By GRANT ONYEKE

Presidential candidate of Allied People’s Movement (APM), Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, on Wednesday in Abuja unveiled his ‘Reset Nigeria’ manifesto.

Speaking at the occasion, Makinde stated that the country’s severe struggles stemmed from leaders being poor in ideas rather than a deficiency of natural or human resources.

He stated that the core proposition of his agenda was straightforward: that government must actively make life easier for the people by ensuring safety, decent living standards and accessible opportunities.

According to the presidential candidate, national policies must deliver tangible and verifiable results for all citizens.

Makinde stressed that broad-based economic growth should be directly translated into job creation, improved incomes and lower cost of living.

“Macro-economic stability must have a direct impact on the people,” he maintained, even as he cautioned against relying on short-term fixes.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the newly-introduced ‘Reset Nigeria’ framework was anchored on four inter-connected pillars.

These, according to the framework, include focusing macro-economic reforms on genuine broad-based economic growth that combats poverty and establishing strict state responsibility for results rather than making excuses for failure.

Others are building robust institutions capable of working across political and regional differences to foster national development and placing half of Nigeria’s population living in poverty at the centre of government decision-making, ensuring they are never treated as an afterthought.

Makinde explained that the manifesto was shaped by extensive consultations through listening to citizens across all of Nigeria’s six geo-political zones.

“Nigeria is rich in natural resources; Nigeria is rich in human resources, but our leaders are poor in ideas,” he stated.

The presidential candidate pledged that his administration’s outcomes would be fully measurable, with concrete progress evaluated within the first 100 days and across a three-year timeline in office.

In his remarks, the APM’s Vice-Presidential candidate, Alhaji Lawal Daura, emphasised that true democratic development required peace, security, prosperity and a level-playing field without suppressing the opposition.

Daura, who stressed that a healthy opposition was complementary to governance rather than an enemy, warned that using privileged positions to muzzle dissenting voices could harm the nation.

While reflecting on his entry into the political space, he said that Nigerian politics continued to be defined narrowly by cynicism and mistrust.

“I play politics, but I am not a politician,” he maintained.

Daura described their coalition as a sincere, authentic movement, driven by a genuine commitment to public welfare rather than personal or presidential interests.

He stated that their proposed administration in 2027 was envisioned as a transitional administration designed to bring all segments of Nigerian society together to openly discuss, debate and reach a collective resolution on the nation’s path forward.

The vice-presidential candidate urged Nigerians and the media to carefully examine their agenda, which, he said, centred on four foundational pillars; education, economy, security and socio-political system.

The national chairman of APM, Yusuf Dantalle, critiqued the current national conditions, noting that political parties were merely vehicles for attaining power to rescue Nigeria rather than ends in themselves.

Dantalle warned against any attempt to weaponise state institutions to undermine democracy or commit electoral fraud, which he described as the worst form of criminality, as it stripped citizens of their right to choose.

He urged electoral umpires to maintain strict integrity and work genuinely for Nigeria, emphasising that the younger generation was watching and expected a system that fostered peace, structural progress and true accountability. (NAN)