First Lady Oluremi Tinubu says she hopes to leave the Presidential Villa in 2031 for a country she can enjoy in her seventies, a remark that places a second Tinubu term at the centre of her campaign message. She spoke in Abuja on Friday while inaugurating the headquarters of the PBAT Door-to-Door Movement, a grassroots group mobilising support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election. The presidential election holds on January 16, 2027, less than three months away.
“I want to leave Aso Rock, in 2031, by the grace of God, and enter a Nigeria that me as a 70-something-year-old woman will enjoy,” she said. Mrs Tinubu, who turned 66 in September, would be past 70 by the time a second term ends on May 29, 2031. She said she wanted to be able to get to the airport and travel quickly, adding that the country’s airports were already changing.
The First Lady also took a swipe at critics of the administration. “So things are happening in Nigeria, except, you know, those who don’t see; maybe we’ll give them some, you know, Bola Tinubu eyeglasses. We are doing that, JigiBola,” she said. Jigi-Bola was an eye care scheme introduced by her husband as Lagos State governor in 2001, offering free eye screening, glasses and surgery, and later relaunched by the Lagos State Government in 2021.
She then formally commissioned the building. “So to the glory of God, and for the victory of Mr President come 2027, I hereby formally commission the PBAT door-to-door movement campaign headquarters Abuja,” she said. Mrs Tinubu also declared support for the All Progressives Congress and for the movement’s convener, Government Ekpemupolo, the former Niger Delta militant leader popularly known as Tompolo.
Her reference to airports points to one of the more visible federal projects of the past year. A fire in late February damaged Terminal 1 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, temporarily shutting the airfield and diverting flights to Abuja. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo ordered the old terminal pulled down, and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has put the rebuild at 22 months. The Federal Executive Council had approved about ₦712 billion for the Lagos terminal and associated works in August 2025, and Keyamo said in April that roughly $500 million in government cash had gone into modernising the airport.
The broader economic picture is more mixed. The National Bureau of Statistics says headline inflation fell to 14.63 per cent in September 2026, down from 15.39 per cent in August and 20.98 per cent a year earlier. Food prices dropped by 1.55 per cent on a month on month basis, the first outright monthly fall in recent months.
Yet food inflation still stood at 19.59 per cent year on year, and the burden is uneven across the country. Lagos recorded the highest food inflation in September at 34.40 per cent, followed by Imo at 33.79 per cent and Ondo at 31.49 per cent. Imo also led headline inflation at 30.04 per cent, more than double the national rate.
Fuel remains the sharpest pressure point. Petrol now sells for about ₦1,400 per litre, up from roughly ₦830 before the Middle East conflict pushed crude prices higher in February, an increase of about 69 per cent. The Federal Government’s 30-day discount at NNPC stations is due to end on October 31, while the Nigeria Labour Congress gave the government two weeks from October 9 to bring petrol prices down and open fresh minimum wage talks.
Opposition candidates have built their campaigns around that hardship. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress candidate, has accused the administration of offering relief only as the election approaches, while the President insists his reforms are working and has ruled out a return to fuel subsidy.
The PBAT Door-to-Door Movement is one of several groups working outside the formal party structure to canvass votes for the President. Campaigns for the presidential and National Assembly elections opened on August 19 and, under the Electoral Act, 2026, must end 24 hours before polling day.