, disagreement, scrutiny and the freedom to challenge those who govern, adding that political opponents should not be seen as enemies of the nation.

“Our politics is charged. The 2027 general elections are approaching, and the competition for power is already shaping public conversation. Political parties are building alliances, candidates are making claims, supporters are mobilising, and citizens are deciding whom they believe,” Momoh said at the event where Governor Ahmadu Fintiri was also unveiled as Patron of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).

“Critics are not automatically traitors. Supporters are not exempt from the duty to tell the truth. In a tense season, words can become fuel.”