“That is not noise”: the night the City Boys filled the State House

The Banquet Hall of the State House in Abuja is usually a room for state dinners and visiting dignitaries. On Monday evening it belonged to young people. Members of the City Boy Movement (CBM), Relax, Tinubu Is Fixing Nigeria (RTFIN), the APC youth wing and diaspora youth groups gathered to hear President Bola Ahmed Tinubu thank them, and to hear him take them seriously.

“That is not noise. That is organisation,” the President said of the movement. He said it has grown to more than 4.8 million verifiable members organised across states, local government areas, wards and polling units, and he told members he was “very proud” of them.

Patience, repaid with recognition

Much of the address was a thank-you for the hardest stretch of the reform agenda: removing the fuel subsidy, reforming the currency and restructuring the tax system. The President credited young supporters with seeing the logic early. “You understood that a nation cannot borrow its way to greatness,” he said. “You were patient when patience was hard.”

He praised the movement’s “City Boys Care” initiative and pointed to the programmes his administration has built with young Nigerians in mind: NELFUND, the student loan scheme; CREDICORP, the consumer credit corporation; and 3MTT, the Three Million Technical Talent programme.

There was a personal moment too. Turning to his son, Seyi Tinubu, the President said: “But I will tell you what every father tells his son: you have only started.”

Ballots, not brawls

With the presidential and National Assembly elections set for Saturday 16 January 2027, the President urged the young crowd to campaign peacefully and lawfully, to collect their Permanent Voter Cards and to stay clear of violence.

Vice President Kashim Shettima struck the same note. He said the administration’s “refusal to pay lip service to the structural reforms Nigeria needs” is what sets it apart, and he urged members to campaign on achievements rather than name-calling. Of political opponents, he said simply: “They are not our enemies.”

A movement that runs on data

Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas praised the CBM’s organisation and its AI-driven platform, and Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau commended its use of technology and data. Youth Minister Ayodele Olawande credited the President with a long record of investing in young people, going back to his years as Governor of Lagos State.

CBM Director-General Francis Oluwatosin Shoga said the movement has 4.8 million members in its database. “We are not just raising members; we are building leaders,” he said. Ahmed Bala, Director-General of RTFIN, said his group would deliver 10 million votes.

Those figures are the groups’ own, and the real count comes in January. Still, the message from the Banquet Hall was hard to miss. In this campaign, the youth vote is being treated as a priority.