A retired Army general, Major General Abdulmalik Jibrin, has described the failure to re-elect President Bola Tinubu in 2027 as a “colossal mistake,” while calling on Nigerians to support the President for another four-year term.
Jibrin, who chairs the Board of Trustees of Renewed Hope Project 2027, made the remarks in Abuja during a One-Million-Student Solidarity Walk organised in support of Tinubu.
The rally, organised by Renewed Hope Project 2027 alongside the “Tinubu Again” movement, began at Unity Fountain and ended at Eagle Square, where thousands of students and young supporters gathered.
“It shall be a colossal mistake by Nigerians if we don’t give President Bola Ahmed Tinubu another opportunity to govern this country for the next four years,” Jibrin said.
He argued that continuity was needed to sustain what he described as the gains recorded through the administration’s ongoing reforms.
The Secretary of the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board also called on supporters and civic organisations to strengthen their grassroots mobilisation efforts ahead of the 2027 elections.
Jibrin highlights education interventions
Jibrin said the Tinubu administration had shown what he described as a strong commitment to improving student welfare and expanding access to education.
According to him, funding provided to tertiary institutions had enabled them to expand, establish additional faculties and strengthen technical education and skills development.
“Our institutions have been stabilised by providing adequate funding to ensure that they expand, create new faculties, and focus on technical education and skills training,” he said.
He added that the goal was to equip graduates with skills that would enable them not only to seek employment but also to create jobs.
“This is designed to make our graduates ready not only for government employment, but to become employers of labour themselves,” Jibrin added.
The retired general also highlighted the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, saying the student-loan programme was providing support for students whose families could not afford the cost of tertiary education.
“You will agree with me when you look at the streets, you see a lot of children who are supposed to be in schools, but they have dropped out, and the reason is that their parents cannot afford it,” he said.
Jibrin said NELFUND provides interest-free loans to eligible students to help cover tuition and living expenses.
Group targets 12 million votes
The National Patron of the group, Alhaji Ahmed Mahmoud Mubi, said the organisation had increased its target for votes for Tinubu to 12 million.
Mubi attributed the revised target to what he described as increasing interest among young Nigerians.
He disclosed that the organisation had previously registered 1.8 million students on its platform, against an initial target of 4.8 million.
Also speaking at the event, NELFUND Managing Director, Dr Akintunde Sawyerr, encouraged students to support Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Sawyerr asked students to consider the student-loan programme and other Federal Government education interventions when deciding how to vote.
NELFUND releases latest figures
Sawyerr disclosed that as of September 2026, NELFUND had processed about 1.66 million student-loan applications and disbursed N355.87 billion since the opening of its application portal in May 2024.
He said N192.89 billion had been paid directly as institutional fees to 319 tertiary institutions, while N162.98 billion had been disbursed to students as upkeep allowances.
The figures provide a breakdown of the N355.87 billion total disbursement, with institutional payments and student upkeep support making up the two major components of the programme.
