President Bola Tinubu has formally launched the machinery for his 2027 re-election bid, inaugurating the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday and telling its members that only votes delivered at the polling units will count.
Main photo: Lula Oficial / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The ceremony, held in the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, turns the ruling party’s campaign from a planning exercise into a live operation, three months before Nigerians vote. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed the presidential election for 16 January 2027.
“No one gets credit for an incomplete assignment”
Tinubu, who is seeking a second four-year term, framed the council’s work as a fresh commitment to Nigerians rather than a celebration of past loyalty. According to Channels Television, he told members that their contributions would not count until they had won their wards, adding: “No one gets credit for an incomplete assignment.”
He also signalled that he would not be a constant presence on the campaign trail. The president said he had heard party members who warned him not to let politics distract from governing, and that the council would lead the state and local government campaigns while he continued to speak to Nigerians directly from time to time.
Who is running the campaign
Tinubu chairs the council himself, with Vice-President Kashim Shettima as first vice-chairman and APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda as second vice-chairman. Senate President Godswill Akpabio, House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq serve as deputy vice-chairmen.
Former Zamfara governor Abdulaziz Yari is director-general. Femi Gbajabiamila heads administration, Imo Governor Hope Uzodimma is secretary, former APC national chairman Abdullahi Ganduje leads stakeholder mobilisation and Dele Alake is spokesman. Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is also among the campaign officials.
Notably, figures outside the APC have been handed coordinating roles: Nyesom Wike for Rivers State and the FCT, Anambra Governor Chukwuma Soludo for Anambra, and Osun Governor Ademola Adeleke for Osun. Wike had earlier ruled himself out of the director-general job, as DGBN reported in Wike’s explanation of why he could not lead Tinubu’s campaign.
Kaduna first, then the states
Yari told State House correspondents last week that Tinubu had approved a timetable under which the campaign will be flagged off with a rally in Kaduna State on 24 October, before moving on to Port Harcourt in Rivers State and Maiduguri in Borno State. He said the full schedule would be released after the council’s inauguration.
Tinubu faces a crowded field. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is running for the African Democratic Congress, Peter Obi for the Nigeria Democratic Congress and Omoyele Sowore for the African Action Congress.
Why it matters
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and one of its largest economies, and its election will be watched closely across the continent and by a diaspora of millions in the UK, the US and beyond, many of whom send money home and follow every turn of the race. How the campaign handles the cost-of-living pressures that have dominated Tinubu’s first term is likely to decide whether his bet on a ward-by-ward ground game pays off.