—As support group sets 20m-vote target for Tinubu–Shettima, inaugurates nationwide structure
By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
ABUJA — THE Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, on Monday, urged transport operators rallying support for President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election to keep their nationwide political activities peaceful, responsible and focused on issues.
Senator Shettima gave the advice during the inauguration of the national working committee and nationwide structures of Transporters for Tinubu/Shettima 2027 (TFT 2027) at the Old Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Vice President, who was represented by the Chief of Staff to the President, Office of the Vice President, Senator Ibrahim Hadeija, 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.
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.”
Shettima cautioned 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.
He warned 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.
According to him: “Nigeria’s future must be argued in the open, tested by citizens and decided through credible elections.”
Senator Shettima 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.
He 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.
Speaking earlier, the transporters pledged to mobilize more than 20 million votes for the Tinubu-Shettima ticket in the 2027 presidential election.
The Technical Adviser on Transportation, Logistics and Innovation in the Office of the Vice President, Dr. Segun Obayendo, , 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.
He said 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.
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