A chieftain of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Olajide Filani, has criticised protesters of the recently amended Electoral Act, describing Nigeria’s path to the 2027 general election as a test of strategic political organisation rather than agitation over electoral reforms.

Filani made the remarks during a consultative visit to the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Abeokuta, Ogun State, where he met with chairmen of various political parties.

He said the coming general elections present an opportunity to build a broad-based coalition anchored on participation, structure and numbers, rather than centring national discourse on protests or immediate amendments to the Electoral Act. According to him, the decisive factor in 2027 will be how effectively political actors mobilise citizens into the democratic process.

“While legislative reforms remain important in the long term, the more urgent political task is energising voter participation and building strategic alliances capable of translating public dissatisfaction into electoral victory,” Filani said.

“Politics is about numbers. If governance is not going well, the most effective strategy is to organise, mobilise and remove such leaders through the ballot in 2027,” he added.

With Nigeria’s population approaching 300 million, Filani described voter apathy as the single greatest obstacle to political change, insisting that any meaningful leadership shift must be driven by expanded civic engagement and disciplined voting patterns.

On national security, he outlined what he termed a “border-to-interior security strategy,” noting that Nigeria has more than 1,000 border routes stretching across approximately 1,800 kilometres. He argued that insecurity persists not only because of porous borders but also due to weak coordination, limited surveillance infrastructure and inadequate strategic deployment of security assets.

The YPP chieftain advocated the extension of security architecture to all border corridors, alongside enhanced intelligence gathering and proactive measures to address both cross-border and domestic threats.

“Security must be strengthened at all our borders while also tackling internal risks decisively,” he said, stressing that the issue requires long-term institutional planning rather than reactive responses.

On food security, Filani linked economic stability to strategic investment in production. Citing Nigeria’s estimated 84 million hectares of arable land, he maintained that hunger in the country reflects a failure of planning and industrial integration rather than resource scarcity.

He proposed a production-driven agenda that connects agriculture with local manufacturing, particularly through investment in iron and steel to enable domestic production of farm implements and mechanised tools. According to him, investment in production and processing would address hunger and create jobs, describing food security as both an economic and political stabiliser.

Filani further stressed that leadership must be vision-driven and anchored on accountability, noting that public office is a trust rather than an avenue for personal enrichment.

“If you take money meant for roads and put it in your pocket, the suffering that happens on that road remains in your village forever,” he warned, adding that mismanagement of public funds carries generational consequences.

Earlier in his remarks, the Ogun State Chairman of the YPP, Oluwaseyifunmi Adeyemi, welcomed Filani at the meeting of party chairmen in the state