The presidential candidate of the Allied People’s Movement and Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, on Thursday announced former Director-General of the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura, as his running mate for the 2027 presidential election.
Makinde announced this at the elective national convention of the APM held at the Rilwanu Adamu Square, Government House, Bauchi.
Lawal replaces Ibrahim Bala, who was earlier announced as Makinde’s running mate, but was intended to be a placeholder.
The former DSS DG joined the APM a few days ago after resigning from the African Democratic Congress after losing the Katsina ADC governorship ticket.
Speaking on Daura’s choice, Makinde disclosed that he was deliberately chosen to solve the security situation of the country.
At the convention, Yusuf Dantalle was re-elected as the national chairman of the APM.
Speaking at the convention, Makinde declared that the task before the opposition ahead of the 2027 general election was bigger than merely winning power.
He said the central challenge was to give Nigerians a genuine choice about the future of the country and demonstrate, with measurable plans and records, how an alternative government would improve their lives.
“As we approach 2027, therefore, I believe the task before all of us is bigger than winning an election. It is to give Nigerians a real choice about the future of their country,” Makinde said.
Congratulating the new national officers elected at the convention, Makinde said the APM had, within a short period, emerged as an opposition party to reckon with.
He urged the new leadership of the party to work with other opposition political parties towards presenting a credible alternative to Nigerians in 2027, stressing that a viable opposition remained indispensable to the survival of democracy.
“As I said during the Ibadan Declaration in April this year, the presence of credible opposition is what sustains democracy.
“So, our new leaders must be ready to work with other opposition parties to ensure that we give Nigerians a credible alternative in the 2027 general election,” he said.
According to him, the 2027 election should be about measurable outcomes rather than government announcements, policies and promises that do not translate into improvements in the lives of citizens.
According to him, the 2027 election should be about measurable outcomes rather than government announcements, policies and promises that do not translate into improvements in the lives of citizens.
“The 2027 election must be an election about outcomes. For too long, we have measured governance by announcements. We are presented with policy after policy, rather than evidence of whether those policies have made people’s lives better,” he said.
Using the experiences of ordinary Nigerians to illustrate his point, Makinde said economic policies should ultimately be measured by citizens’ purchasing power rather than official statistics.
“When our mothers go to the market, they don’t experience economic policy as a statistic. They experience it in what their money can buy. How much rice, beans and gari they can take home,” he said.
He added that young Nigerians would judge employment policies by their ability to secure productive work and build independent lives, just as farmers would assess agricultural policies by their productivity, access to markets and whether farming had improved their economic condition.
On security, Makinde said the effectiveness of government should not be determined by the number of security meetings held by officials but by whether Nigerians could live and pursue their livelihoods without fear.