2027: Tinubu demands credible polls, opposition assured of security agencies’ neutrality

• Orders rescue of abductees, dismantling of terrorist camps

• Reject political gamblers exploiting marginalisation, Wike tells voters

From **Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, **Abuja

President Bola Tinubu has directed security agencies to ensure free, fair and credible elections in 2027, as Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd.), assured opposition parties that security personnel would remain neutral and protect all candidates from intimidation.

Tinubu also ordered intensified operations to rescue abducted Nigerians and dismantle terrorist and bandit camps nationwide.

In a separate engagement, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, urged voters to reject politicians exploiting grievances for personal ambition, warning that changing the ethnic or regional control of power would not automatically end marginalisation.

Musa disclosed the President’s directives while briefing State House correspondents after a National Security Council meeting presided over by Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday.

He said the President instructed security agencies to provide a safe environment for Nigerians to exercise their democratic rights, irrespective of political affiliation.

“You can see all heads of security agencies are here. We had an intensive discussion, and Mr President made it very clear he wants a free, fair and credible election.

“We must do everything possible to ensure that the country is safe and secure for the citizens to go out and vote,” he said.

The minister urged opposition parties to have confidence in the professionalism of security personnel, assuring them that no candidate would be intimidated.

“For all other political parties, they should understand that the security forces are going to be neutral. We are going to ensure that we give everybody the opportunity to go and serve, so they have nothing to worry about, nothing to be afraid of, and nobody is going to intimidate them for whatever reasons,” he said.

Musa said security agencies were committed to providing equal protection for political parties and candidates while discharging their duties professionally.

On insecurity, he said Tinubu directed the agencies to locate and rescue abductees wherever they were held and dismantle criminal hideouts.

“The directive from the President is: all of us must go all out to fish out and rescue all those that have been abducted, kidnapped, wherever they are.

“There shouldn’t be any camp of any terrorist or bandits anywhere in Nigeria,” he said.

The minister disclosed that the administration had increased recruitment, training and equipment procurement for the Armed Forces to strengthen operational capacity.

Tinubu, he added, would soon inaugurate nearly 10 newly acquired aircraft and helicopters to support military operations.

Musa said the acquisitions demonstrated the government’s commitment to tackling insecurity despite economic challenges. He also cited recent salary increases for Armed Forces personnel and measures to improve the welfare of serving personnel and pensioners.

He urged Nigerians to support security operations with credible information and report misconduct by personnel, assuring that those found culpable would face appropriate action.

“Security is everybody’s responsibility. It’s not only for members of security forces. Everyone has a role to play,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wike challenged Nigerians to scrutinise the records of those seeking public office rather than accept ethnic appeals and gestures towards vulnerable people as proof of commitment to public service.

Speaking yesterday at the inaugural Idoma Hall of Fame induction ceremony, organised in collaboration with the Och’Idoma as part of the Idoma Centenary Plus celebration, he questioned the motives of politicians who, he said, ignored disadvantaged Nigerians while in office but now visited internally displaced persons’ camps to celebrate birthdays because they wanted to become president.

In his keynote address, “People, Politics and Power Play in Nigeria: The Agitation for Equity and Fairness,” Wike said the struggle against exclusion must deliver tangible benefits rather than merely transfer power between privileged groups.

“If one group replaces another at the table while the benefits remain fundamentally exclusionary, the occupants have changed, but the injustice has not,” he said.

He argued that public service must be assessed through a consistent record of action, warning that demands for fairness would lose credibility if their advocates opposed marginalisation only when their communities or political allies were excluded.

“If we complain about marginalisation only when our own people are excluded, but become silent when others are marginalised after our people gain power, we are not opposing injustice; we are seeking access to its privileges,” he said.

Wike urged voters to look beyond ethnic sentiments and power rotation, saying genuine advocates of fairness must defend it even when doing so did not serve their immediate interests.

“One of the enduring difficulties of our political life is the tendency to convert public power into private possession,” he said.

He warned that treating public office as a means of personal accumulation diverted resources to private interests and denied other citizens the benefits of governance.

Political inclusion, he said, should be measured by access to jobs, education, healthcare, infrastructure, electricity, security and economic opportunities.

The appointment of a prominent office-holder from a community would mean little, he argued, if residents continued to face unemployment, inadequate services and economic hardship.

On the federal character principle, Wike said it was intended to promote national unity and prevent a few states or sectional interests from dominating public institutions. Equitable representation, he stressed, must go hand in hand with competence.

“A Nigerian should not be excluded from public office because of where he or she comes from; neither should competence become irrelevant once a candidate’s identity satisfies a representational expectation,” he said.

He acknowledged the use of federalism, state creation, revenue allocation, zoning and rotational presidency to accommodate Nigeria’s diversity, but said these arrangements could not guarantee fairness without accountable leadership and effective institutions.

Wike called for a political culture that treated public office as a trust and judged leaders by the impact of their decisions rather than their ethnic or regional identities.

He also cautioned against treating one community’s advancement as another’s defeat, urging leaders to build institutions that served all Nigerians.

The minister commended the organisers for recognising distinguished members of the Idoma community, preserving its history and providing role models for younger generations.

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