₦airaland Forum

APC Presidential Campaign Council (2)

Let me start with the thing nobody wants to say.

Atiku Abubakar is wrong. Bringing back the fuel subsidy is not the answer. We tried it for forty years. It made a few men billionaires, it fed smugglers at our borders, and it never once put money in the pocket of the woman selling tomatoes by the roadside. Going back to it would be going back to the same thieves.

Mr President, you have done well. Removing the subsidy was hard and you did it. You have also sent far more money to the states than any President before you. The Federal Government has done its part.

Now the states must do theirs.

And let me say this as plainly as I know how, so that no governor can pretend to misunderstand it.

Subsidising transport inside a state is the job of that state government. It is not the job of the President. It has never been his job. It is not his job today. It will not be his job tomorrow. Moving people around Ilorin is not the work of Abuja, it is the work of the Kwara State Government. Moving people around Kano is the work of Kano State. Moving people around Lagos is the work of Lagos State.

This is not my opinion. It is our Constitution. Transport within a state is a state matter. The Federal Government has no business running a bus from Ozumba Mbadiwe to Ikorodu, and it should not be asked to. In fact, since the constitutional amendment of 2023, our governors have more power over transport than any governors in the history of this republic. They are simply not using it.

So when a governor tells you the hardship in his state is Abuja's fault, ask him one question: what have you done with your own allocation?

Because that is where the money is. And that is where the responsibility is.

In December 2022, one bus drop inside a Nigerian city cost ₦644. Today it is ₦1,431. Our people are now working half the month just to pay the bus. A man who cannot afford to reach his workplace does not really have a job. A child who cannot afford to reach school does not really have an education.

So this is what I am asking every one of the 36 governors and the Minister of the FCT to do.

One. Students ride free. Every student, to school and back home, at no cost. Not discounted. Free.

Two. Nobody pays more than ₦500. From one end of a city to the farthest end of that same city, ₦500 maximum. And in our smaller cities and towns, it should be far less than that.

Three. Do not buy a single bus. Governors, please. No buses. No taxis. No boats. We have seen those vehicles rusting in government yards from Sokoto to Yenagoa. Instead, register the drivers who are already on the road, fix the fare the passenger pays, and pay the driver the difference.

Four. Pay only for trips you can prove. GPS on the vehicle, a tap card in the passenger's hand. If a trip did not happen, nobody gets paid. That is how you kill fraud before it is born.

The drivers will not lose. The drivers will get richer. Today a driver chases passengers in traffic and prays. Under this scheme he earns a guaranteed payment from the state every month. With steady income he can service his vehicle, and in time he can buy a newer, cleaner, safer one.

And our people will feel it immediately. Money that used to disappear into transport will stay in the pocket for food, for rent, for medicine, for school fees. That is a pay rise that costs nobody a job.

Now, the money. FAAC allocations to the states have exploded since the subsidy was removed from ₦2.8 trillion in 2022 to ₦7.3 trillion in 2025. Nigerians have been asking a fair question ever since: where did it go?

I am asking each state to spend no more than five per cent of its FAAC allocation on this. Five per cent. Ninety-five per cent remains untouched for everything else.

If a governor cannot find five per cent to stop his own people from suffering, then the problem in that state was never money.

This can be done before 2027. Nothing needs to be built, because the vehicles and the drivers are already there. Any state can start with its busiest routes, publish what it spends, and expand from there.

Mr President, I am not asking you to fund this. I am not asking you to run it. I am asking you to write to all 36 governors and the FCT Minister and tell them plainly that this one is theirs and that the Federal Government has sent them the money, and the Constitution has given them the power, and there is nothing left to wait for.

You have carried this weight alone for long enough. Hand it to the people whose job it actually is.

And to those governors: I will explain this to any of you, personally, at no cost. All 36 of you, and the FCT. My phone is not switched off.

This is not rocket science. It is common sense.

naptu2:
It seems that many people are commenting based on the title of the thread, without reading the posts.

You can easily spot them.

Careful4u:
Audio coastal guards

Ovieemmanuel:
So dem no fit put cctv and ariel survellance?

One thing I can deduce from the speech of the Honorable Minister of Works, H.E. Engr David Umahi is that development is being planned beyond the asphalt. The road furniture will include trees, CCTV cameras, security, street lights, and Coastal guards. pic.twitter.com/lU4XUxpy4m

— EKITI NO. 1 SHAWARMA PLUG (@iMotivateAfrica) August 20, 2026

Police have arrested suspects linked to alleged vandalism along the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. Authorities say 1,800 manhole covers and about one kilometre of Clearfield fencing have been stolen or vandalised since January, while investigations continue. @MbadikeVictor14… pic.twitter.com/P9eXaIBoau

— News Central TV (@NewsCentralTV) August 21, 2026

SECURITY UPDATE: The Coastal Highway guards begins operations on the Lagos Coastal Road, arrests vandals specialised in stealing and destroying the clear view fence on the coastal road, Suspects have been handed over the to the Officers of the Lagos Police Command for further actions.

The Coastal Highway guards have also began other operations on the coastal road including clearing of shanties and others.

FLASH: The Honorable Minister of Works, Senator @realdaveumahi today launched the COASTAL HIGHWAY GUARDS, starting with 40 officers, these personnel will be in charge of:

- Maintaining presence on the highway

- Report suspicious activities

- Restrict Hawking on the Coastal Highway

- Report and Monitor any form of vandalism

- Restrict Keke or Okada on the Coastal Highway

- Restrict loitering on the Coastal Highway

The team is led by Rtd Gen. Adekunle Shodunke, they will work in conjunction with the security agencies in the State.

The Hon. Minister says this is not an ‘empowerment program’, It is a full time job to protect National Assets of the Government and in line with the Renewed Hope of Mr President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR

FLASH: The Honorable Minister of Works, Senator @realdaveumahi today launched the COASTAL HIGHWAY GUARDS, starting with 40 officers, these personnel will be in charge of:

- Maintaining presence on the highway

- Report suspicious activities

- Restrict Hawking on the Coastal… pic.twitter.com/1wdZjEWEXM

— Jubril A. Gawat (@Mr_JAGs) August 9, 2026

Between January and now. . .if you go to Coastal Road the drainage system we have there is an underground drainage system, but at the ground level of it you have what we call manhole covers. We used manholes to cover the drainage.

So what happened is that between that January and now we have a thousand eight hundred of this manhole covers that have been stolen. 1,800 of it and what they do, these vandals, what they do is to break the concrete cover and remove the reinforcement that is in it.

You know that this manhole is small, it is less than one metre by one metre and so when they remove the concrete, they break it and remove the iron that is inside.

That is not all. We have this clear view fence. If you go to the Coastal Road, on both sides, it is made of iron, clear view fence on the right hand side, clear view fence on the left hand side to screen the community away from the Coastal Road. And so we have a situation whereby these criminal elements they go there and they remove.

And between January and now, one thousand metres, which is one kilometre of this clear view fence has been vandalized, have been taken away.

Not that alone, we have directional signs. We all know what directional signs mean. There are people that are first timers on the Coastal Road, we have people that come in from abroad, they don't know. . .they want to enjoy the Coastal Road, they don't know where to turn to the left or to the right and so we installed directional signs at intervals and so about 75 pieces of this directional signs were also cut. They were removed.

And his excellency the honourable minister is so sad. Each time I report this issue to him, he'll just reply me, "I am so sad", because while the Federal Government is doing everything possible to increase the infrastructure that we have in the country, these criminal elements they are saying it will not be possible, but we have declared war with them.

We are not going to rest on our oars, the CP is here, they are determined to help us, we also have the Coastal Guard which we recently launched, they are ready to fight this battle.

My minister said there is madness in Lagos and we must face it with madness

Where is this ISESE temple or church ni kape ni.

Awon Isese baddies
NICE VOICE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥.

HAPPY ISESE DAY #IseseDay https://t.co/yKbhHLLQjx pic.twitter.com/gesOCZ21h2

— 𝕯𝖊𝖋𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖗🛡️🇳🇬 (@diponet1) August 20, 2026