Former Obidient Movement coordinator Marcel Ngogbehei has applauded President Bola Tinubu’s decision to skip campaign activities in some states.
He argued that governance could suffer if Tinubu personally campaigns across all 36 states ahead of the 2027 general elections.
NEWSNGR reports that he shared his thoughts on Tuesday in Abuja alongside the movement’s National Coordinator, Engr. Ibrahim Said Uba, during a media parley where he explained why the President might not personally attend campaign activities in every state.
The Director-General of the Tinubu Movement for Sustainable Governance, also known as the Tinubu Must Stay (TMS), also challenged critics of the removal of the petrol subsidy to an open debate on the policy, urging them to offer alternatives that take Nigeria’s economic realities into account.
“One of the greatest challenges we are having in this country is the time to govern and the time to do electioneering,” Ngogbehei said.
He argued that early political mobilisation for subsequent elections has undermined governance, with political actors shifting attention away from delivering on their mandates.
“A president gets into office, and one year after he gets into office, they start preparing for the next election. And what suffers? Governance suffers,” he said.
According to him, Tinubu has delegated campaign responsibilities to trusted associates so he can focus on governance.
“The President has said, ‘I want to focus on governance. I want to keep an eye on the key things that I am doing. Let the people I have worked with go out there and do the work.’ And in some instances where I need to come in, I will come in. It is pure delegation,” he said.
Ngogbehei maintained that effective leadership requires building strong teams and institutions rather than relying solely on the leader’s physical presence.
“Every good leader must not always be there. If you are a leader that has built resources, that built people, you should trust your people to do the job,” he said.
He added: “We don’t want to have a country where you have strong personalities and weak institutions. And that is what we are trying to build for Nigeria.”
The TMS director-general urged Nigerians to consider the implications of requiring the President to attend campaign events in every state, arguing that the time devoted to electioneering could come at the expense of governance.
“Imagine that the President says, ‘Okay, I am going to be in all the campaigns in thirty-six states of the country.’ What suffers? That is the bottom line.
“He can go round the country if he wants to go round, and he has been going round. But let us just understand with him in this particular instance,” he said.
