It was a mammoth crowd that witnessed the declaration on Wednesday by a leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari, for the presidential election in 2015 as the former army general said he has what it takes to tackle insecurity and corruption, the two main problems that have taken over the entire nation.
Buhari, whose declaration took place at the Eagle Square, Abuja, under tight security, said he chose to be the medium through which his party is desirous of bringing the much-needed change to the country as the citizens of the country have suffered since 1999 when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held sway at the presidency. He added that it was time to focus on real development and protection of lives and property as the major task of the government in the country's constitution.
According to Buhari, since 1999, the PDP had presided over the country’s decline.
"Nigeria, in my experience, has never been so divided, so polarised by an unthinking government hell-bent on ruling and stealing. Adding that corruption had spread blatantly and as a result, Nigeria is now known as the home of corruption," Buhari said.
He promised to diversify the economy of the country as Nigeria's over-dependence on oil has done more harm than good.
He expressed concerns about the impact of insecurity in the country, saying he shared the feelings of all those who have in one way or the other been affected by poverty and Boko Haram’s terror. He also thanked Nigeria's law enforcement agencies and the country's military for the sacrifice they have made in keeping the country together.
Huhuonline.com can report that prior to Buhari’s arrival, chieftains of the APC from all parts of the country had held the crowd excited with renditions of Buhari's positive past and their belief in him.
While speaking at the event, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state, who spoke for other governors of the party, said he was happy that the party was making good its promise for change. He added that he felt this by the growing number of governors now in the fold.
"Change is in the air because today, you see 14 governors. The other party doesn't have any candidate like Buhari, but if they have even half let them show us," Amaechi said.
Concerning how Lagos State and Rivers State tackled the Ebola crisis, Amaechi said it was very wrong for President Goodluck Jonathan and his government to take credit as the only role the federal government played was to announce the number of casualties and those being saved.
While reminding the PDP and Jonathan that the three heavily populated states of the country including Kano, Lagos and Rivers are in the hands of the opposition and thus wondering how they think they can win the 2015 election, he called on all members of APC and other Nigerians to ensure they all have their voter cards so that any of the candidates that emerged among the aspirants of the party would be overwhelmingly voted for.
While listing the failed promises of the current president, Amaechi recalled that in 2013, the president said though he was the most abused of all presidents in the world, things would change in 2014. But the situation is even worse now because the people have not seen any changes in their lives.
In his own comment, the coordinator of General Muhammadu Buhari Campaign team, Audu Ogbe, disclosed that he, Buhari and others discussed the crisis of the youths in the country the previous night and that the government of Buhari must find jobs for the youths of the country.
He said, against rumours, Buhari is never a religious fanatic, adding that if he was one, Christians like Amaechi, Oshiomhole, Oyegun and even himself would not decide to campaign for him. He said instead, Buhari had been a quiet and rational person who thinks before acting.
While commending those fighting to stop the Boko Haram terrorists and the#BringBackOurGirls campaigners, he said the government has constantly engaged in propaganda.
"We understand the government is planning to take them to court, let the court room be large enough to accommodate all of us," Ogbe, a former National Chairman of the PDP, said.
Professor Isa Odidi, who spoke on behalf of APC members in the diaspora, said Nigeria's problems were extra-ordinary and thus needed extra-ordinary solutions and that only the extra ordinary qualities of Buhari’s as a person can change.
Senator Olorumimbe Mamora, who spoke for the elders of the APC, said the APC has become an idea whose time has come as nobody can now stop the wind of change. To him, Nigeria can no longer afford to continue with all the challenges facing it even in the presence of a supposed government.
Senator George Akume, a former governor of Benue State, said members of the National Assembly under the APC had a sweet session with Buhari and were convinced that he was the one needed for the turn-around that the country is yearning for recalling that after Buhari told them what was happening in the oil sector, some of them were weeping.
He said the APC is a party of peace; this is evident in the fact that the aspirants are all going about their activities maturely and without bitterness, he added.
Former Governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, who gave a welcome address at the event, also said Nigeria's economy is heavily challenged and needs a total overhaul. He complained that the country's security situation needed to be worked on. He lamented the government’s failure in every area, saying Buhari is the man that can turn it around.
He said Buhari was not running for himself but because of Nigerians some of who convinced him to take another shot at the presidency. He said they were happy that he had decided to step out of his retirement to help stabilise the country, so that the younger ones can carry on with the development of this nation, adding that Buhari was coming with his integrity and experience.
Dino Melaye, a former member of the House of Representatives, said the PDP has damaged the country, reminding Nigerians to check out the states governed by the APC and how they have transformed those states.
He said the APC was going to stop those who said there is a difference between stealing and corruption.
"We are here to stop those who said they had no shoes just to deceive Nigerians," he said, adding that by God's grace, the APC would take the government away and rescue the country from the PDP which he called the Poverty Development Party.
He assured President Goodluck Jonathan that his tenancy at the Villa would expire by 29th May 2015 and that Nigerians would vote and protect the votes.
Also speaking for the youths, Comrade Jasper noted that the various promises of employment since 1999 have failed.
He recalled how Buhari had built Nigeria's refineries while he was Head of State and how the refineries had generated employment. He also recalled that President Jonathan promised three refineries asking where he had built them since making the promise.
He said instead of more refineries, the government has killed the existing ones. He therefore urged the youths to vote for Buhari to redeem the country.
He also noted that most roads in the southeast are eyesores and that Jonathan laid foundation for the second Niger bridge two times but that even at that, there was no single block to show that work would soon commence. He ended his comments by saying, "all these things you are doing to us Jonathan, there is God oh!"
While speaking for the women in the party, a top female member of the party, Rabi Ishaq, said Nigerian women also yearn for change and that she and others attended the event to endorse Buhari. She noted that the mistake Nigerians made in 2011 was that they voted for rulers instead of leaders. She added that Buhari would change the system.
Giving the vote of thanks, Senator Abu Ibrahim, lamented that nobody was now bold and excited to call himself a Nigerian outside the country. He also said those within the country were living in fear and can no longer sleep with eyes closed as insecurity has reached its peak.
He said Nigeria urgently needed to be rescued and that Buhari was the one to meet the challenge.
According to him, the APC has decided to focus on areas other than petroleum. He also harped on free and fair elections in 2015.
CNPP PLEDGES SUPPORT
While Osita Okechukwu, spokesman of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) attended the event, the chairman of the CNPP in Benue State, Mr. Baba Agan, declared that the body would back Buhari to secure victory in 2015.
He said Buhari's antecedents speaks for him any day and time and that he is the one Nigeria urgently needed at this critical period. He assured that CNPP’s decision is collective and it was premised on Buhari’s track-record, saying his exemplary leadership qualities stand him out as incorruptible.
"In fact, at this time of our development as a nation, we need a morally strong leader like Buhari to place this country on the pedestal of faster growth and development, hence our decision to queue behind his aspiration,” Agan said.
"The truth is that his election come 2015 would be some sort of a mass movement of all Nigerians who are craving for change in our country. Already, the subtle mobilisation of market women, civil servants, artisans, religious groups and the political class has fully commenced and there is no doubt that Nigerians earnestly desire a change for the better."
BUHARI, ATIKU WOULD CONTINUE TO FAIL-PRESIDENCY
While Buhari campaigned at the Eagle Square, Abuja, the presidency said it was not scared of the mammoth crowd and the perceived support for the retired General, calling him and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar serial failures.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, who spoke with journalists, also said Jonathan was not planning to elongate his tenure with the excuse of insurgency in the north.
He said the president was still consulting and would make his intention to contest known soon, as many people are pressuring him to contest.
Okupe said: "you know Yoruba people have one proverb which says: it is the biggest masquerade that comes out last. The declaration by the opposition is not really something new. Most of the candidates of the opposition are serial failures. Atiku has tried twice and has failed, Buhari has done it four times and he has failed.
"If you present yourself for an election, first, second, third and fourth times, what new things are they bringing? Have they gone to school or are they bringing new things. We are absolutely unperturbed.
"The President is going to contest against serial losers, people who never win elections, people who have no leadership quality. It is even now worse for them because this president has been given four years, a platform which he has demonstrated his administrative capability, efficiency and delivery.
"It is unarguable that with these people in the APC, it is a new and good party, but they would become relevant from 2019 upward, not now.
"In order that the world is not misled, I want to state categorically here that there is no iota of truth whatsoever in that statement (that the President wants to retain office with the excuse that insurgency was high in the country). There is nothing like that.
"And this is not the president that would do a thing like that and there is no reason whatsoever for this president to do that. This is the same president that, as you must have heard recently, over 12 million Nigerians have signed asking him to come out and run.
"All the stakeholders in his party, the PDP, have endorsed him and are actually asking him to come out and make his declaration to run and it is quite a logical thing to do because there is no reason of changing the winning team.
"Again, the issue also is that as it is everywhere in the world, endorsement itself is not undemocratic because it is a normal pattern in democratic parlance that when you have a sitting president."
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Former Anambra State governor and presidential candidate Peter Obi has disagreed with Atiku Abubakar’s proposal to restore Nigeria’s fuel subsidy if elected president in 2027.
Speaking on Monday at the Nigerian Bar Association conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Obi argued that removing the subsidy was necessary but faulted the Federal Government for failing to properly manage the resources generated from its removal.
Atiku, who supported the removal of fuel subsidy during the 2023 presidential election, has since indicated that he would reconsider the policy and restore the subsidy if he wins the 2027 election.
Obi, however, maintained that reversing the policy would not address the underlying problems. According to him, the major failure has been the poor management of the funds saved after the subsidy was removed.
He said the government should have accompanied the policy with measures designed to reduce the hardship faced by Nigerians and should have channelled the resulting savings into productive areas of the economy.
“What we should have done is that when we removed it, we should have given the people alternative usage for the subsidy,” Obi said.
He further alleged that the funds recovered from subsidy removal had not been adequately accounted for, claiming that the resources were being “mismanaged and stolen.”
Obi said he had advocated a more structured approach to subsidy removal before the 2023 election, arguing that the savings should have been deliberately invested in areas capable of improving the lives of Nigerians and strengthening the economy.
“Go to my manifesto, I said it before, I said I will do it in an organised manner and whatever we recover would be invested appropriately,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of petrol subsidy during his inauguration on May 29, 2023. The decision led to a significant increase in petrol prices and intensified concerns over inflation and the rising cost of living.
While the Federal Government has defended the policy as necessary to reduce pressure on public finances and redirect government resources, the implementation of the reform and the management of the resulting savings remain contentious issues.
With the 2027 election approaching, the contrasting positions of Obi and Atiku have added fuel subsidy to the growing debate over how Nigeria should manage its economy, protect vulnerable citizens and use public resources more effectively.
News
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has warned the 31 companies that emerged successful in the 2025 oil and gas licensing round to pay their required signature bonuses within the statutory timeframe or risk losing their provisional awards.
The warning comes one month after the commission conducted the commercial bid conference in Abuja, where the successful bidders were announced for 37 oil and gas blocks.
In a notice issued on Sunday, the NUPRC said the compliance process had commenced following the issuance of provisional award letters to the successful companies.
The commission stated that bidders who failed to meet the payment deadline in accordance with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) would forfeit their bid guarantees and have their provisional awards transferred to the next-ranked reserve bidders.
“Exactly a month ago, the NUPRC hosted the 2025 commercial bid conference in Abuja where 31 companies emerged winners of 37 oil and gas blocks. Having issued the winners with the provisional awards, compliance with the payment of signature bonuses has already begun,” the commission said.
The 37 blocks awarded in the licensing round cover several areas, including the Niger Delta onshore and shallow-water fields, deep offshore assets and frontier basins.
The assets include PPL 2A29 to PPL 2A62 in the Niger Delta, PPL 2010 in the deep offshore, PPL 308 in the Benin Basin, PPL 900 to PPL 903 in the Anambra Basin, PPL 700 in the Chad Basin, and PPL 800 and PPL 801 in the Benue Trough.
The NUPRC also released the names of the 31 successful companies, together with the ranked reserve bidders for each of the 37 blocks.
A total of 143 companies participated in the licensing exercise, submitting about 200 bids for the assets on offer. However, 13 of the 50 blocks originally listed for the round received no bids.
Under the PIA and the applicable licensing guidelines, successful bidders are required to pay signature bonuses ranging from $3 million to $7 million for each awarded block.
In addition to the signature bonus, the companies must provide the required guarantees, pay first-year rents and fulfil other post-award obligations within the prescribed period.
Failure to satisfy these requirements will result in the forfeiture of the affected company's bid guarantee and the revocation of its provisional award. The block will then be offered to the designated reserve bidder.
The NUPRC Chief Executive Officer, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, had previously urged the successful bidders to complete their payments promptly and move ahead with the development of their awarded assets.
The commission has advised bidders, industry stakeholders and members of the public to consult the 2025 Licensing Round portal for additional information on the awards and compliance requirements.
Under the applicable PIA framework, successful bidders have 90 days from the issuance of their provisional awards to complete the required payments and other conditions.
With the provisional awards issued following the July 21, 2026 commercial bid conference, the 90-day compliance period expires on October 19, 2026.
As of August 23, 2026, 33 days of the 90-day period have elapsed, leaving 57 days for the successful companies to complete their statutory obligations.
Companies that fail to pay their signature bonuses and first-year rents within the deadline risk losing both their bid guarantees and the provisional awards. The affected blocks would subsequently be reassigned to the respective reserve bidders in line with the licensing rules.
The NUPRC's latest notice therefore signals that the successful bidders have entered the final stages of the award process, with compliance now required before the provisional awards can progress toward full development of the assets.
Business
In The Spotlight
Vanguard recently published pathetic pictures of the Benin-Sapele-Warri Expressway; and Punch revealed to us what happens to the Lagos-Calabar Expressway, not even 15 per cent completed, each time there is a heavy downpour in the Lekki peninsula.
The road becomes so flooded, it becomes barely usable. Morning shows the day. If Tinubu-Umahi’s legacy road already shows evidence of long-term stress, pity the Nigerians who will ply that road ten years from now.
The Minister was in Lagos State recently, half-begging, half attempting to blackmail Governor Sanwo-Olu to cough up funds to repair the mistakes made by Engineer Umahi and the contractors who hastily embarked on the road without Environmental Impact Assessment. He is building in Lagos and coastal states the sort of rickety roads he left in Ebonyi State. He has the right President for that sort of shoddy business. Right now, parts of the road have been vandalized – even before completion. Fellow Nigerians are not paying attention as they should. Pity.
Vanguard, Punch and Daily Trust have been doing Nigerians a favour by pointing to one of the greatest failures of the Tinubu administration – the maintenance of federal highways under Minister David Umahi – whose major achievement in three years had been attracting attention to himself through a scandal involving homicide. On the whole, Nigerian roads, federal and state, have not been receiving the attention they deserve in the last eleven years; the neglect just got worse.
Experience on Nigerian roads from 1974-2019
“Hit the road, Jack”. Advice from my Sales Manager, in Boston, USA, 1968.
My first full time job was in selling. It was as a salesman for a leading pharmaceutical company, Lederle Laboratories, in 1968, that Mr. Al, for Albert, Abby, came into my life. As my Sales Manager, he monitored my activities and also as my mentor. He drilled into my head the idea that a salesman’s work consists of being on the road as much as possible; in order to meet customers. By the time I arrived in Nigeria, in 1974, to start work as the Marketing Manager of Abbott Laboratories, marketers of SIMILAC baby food, being on the road 70 per cent of the time had become routine. It was new to my sales staff, but proved rewarding for all concerned – company, staff and especially me.
Until August 1974, Ughelli, Delta State, was the farthest distance I ever traveled in Nigeria. I hit the road. By August 1975, I had covered all the 12 State capitals created by General Gowon, at least three times; and the trips had just begun. By 1998, after Abacha had increased the number of states to 36, I was in charge of Circulation in Vanguard; and my annual itinerary called for visiting all the offices at least once a quarter. In fact, I opened new Vanguard Offices in Ado-Ekiti, Yenagoa, Abakaliki, Gombe, Damaturu, Birnin Kebbi and Dutse. From 2001 to 2007, I traveled to all the stations at least three times a year. Over 80 per cent of the trips were by road – even though flight options were available to me. I got to know Nigerian roads as nobody I have ever met knew them. Divorce was threatened by the occupants of the home front. There was no major road constructed, expanded or diverted which I was not familiar with. By 2017, the trips were reduced to about 20 states every year.
Thus, each time a new Minister of Works is appointed, at least until 2019, I know the problems he faces. Shortly after President Jonathan assumed office, I published an article titled Nigeria’s 70 Most Important roads. These are the roads over which 70 to 80 per cent of goods are transported every day. Lagos-Ibadan Expressway remains the first one in all respects. I went further. The biggest map available at the CMS Bookshop was obtained and all the 70 roads were identified for the Minister in charge of roads with the advice: “take care of these roads and Nigerians will never forget you”. I wasted my time and effort; and Nigerians have been paying dearly for it. Since then, two Ministers of Works were appointed; each left Nigerian roads infinitely worse than when he started.
Three years of Umahi, more of the same
“It aint the things you don’t know that cause the problem; it’s things that you think you know that aint so.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
To the best of my knowledge, no Minister of Works has been appointed in Nigeria, with the exception of late General Mamman Kontagora, who can be said to have had a fairly good knowledge of Nigerian roads by the time he was appointed. Consequently, we have selected so many good men; but, for the wrong task. Many people, including me, would have protested if Fashola was not appointed Minister by Buhari after his sterling performance as Governor of Lagos State. But, he failed dismally as Minister of Works. So, in all fairness to Umahi, many of the roads in terrible condition were inherited from past administrations. That said; it is also a fact that every new appointee is not compelled to accept the offer; and “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”. Umahi inherited several death traps; but, like all members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, he also helped to conceal the truth from Nigerians. Now, he is holding the bag; with all the incriminating evidence of poor performance. Umahi should also be excused for the failure to establish priorities. His boss, without consultations, despite all the lies told, had already conceived of a new road – the Lagos-Calabar Expressway – and the preferred contractor was determined, without bidding. The Minister spent his first year defending a decision made without his input. He added his own.
Umahi started out sounding like a “know-it-all”. He is an Engineer; so he knows all there is about road construction. He even dictated that all federal roads, irrespective of terrain, would be paved with cement – without consideration for the impact on the price of cement; which is essential for building construction.
Perhaps, not establishing objective priorities was his biggest blunder. Some Nigerian roads carry most of the heavy loads and require more attention. The Lapai-Bida, the Benin-Sapele and the Asaba-Onitsha roads each carry more loads than all the Federal roads in Taraba, Ebonyi and Kebbi states put together. I could not agree more with Senator Adams Oshiomole who recently carpeted Umahi for lack of priority in his selection of roads receiving his attention. The Okene-Auchi-Benin road carries the largest load of cement heading for Southern States, as well as fuel tankers moving North. Without prioritizing the most important federal roads, we are indirectly slowing down economic development, making products made in Nigeria less competitive and entrenching poverty. In the absence of rail nationwide, roads constitute the life-blood of our nation. They are soaked now with our blood.
By Dele Sobowale
In The Spotlight
How many fake agencies can the Tinubu Presidency go after at a time? When I posed this question in my column in early August, I intended it as rhetoric. The fake agencies and their operators apparently took it as a challenge.
On Friday evening, the ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Aliyu, SAN, emerged from his second meeting with the President in 48 hours to announce the discovery of yet another fake agency, grandly named the National Brands Development and Made-in-Nigeria Special Project Office and promoted by one Prince George Buchi Nwabueze.
Side note: Because of the length of these agency names, I’ll refer to them by their promoters, who happen to be ‘Princes’. Say, Prince Adeyemi’s PFIFC or Prince George’s agency. Okay?
So, I sat there among my colleagues, listening to Aliyu reel out another episode of an ongoing soap opera whose production studio is in the Nigerian civil service. We were arguably the first set of ears to get the gist, a privilege that comes with the burden of sharing it with the rest of the world.
Twenty-four hours earlier, I spotted the ICPC chairman making his way through the corridors leading to the President’s office for the umpteenth time. Aliyu had since become a standard feature at the State House since revelations about Prince Adeyemi’s fake agency, the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, first went public.
Draped in a white agbada, Aliyu sounded fulfilled as he announced another big catch, Prince George. Unlike his counterpart in the PFIFC, Prince George did not settle for a spot in the Federal Secretariat. No! He operated from inside the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. He was also found to operate under at least five variations of his own name, which is fitting. A fake agency deserves a fake agency’s worth of aliases.
The President ordered his immediate arrest and suspended three permanent secretaries: M.S. Danjuma, Nadungu Gagare and Richard Pheelangwah.
If you are keeping count, you would have counted six fake agencies or actors in the past few months. Four! First came Prince Adeyemi’s now-dissolved PFIFC. Then the ICPC’s interim report of August 6 unearthed two more: the FCT Investment Promotion Agency and the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency and Public-Private Partnership.
There is also the Presidential Implementation Committee on the Alienation of Federal Government Properties, a body created in 2000 under Obasanjo to manage the sale and lease of federal landed assets.
Though now dissolved, its erstwhile secretary, B.S. Dutsin-Ma, had continued operating. In early August, the Presidency directed him to cease acting on behalf of the committee and the Federal Government.
Last September, the Presidency distanced itself from Mr Fegho Umunubo, an erstwhile Special Assistant on Digital and Creative Economy in the Vice President’s office, whom it warned was still acting in his old capacity despite being let go.
Now Prince George’s outfit makes six similar instances in under a year. At this rate, the fake agencies and actors may soon require their own coordinating ministry. And who knows if the next ‘Prince’ may be found operating from the Presidential Villa itself?
Lest we think this plague is new, history says otherwise. You see, Nigeria has always had people who understood that in a country where government is everywhere, the most profitable business is to impersonate it. From the 1980s and 1990s, there are tales of fake recruitment syndicates selling appointment letters into the Army, Customs and NNPC from rented offices with convincing letterheads. Some past regimes responded with periodic raids, tribunals and occasional decrees. But the racket always reincarnates.
Over the years, the ICPC and EFCC have busted fake job-racketeering “ministries” in Abuja that interviewed hundreds of applicants and collected “processing fees” for years before anyone really noticed. The sobering reality is that we have always chased the “Princes” one at a time. And there will always be another ‘Prince’ to sit on that throne.
Also, it is not uniquely a Nigerian thing. In California in 2015, authorities uncovered a self-declared “Masonic Fraternal Police Department”, a policing outfit with its own badges, uniforms and a website claiming a 3,000-year history. It was run by three “Princes” until the state of California charged them with impersonating officers.
The difference is not that other countries breed fewer fraudsters than we do. It is that their systems make the fraud quite short-lived because the list of legitimate agencies is knowable by the public, leaving the fake ones to glow in the dark.
Moreover, if government ministries, departments and agencies were fewer than they are now, there would be fewer hiding places for the fakes.
Which brings me, once again, to one document still gathering dust on the President’s desk: the Oronsaye report. Commissioned in 2011 and submitted in 2012, Steve Oronsaye’s committee found 541 federal parastatals, commissions and agencies and recommended pruning them to about 263. It recommended mergers, scrapping, subsuming and anything else that could shrink that number.
To his credit, President Tinubu revived it in February 2024, ordering full implementation. Two and a half years later, however, the rathole of redundant agencies has only widened, and now fake ones are camouflaging among the real ones. Implementing Oronsaye would arguably leave fewer agencies with clearer supervision and a slimmer cost of governance. Again, it is not a silver bullet. Matter of fact, the report is 14 years old; some recommendations would need fresh legislation. But why chase rats one by one when we can fumigate the entire network of holes?
While the ICPC is hunting “Princes”, President Tinubu is assembling his Avengers. According to the APC Presidential Campaign Council list the Presidency released on Saturday morning, Tinubu will sit as chairman; Vice President Kashim Shettima and party chairman Nentawe Yilwatda will co-chair the council. Ex-Zamfara governor Abdulaziz Yari will serve as DG, and Hope Uzodimma, still fresh from surviving the storm that rocked the Progressives Governors’ Forum months ago, will serve as secretary.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker Abbas and Governor Buni will serve as zonal heads; Oshiomhole will head mobilisation, while James Faleke will return to his 2022 role in election planning.
The media directorate already looks like a special-purpose media house of its own. Information Minister Mohammed Idris will coordinate alongside Dr Dele Alake, Bayo Onanuga, Issa-Onilu, Mr Tunde Rahman, Dr Sunday Dare, Daniel Bwala and Felix Morka.
By Stephen Angbulu