By Kolawole Ojebisi
President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, has stated that his principal’s top priority is how to impact the lives of Nigerians and not the next general elections.
Dare made this known in a statement on his official X handle on Saturday. He noted that Tinubu’s assessment would be done at the end of his first tenure stressing that the president has been able to turn around the economy within a short time.
“President Tinubu is not worried about the next election. He’s worried about the shared prosperity that he can bring to Nigerians.
“He’s worried about how the reforms he has put in place will yield the necessary impact. He is concerned about what happens to the economy of this country eventually. That’s the focus. “We’ve seen our foreign reserves go up. We’ve seen inflation come down. We’ve seen our trade surplus go up.
“We’ve seen exports go up and imports drop. We’ve seen the investments that have been attracted -over 50 billion. We are seeing prices dropping.
“We have clear data and you have a President that is clearly in the driver’s seat, and he has stayed the course of the decisions he has taken. And I think that the next election is not really in his view right now.
“It’s how to make sure that at the end of his first term, he can sit back and say, look, “I have impacted the lives of Nigerians. I have turned this economy around.” Dare said.
The presidential aide’s statement comes amid coalition talks that could be unsettling for Tinubu in the race towards 2027 general elections which thickened on Monday with the defection of a former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
Also on Thursday, the Labour Party presidential candidate in 2023, Peter Obi and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, held a meeting at Ramat House.
Mohammed disclosed to newsmen after the meeting that he was ready to work with Obi ahead of the 2027 election.
Mohammed, who doubles as chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, noted that his counterparts were also favourably disposed to forging an alliance that would end the reign of the ruling APC come 2027.
However, Tinubu, too, is making efforts to strengthen his hold on power by holding series of meetings with prominent figures and groups.
On Friday, the president had a lengthy meeting with Catholic bishops at the Presidential Villa. The meeting was held hours after another closed-door talks with the Lagos PDP’s governorship candidate in the 2023 elections, Abdulazeez Olajide Adediran (aka Jandor).
Jandor recently announced his resignation from the PDP without stating his next move.
