The Presidency on Sunday said President Bola Tinubu deserved re-election in 2027 based on the economic reforms and infrastructure development the administration has championed nationwide.
It dismissed claims by the opposition that the President had achieved nothing in office.
“Anybody that has done well deserves to come back again,” said Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Special Duties, Tunde Rahman, during a nationwide inspection of federal and state infrastructure projects in Nasarawa State led by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
The Renewed Hope Ambassadors National Media Tour in Nasarawa was the second leg of the exercise that had earlier taken the delegation through Benue State, details of which were made available on Monday.
Rahman, who is also the RHA’s Director of Media and Publicity, said “We have seen iconic road projects. We have seen interventions in healthcare. We have seen bridges, both by the Federal Government and the state governments. And it bears restating to say that what we have seen are part of the gains of reforms undertaken by President Bola Tinubu.
“When those reforms were initiated, people were complaining that there were initial difficulties. But those difficulties soon gave way for benefits, and this is part of the benefits that we are seeing.”
He dismissed the opposition’s criticism of the administration’s record as denial in the face of evidence.
“Forget about the remonstration of the opposition, who continue to claim that Mr President has not done anything, seeing is believing. You have seen for yourselves from about Wednesday till now. Somebody said in Benue that Governor Alia has turned Benue into a construction yard. Same with Governor Sule of Nasarawa State,” he said.
Rahman argued that both governors had credited federal fiscal reforms for their expanded capacity to execute projects.
He stated, “Both governors have been very unanimous in stating that they were able to do what they did because the Federal Government reforms have freed resources to them, and they have more fiscal space to perform.
“Anybody that has done well deserves to come back again. Mr President has done well during this first time, and he deserves to be re-elected in order to continue the work that he has done,” he said, appealing to Nigerians to let the President’s record shape their voting decisions in the next election.
For his part, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Print Media, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, described the projects inspected across both states as evidence of what he called lasting legacies of the Tinubu administration.
Abdulaziz stated, “Taken together, what we have seen today actually represents what we’ve been saying to Nigerians about the revolution that the Tinubu administration has brought, in terms of public infrastructure, in terms of lasting legacies.
“Because when we talk about lasting legacies, we are not talking about things that will fade away tomorrow, but things that will outlast us, things that will better the lives of the common man.”
He argued that the removal of fuel subsidy freed up resources which the Federal Government and states are reinvesting into projects with tangible impact.
“When subsidy was removed, there was a lot of conversation about the impact on the common man.
“But then we are seeing government giving back what is somehow lost by the removal of subsidy, in terms of investment that will actually bring about economic development,” the Presidential aide said, citing the Makurdi-Otukpo-Enugu road corridor, initiated in 2024, as a project that had already cut travel time and stimulated new economic activity across Nasarawa, Benue and Enugu states.
Meanwhile, at the Total Roundabout flyover and circular intersection in Keffi, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Nasarawa State Urban Development Agency, Wada Mohammed, explained that the project was a direct response to a horrific history of fatal crashes along the dualised Abuja-Keffi Road, including a single incident in which claimed 225 lives.
He said the flyover, initially costed at N11.1bn, had required an upward review after the Federal Ministry of Works directed an increase in bridge headroom to accommodate higher vehicles, extending the ramps beyond one kilometre.
With compensation of over N600m already paid to affected property owners and road furnishing estimated at another N1bn, Mohammed said the project is expected to be completed within its 18-month timeline.
Mohammed also stated that the bridge in Mararaba area of the state, a 2.6-kilometre continuous flyover with two pedestrian bridges and five additional pedestrian crossings, was designed as what he called “a final solution” to years of road accidents and congestions.
“What is in Mararaba is a final solution to an attempt that defies so many approaches. But at the end of the day, we came up with the final solution, and that is to provide a continuous flyover of 2.6-kilometer-long that will fly over the challenging area without tampering with the business activities of the location.
“That is to say, we have two pedestrian flyover bridge, and then connecting elevated road of 2.6 kilometers, and we have five pedestrian bridges, so that it will enable pedestrian to cross at any point without going all through to the roundabout, and that is what will provide the final solution to the challenges we are facing in Mararaba,” he explained.
The project, costing between N43bn and N44bn including compensation and road furnishing, he said, is expected to reduce travel time from Abuja to Keffi from over two hours to less than 40 minutes, and is on course for completion before the end of 2026.
Mohammed revealed, “At the end of the project, we are expecting about N43bn to N44bn as the total cost of the project, and that will enhance the economic activities of the area and the entire Nasarawa state because it will reduce the travel time from Abuja to Keffi from over two hours to less than 40 minutes.”
Chief Press Secretary to the Nasarawa State Governor, Ibrahim Addra, described the Keffi flyover as a project “born out of necessity,” recalling incidents where vehicles lost control and crashed into residential homes along the corridor.
At Akwanga, the pioneer Chief Medical Director of the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Dr Esla Abene, said the facility, upgraded from a former model hospital for women and children, was being developed in three phases at a combined cost of over N17bn for phases one and two alone.
Phase one, costed at N6bn, includes expanded obstetric, paediatric and emergency units, a dedicated infectious disease and isolation centre for conditions such as Lassa fever, and an intensive care unit, Abene explained.
Phase two, costed at nearly N11bn, will add an administrative tower housing multiple specialist clinic, while a third phase will introduce a trauma centre described as one of its kind in northern and central Nigeria.
Also on the Presidential Communications Team for the tour were Senior Special Assistants to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi; on Public Engagement, Frederick Nwabufo; on Strategic Communications, Linda Akhigbe; and on Digital/New Media, Otega Ogra; and on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, among others.