The 2027 Lagos State governorship candidate of the Allied People’s Movement (APM), Prince Laja Adeoye, has said the party’s presidential candidate, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, can reset Nigeria within four years if elected president.
Adeoye made the assertion during a television programme on Sunday, saying Makinde’s proposed four-year administration would focus on improving infrastructure, the economy, education, healthcare and social services.
He said Makinde’s advocacy for a single six-year presidential term was also consistent with the country’s unwritten principle of rotating the presidency between the North and South.
“We believe in the unwritten principle of rotational presidency between the North and the South.
“The current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is from the South-West and is therefore regarded as representing the South in the current rotation.
“However, many people in the South expected stronger representation and greater benefits from the current administration. What we are seeing today is not what we expected from a government that is supposed to represent the interests of our region,” he said.
According to Adeoye, Makinde believes four years would be sufficient to make significant and lasting improvements before power returns to the North under the principle of rotation.
On fuel pricing, Adeoye said Makinde was not advocating a return to the former subsidy regime but wanted Nigerians to benefit more directly from the country’s crude oil resources.
“His argument is that Nigeria owns its crude oil resources and should ensure that Nigerians benefit from those resources before they are sold on the international market,” he said.
Adeoye argued that Nigerians should not have to buy petroleum products at prices that fail to reflect the country’s status as an oil-producing nation.
He also called for a stronger role for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in protecting Nigeria’s interests and ensuring that citizens derive greater benefits from the country’s natural resources.
Adeoye said the APM’s presidential manifesto, which he said would be released soon, would outline how the party intends to achieve its objectives and enable Nigerians to hold it accountable for its campaign promises.
On security, Adeoye commended Makinde for his role in the rescue of kidnapped schoolchildren in Oyo State, saying the governor provided leadership, resources and logistics to security agencies during the incident.
“During that period, I had the opportunity to engage with him personally. I saw how emotionally affected he was by the incident and how seriously he treated the situation,” he said.
Adeoye said Makinde convened meetings with the state security apparatus, received reports and deployed resources towards the operation that eventually led to the children’s release.
He said the experience reinforced APM’s support for state, community and decentralised policing, which he argued would give governors greater responsibility for security.
Adeoye also dismissed suggestions that Makinde was contesting the presidency merely to weaken President Tinubu’s support in the South-West, insisting that the governor was seeking to win the election.
He said Makinde had demonstrated his commitment by travelling across the country, holding town hall meetings and engaging Nigerians across the six geopolitical zones.
“Someone who is not serious about winning an election would not undertake this level of engagement,” Adeoye said.
On his own governorship ambition, Adeoye said an APM administration would pursue an ambitious four-year development programme for Lagos, with housing, food security, education and infrastructure among its priorities.
He promised targeted free education and said the party would seek to make Lagos one of the three best-performing states in Nigeria in public examinations such as WAEC and NECO within its first four years.
He also pledged greater administrative decentralisation through efforts to secure constitutional recognition of Lagos State’s Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) as full local governments.
According to him, decentralisation would bring governance closer to residents, improve service delivery and create opportunities for economic development across the state.
Adeoye said an APM administration would work with the Federal Government and National Assembly to pursue the constitutional process required for the creation and recognition of additional local governments.
He also identified indiscriminate refuse disposal, blocked drainage channels and flooding as major challenges facing Lagos, promising comprehensive and sustainable solutions.
