Vice President Kashim Shettima on Monday urged transport operators mobilising support for President Bola Tinubu’s re‑election campaign to keep their nationwide activities peaceful, issue‑focused and free of intimidation.
Speaking at the Presidential Villa in Abuja through his Deputy Chief of Staff Senator Ibrahim Hadeija, Vice President Shettima inaugurated the national working committee and state structures of Transporters for Tinubu/Shettima 2027, a newly formed group that aims to harness the industry’s reach for political mobilisation.
“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 said, according to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication Stanley Nkwocha.
He warned against threats, intimidation, misinformation and electoral misconduct, saying “no political objective is improved by disorder, and no democratic process is strengthened by fear.”
Vice President Shettima described elections as a mechanism for citizens to express preferences rather than a form of warfare. “Nigeria’s future must be argued in the open, tested by citizens and decided through credible elections,” he said.
He commended transport operators for organising across road, rail, aviation, maritime, motorcycle, logistics and pipeline sectors, calling the industry central to economic productivity.
“Every kilometre saved, every bottleneck removed, every port made more efficient and every safer journey completed adds to national productivity,” the Vice President said, citing the government’s commitments to highways, rail corridors, ports and clean‑mobility projects.
While describing operators as “parallel ambassadors of the nation,” Vice President Shettima urged collaboration with authorities to improve passenger protection, enforce traffic rules and adopt emerging transport technologies.
He formally declared the group’s national and state structures inaugurated and tasked members with promoting peaceful political engagement and safer transportation.
Leaders of the transporters said they plan to translate their reach into votes, setting an initial mobilisation target of more than 20 million for the Tinubu‑Shettima ticket in 2027.
Segun Obayendo, Technical Adviser on Transportation, Logistics, and Innovation in the President’s office said the initiative aims to convert the sector’s numerical strength into an organised political force.
The group is developing a digital membership database and building structures from the national level down to Nigeria’s 774 local government areas, he said.
“We started putting our structures together and realised that politics without structure is labour without coordination,” Obayendo said.
He added that organisers had raised their projection from an initial eight‑million‑vote target after expanding their nationwide footprint.
Obayendo also endorsed parts of the administration’s transport policy, including a shift toward compressed natural gas for vehicles, arguing the change could create economic opportunities and help ease transport costs exacerbated by the removal of fuel subsidies.
After the inauguration, transporters urged members to return to their states to begin implementing a nationwide mobilisation strategy, saying the political campaign was only beginning.
