The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Nnanyelugo Ike-Muonso, has urged the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to shelve his 2027 presidential ambition and support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in the interest of national unity and political stability.

Ike-Muonso, who spoke during an interactive session with reporters in Abuja, argued that the South should be allowed to complete its eight-year presidential tenure before power returns to the North, in line with Nigeria’s informal power-rotation arrangement.

He also advised Obi to consider joining the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to understudy its governance structures and policy framework, build broader political alliances and contribute to national development.

According to him, political calculations ahead of the 2027 general elections should go beyond individual ambitions and take account of the country’s long-term interests.

“Presidential ambition must be balanced with the larger interests of national unity, political stability and the need to sustain policies that can transform the economy. Nigeria has developed a political tradition of power rotation between the North and South, and respecting that understanding can help strengthen confidence among the country’s diverse political constituencies,” he said.

Ike-Muonso maintained that allowing Tinubu to complete a second term would enable the South to conclude its eight-year presidential tenure before the North gets another opportunity to produce the country’s leader.

Although the Constitution does not prescribe a North-South rotation of the presidency, the arrangement has remained an important political consideration among parties and stakeholders seeking to balance regional interests.

The RMRDC chief executive acknowledged Obi’s contributions to national discussions on public expenditure, accountability and economic management but argued that political leadership also required strategic decisions about when to contest elections and when to collaborate.

“Peter Obi has built a political following and brought issues of public expenditure, accountability and economic management into the national conversation. Those issues deserve sustained engagement. But political leadership also requires strategic decisions about when to contest, when to collaborate and how best to contribute to national development,” he said.

He said joining the APC could provide Obi with an opportunity to participate in internal policy discussions, understand its governance structures and examine development programmes being implemented by APC-controlled states.

Ike-Muonso, however, acknowledged that the decision to join any political party rested with Obi, calling for a political culture that encouraged prominent figures to work across political divides in pursuit of agreed national objectives.

He urged political parties and candidates to make economic diversification, job creation, domestic production and improved citizens’ welfare central to their campaigns.

The RMRDC boss said the Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda provided a policy framework for advancing local raw-material development, industrialisation, import substitution and value addition.

He explained that the council was pursuing initiatives to move Nigeria away from exporting unprocessed commodities towards a production-based economy capable of generating employment, attracting investment and strengthening domestic manufacturing.

Among the proposals is a legislative framework intended to require at least 30 per cent value addition to raw materials before export. The measure is aimed at encouraging domestic processing and ensuring that more economic benefits from the country’s natural resources remain within Nigeria.

Ike-Muonso said the ambition of building a $1 trillion economy would depend substantially on the country’s ability to process local resources, strengthen manufacturing and reduce dependence on imported industrial inputs.

“The opportunity before Nigeria is to move beyond exporting raw commodities and build an economy in which our natural resources support local factories, generate employment and create wealth within our communities,” he said.

He disclosed that the RMRDC was promoting the identification and development of raw-material resources across the country’s 774 local government areas to encourage investment in processing facilities and industrial clusters.

The council is also working to improve manufacturers’ and investors’ access to raw-material information, commercialise research findings and strengthen collaboration among universities, research institutions and private-sector operators.

Its Research and Demonstration Plant Complex and other research-industry initiatives are intended to translate scientific discoveries and indigenous technologies into commercially viable products, particularly for small and medium-scale enterprises.

Ike-Muonso further argued that infrastructure development across the South-East could complement the council’s industrialisation agenda by improving the movement of raw materials, finished products and agricultural produce.

Major federal road projects in the region include the Enugu-Onitsha and Enugu-Port Harcourt expressways, the Enugu-Abakaliki road and access roads connecting to the Second Niger Bridge.

Other projects highlighted across the region include the Enugu International Specialist Hospital, the Enugu International Airport Road dualisation, the Trans-Sahara Superhighway, the Ndi-Egbe Bridge linking Ebonyi State with Cross River State, and sections of the Ohafia-Umuahia Federal Road and the Okigwe-Owerri Road.

The projects involve different funding and implementation arrangements, with responsibilities shared between the federal and state governments. Their expected benefits include improved connectivity, reduced transportation costs and stronger commercial links.

Ike-Muonso said the ultimate test of governance was whether public policies translated into measurable improvements in people’s lives through job creation, better public services, lower business costs and increased productive capacity.

He called on political leaders to sustain development initiatives beyond electoral cycles, stressing that industrialisation required long-term planning, policy consistency and effective collaboration between federal and state governments.

He urged political stakeholders to use the 2027 election debate to present practical solutions to unemployment, infrastructure deficits and the challenges facing domestic manufacturing, while placing national cohesion and economic transformation at the centre of their engagements.