Akaiso Akaiso, Uyo
The Presidential candidate of the Allied People’s Movement, APM, Engr. Seyi Makinde, dropped a four 4 point Reset Agenda ahead of 2027.
The declaration was made in Uyo, on Tuesday accompanying by clapping and chanting of the APM mantra ‘Reset Nigeria.’
“If you elect me President in 2027, I will give Nigeria a tax break and make it rich without taxing the poor to death,” Makinde thundered.
The Makinde/Daura 2027 South-South Town Hall Meeting, which many had thought would be a low-key party gathering, turned into a carnival of the common people — market women with wrappers, keke riders, students, fishermen and unemployed graduates, even undergraduates under Students Union Government (SUG).
And Makinde gave them what they wanted to hear.
With his youthful look in a green coloured caftan and cap embroidered with APM logo, the engineer-turned-politician tore into the current federal tax regime, describing it as not in tandem with production.”
“How can a woman selling akara in Itam Market pay seven different levies in one day, while an oil billionaire in Abuja pays nothing? How can a vulcanizer be taxed more than a man who keeps his money in Dubai? That system is wicked and we will scatter it,” he said.
Makinde, who is flying the APM flag with Northern businessman and a former DSS boss, Alhaji Daura, as running mate, unveiled what he called his “Prosperity Without Poverty Tax” plan.
He said Nigeria does not need to kill the poor to grow its IGR.
According to him, Nigeria loses over N6 trillion annually not because the poor don’t pay tax, but because Customs, ports, oil, solid minerals and MDAs leak like baskets.
“Close the leakages, Nigeria will breathe. We don’t need to tax sachet water to fund Aso Rock luxury,” he fired.
“Under me, a single mother selling tomatoes will not be chased by taskforce. Instead, we will give her soft loan and she will grow and pay willingly. That is how I doubled Oyo IGR without killing our traders.”
The hall went wild when he promised to scrap all illegal roadblocks and multiple taxation on day one if elected.
“No more double tax. One Nigeria, one tax identification. No more touting on our highways,” he promised, to thunderous applause from supporters. He recalled how he opened a company at age 29 and employed engineers paid them, adding that if he could do that as a private citizen he could do better if voted as a President.
His running mate, Alhaji Daura, added spice: “My principal is not a tax collector, he is a money maker. While others share poverty, we will manufacture wealth.”
The APM South-South zonal Coordinator, MDPCO Barr. Akpadiaha Ebitu said the message has resonated.
“The South-South feeds Nigeria with oil, yet its people are taxed like slaves. Makinde has given us hope,” he said.
His Excellency Sen Bala Mohammed, H E Yusuf Dantalle, H E Felix Hyat, Hajia Maryam Ciroma and others gave goodwill messages.
From Uyo, the Makinde/Daura town hall meeting train moves to Calabar today, and political watchers say if the crowd in Uyo is anything to go by, 2027 may spring a surprise.
As one youth shouted from the gallery: “No more tax for the poor, more money for Nigeria!”
For a better society
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