Tompolo Takes Tinubu Campaign To Yobe And Kano With 80 Vehicles — Niger Delta Citizens Ask The Question Nobody Wants To Answer

By Passman Akpos

The reported expansion of the PBAT Door-to-Door Movement into northern Nigeria, with campaign vehicles deployed for grassroots mobilisation ahead of the 2027 presidential election, is generating questions that go far beyond party politics. At the centre of the growing debate is High Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, whose support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has become increasingly visible through the movement. The group has inaugurated structures in Yobe State and reportedly deployed 30 vehicles for grassroots mobilisation, while 50 vehicles were reportedly presented for mobilisation across Kano State’s 44 local government areas. The movement says its objective is to take the Tinubu message directly to communities and mobilise support ahead of 2027.

The Niger Delta Is Watching

For many people in the Niger Delta, however, politics is not simply about rallies, campaign vehicles, political structures or the personalities behind them. It is about the everyday realities confronting ordinary citizens: deplorable roads, inadequate hospitals, unreliable electricity, unemployment, environmental degradation, poor access to quality education and limited economic opportunities for young people. It is against this background that images of campaign vehicles being deployed hundreds of kilometres away from the region are likely to generate uncomfortable conversations among residents of the oil-producing communities. The question is not whether Tompolo has the right to support President Tinubu — he does — but whether Niger Delta citizens should equally demand measurable answers from every political leader and influential stakeholder regarding what has been delivered to the region.

From Oil-Producing Communities To Northern Campaign Grounds

The contrast is difficult to ignore. The Niger Delta remains one of the most strategically important regions in Nigeria because of its enormous contribution to the nation’s petroleum economy, yet many communities across the region continue to demand basic infrastructure and meaningful economic opportunities. Roads connecting riverine communities remain a major concern in many areas, healthcare facilities require improvement, electricity remains unreliable in numerous communities, and young people continue to demand sustainable employment rather than political promises. Against that background, the expansion of an organised political mobilisation structure outside the region naturally raises questions about priorities. If political mobilisation can attract substantial logistics and campaign vehicles, Niger Delta citizens are entitled to ask why similar urgency is not always visible when communities demand hospitals, roads, electricity, environmental remediation and economic empowerment.

What Is The Return For The Niger Delta?

The debate should not be reduced to Tompolo alone. It should extend to every politician, political organisation, government institution and influential stakeholder asking Niger Delta citizens for political support. What has the region received? What projects can be independently verified? How many young people have obtained sustainable employment? How many riverine communities have received functional healthcare facilities? How many abandoned roads have been completed? How many communities affected by decades of oil exploration have received meaningful environmental remediation? How much of the wealth generated from the region’s natural resources has translated into visible improvements in the lives of ordinary people? These are not questions belonging exclusively to APC supporters or opposition parties; they are fundamental questions about development, accountability and the relationship between political power and the people.

Tompolo Has Made His Choice. What About The Voters?

Tompolo’s decision to support President Tinubu is his political right, just as every other Nigerian has the right to support whichever candidate or political party they choose. But one person’s political endorsement does not automatically determine the political choices of an entire region. Niger Delta voters are equally entitled to examine the record of the Federal Government, their state governments, elected representatives and political actors seeking their support. They can ask what has changed since the last election, which promises have been fulfilled, which projects have actually been completed, whether economic reforms have improved household conditions and whether the region’s security, infrastructure, employment and environmental concerns have received sufficient attention.

The Ijaw Question

For the Ijaw people in particular, the debate carries an additional historical dimension because generations of Ijaw communities have demanded political recognition, economic justice, environmental protection and meaningful development in their ancestral territories. That history makes it reasonable for Ijaw voters to scrutinise political alliances involving prominent Ijaw figures and to ask what those alliances have produced for ordinary people. The question should therefore not simply be, “Who is Tompolo supporting?” A more consequential question is, “What has the political leadership being supported actually delivered for the people?” A political endorsement represents the position of the individual making it; an election, however, represents the collective decision of millions of citizens who must ultimately live with the consequences of that decision.

2027: Ask Questions Before Casting Your Vote

The approaching election gives Niger Delta voters an opportunity to demand evidence rather than slogans from every political camp. Candidates and their supporters should be asked where the roads are, where the jobs are, where the functional hospitals are, where reliable electricity is, where environmental remediation has taken place and where sustainable opportunities for Niger Delta youths can be found. Political campaigns should be subjected to the same scrutiny regardless of the party, personality or ethnic identity involved. If the PBAT Door-to-Door Movement knocks on doors across Yobe, Kano, Katsina and other states, political organisations seeking support in the Niger Delta should equally be prepared to answer difficult questions when they knock on the doors of riverine communities.

The People Must Ask The Questions

Campaign vehicles can move from one state to another. Political endorsements can change. Political alliances can shift and governments can come and go, but the communities affected by political decisions remain. The people of the Niger Delta therefore have every right to examine the records presented before them, compare promises with outcomes and demand accountability from everyone seeking their support. In the final analysis, the strength of democracy lies not in the size of a political convoy or the influence of an individual political heavyweight, but in the ability of ordinary citizens to ask questions, examine evidence and make their own informed decisions when they enter the polling booth.

The message to every political camp seeking the Niger Delta vote should be simple: do not only come with campaign promises. Come with your record, your evidence and your answers.