President Bola Tinubu has formally accepted the nomination of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as its presidential candidate for the 2027 general election, pledging to deepen the structural reforms his administration has pursued since taking office in 2023.
Tinubu polled a total of 10,999, 162 votes, to defeat his sole opponent, Mr Osifo who secured only 16,503 votes nationwide.
Speaking on Sunday at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja, the President described his bid for a second term as a mandate for continuity, arguing that the reforms undertaken by his government required consolidation.
“Our task is to affirm that continuity is essential, to consolidate reforms, secure progress, and strengthen the foundation of a modern Nigeria,” he told the gathering of party leaders, governors, National Assembly members and APC stakeholders.
Tinubu accepted the nomination with what he described as humility and gratitude, acknowledging the party leadership, the National Working Committee (NWC) and Nigerians across all works of life who have supported “the difficult but necessary path of reform.”
In his acceptance speech, the President highlighted some of the key achievements of administration, including the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which according to him, had disbursed over N282 billion to more than 1.5 million beneficiaries, fulfilling a campaign pledge to remove financial barriers to higher education.
On power, he said the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI) had supplied 2.5million meters, closing part of the longstanding metering gap, and that a N4 trillion bond programme had been established to settle verified debts owed to the electricity generation and gas companies.
He added that power generation under his watch has peaked at 6,000 megawatts, which he said was 50% higher than the level inherited by his government.
Tinubu also defended the removal of fuel subsidies and the liberalisation of the foreign exchange regime, two of the most controversal decions of his presidency, saying they had begun to yield results.
“The naira is strengthening, foreign reserves are rising, and our economic outlook is positive,” he said, while attributing lingering inflationary pressures partly to the war in Iran and broader geopolitical tensions in the MIddle East.
He noted that the political evironment had shifted considerably since his first nomination in June 2022, pointing to electoral reforms evolving voting patterns, and new tax and fiscla laws as markers of change since he assumed office.
