President Bola Tinubu, yesterday, declares his readiness to renew covenant with Nigerians ahead of the official launch of his second term campaign, billed to kick off in Kaduna on October 24.
The president, who foreclosed the possibility of being present at all the campaign grounds nationwide, said the pressing needs of the country required his attention, stressing that governance must continue side-by-side electioneering.
Speaking while inaugurating the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council for the 2027 poll, he said while the council would lead the party’s mobilisation across the states and local government areas, he would make time to address Nigerians directly without accompanying the campaign to every location.
Tinubu said he agreed with party leaders, especially Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, who advised him not to allow campaign activities to distract him from official duties.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, speaking at the occasion, threw jabs at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Shettima questioned both candidates’ economic interventions and their readiness to lead Nigeria.
He said the country’s size, population, and economic realities made it unsuitable for policies copied from other countries without proper adaptation to local realities.
In his acceptance speech, Director-General of APC Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), Senator Abdulaziz Yari, said Tinubu’s achievements since May 2023 and his future plans would form the basis of the party’s campaign for the January 16, 2027 presidential poll.
Yari said the campaign would focus on communicating the administration’s record to Nigerians, particularly its impact on ordinary citizens, and its infrastructure projects.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, who is also a member of the APC campaign council, told coordinators of Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign not to claim victory if they failed to deliver their respective states.
Wike, though a member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said every campaign official must be held accountable for their electoral performance.
Relatedly, the Senate, yesterday, declared that the rainbow coalition incorporated into the APC-PCC for Tinubu’s re-election in 2027 was on course, describing the initiative as an unprecedented political alliance aimed at promoting national unity and inclusive governance.
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, and Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, made the remarks yesterday at plenary.
However, Atiku, yesterday, condemned the inauguration of Tinubu’s campaign council inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja, describing it as an abuse of public office and a troubling breach of public trust.
He said this in a statement by Director of Strategic Communication of African Democratic Congress Presidential Campaign Council (ADC-PCC), Phrank Shaibu.
Nonetheless, Tinubu, at the inauguration of the APC-PCC in Abuja, said, “As I stand before you with a heart full of gratitude and spirit full of resolve, it is my honour to inaugurate the presidential campaign council of the All Progressives Congress for the 2027 General Election.
“I thank all of you for the last election, but no one gets credit for an incomplete assignment until you deliver the next election, until you deliver your electoral wards, until you deliver the votes.”
Tinubu acknowledged Uzodinma’s advice not to let the rigours of the election campaign distract him from his responsibilities of governance, said, “I hear you. I am in full agreement with your decision. Nigeria needs more attention now than ever before. The responsibility of this office does not pause.”
Uzodimma, in his speech, had assured the president that the governors and other party leaders would do their best to deliver the right message to Nigerians during the campaign.
On why he would not travel to every campaign ground, the president said the government had pressing financial obligations and needed to attract investors to support the country’s future.
According to him, “The job must go on. We have bills to pay. The American creditors cannot wait. We want those investors to come in, be here to stay, to invest for the future of our children.
“However, I will still make time to speak directly with Nigerians even as you lead the campaign in the states and local government areas.”
He charged the campaign council to take the party’s record, vision and agenda to Nigerians nationwide up to the ward level.
“Let the word go out from this hall to every corner of our nation. The APC is ready,” Tinubu said, adding that APC is renewing its commitment to Nigerians and the responsibilities entrusted to it as the governing party.
The president stated, “We have gathered not merely to inaugurate a council. We have gathered to renew a covenant, a covenant with the Nigerian people and the historic responsibility they have thrust to us as Nigeria’s governing party. We promise we will not let them down.”
He also warned all the 31 APC governors, as well as federal lawmakers and other party leaders against taking previous electoral efforts for granted, insisting that their performance in the 2027 election would determine whether they have fulfilled their assignment.
He stated, “No one gets credit for an incomplete assignment. So until you deliver the next election, until you deliver your wards, until you deliver the votes, before we can say thank you.”
Tinubu pledged to support legislative efforts to increase women’s representation in the National Assembly and state-level legislatures, describing women as key mobilisers and voters.
He said, “Women are the greatest mobilisers and voters. And from this hall, I assure you, the sponsorship of the bill.”
He urged women to work towards securing greater representation, while promising to support efforts to increase their numbers at both national and sub-national levels.
The president said, “The women deserve seats. Go and work for it, come to fruition. We will increase the number of women’s representation at both National Assembly and sub-national level. I assure you that.”
Tinubu, while commenting on security, gave an assurance that state police would become a reality, signalling his support for the proposed restructuring of policing in the country.
“[b]On security, state police will be a reality[/b],” he declared.
The president lauded the party leadership for conducting its congresses and strengthening its structures from the ward to the national level, describing APC as increasingly united.
He charged party members to remain determined in their efforts to build the country, recalling measures taken during his tenure as Lagos State governor to address the threat of flooding from the Atlantic Ocean.
“There is a limit, but there is no limit in daring. We dared the Atlantic Ocean, and the result is the Atlantic City in Lagos,” he said.
He commended Lagos State Governor Babajide Samwo-Olu and his Deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, for their contributions to the success he recorded during his term as governor of the state, especially in taming the encroachment by the Atlantic Ocean.
Speaking at the inauguration, Shettima threw political jabs at Atiku and Obi, questioning their economic interventions and readiness to lead Nigeria ahead of next year’s general election.
Criticising Obi’s reliance on foreign economic comparisons, Shettima said, "A country of over 250 million people cannot be governed through borrowed statistics and economic prescriptions detached from its peculiarities.”
According to him, policies that worked in Bangladesh could not simply be replicated in Nigeria without considering differences in population, economic structures, institutions and national circumstances.
He stated, “I respect Peter Obi. But he has gone beyond his mastery of philosophy to make an august claim about winning the 2023 presidential election without adducing a shred of evidence to buttress his assertion.
“[b]Obi is the master of bogus statistics and incoherent economic prescriptions[/b].”
Shettima compared the challenge of applying foreign policies to Nigeria to transferring a cloth meant for a smaller body onto a much bigger one.
He also faulted Atiku, who had several times in the past sought the presidency, saying political ambition must be matched by character, discipline and an understanding of the responsibilities attached to public office.
He was, however, quick to add that political opponents should be treated with respect, as they were fellow Nigerians and not enemies.
Shettima said, “For the rest of the duration of this campaign, we’ll discuss ideas, we’ll discuss policies, but we’ll treat all our opponents with respect and dignity. They are not our enemies. They are our brothers. They are our countrymen. They are our leaders.”
Shettima told the party leaders not to insult opponents in the course of the campaign, urging them, instead, to respond to criticism with evidence and reason.
He said, “We have the capacity to respond to all sorts of innuendos and outright lies that our political opponents are taking on. But we won’t fall into their traps. We’ll give them facts. We’ll give them statistics. We argue with reason, not with sentiments, not with exaggerated truth or fabricated lies.”
The vice president said the Tinubu administration over three years ago inherited an economy facing severe fiscal pressures and it had taken difficult decisions, including removing the petrol subsidy and addressing distortions in the foreign exchange market.
He explained that the reforms were necessary to address longstanding economic challenges, while acknowledging the responsibility to ensure that their benefits reached Nigerians.
“The next obligation is to turn these gains into jobs, meaningful earnings and meaningful planning,” Shettima stated, maintaining that the administration’s priority should be to protect the reforms, improve their implementation, and ensure that public resources deliver results for households and businesses.
He said, “We must protect the reforms, improve their execution, and carry their benefits from the treasury to the household.”
He said Tinubu deserved a second term because the government’s reform programme had gained momentum, which the country could not afford to squander.
“President Tinubu deserves a second term because the work has acquired momentum that Nigeria cannot afford to squander,” Shettima said.
Yari said Tinubu’s achievements in office and his future plans for the country would form the basis of the party’s 2027 campaign.
He stated, “As we start going around to royal fathers and clerics, this is the message I have been sending today: our campaign is going to be centred on what you have done and what you are going to do in the future.”
Yari commended the president for his achievements in infrastructure development and improving the lives of ordinary Nigerians, adding that his record has made the campaign team’s assignment easier.
He said, “You have touched the life of the ordinary man. You have been there in infrastructure, building the iron road as if the money is nothing.”
The former two-time governor of Zamfara State assured the president that members of the campaign council would work together to secure his re-election, describing the assignment as a collective responsibility.
“We are going to do it all honestly with the trust and, by God’s grace, we are going to deliver,” Yari said.
Wike, for his part, said securing a national victory for Tinubu would not excuse campaign coordinators who failed to mobilise sufficient votes in their assigned territories. He stressed that appointments and positions in the campaign council must translate into tangible electoral results.
The FCT minister said, “If you don’t deliver your state and the president wins, don’t say we have won. It is not a question of I am chairman of this, I am secretary of this, I am a member of this.”
The minister, who is the coordinator of Tinubu’s campaign in Rivers State and the FCT, said campaign officials must take personal responsibility for delivering their areas rather than rely on the overall outcome of the presidential election.
He illustrated the point with Lagos State, recalling a conversation with the Chief of Staff to the President.
“If you don’t win in Lagos, don’t say we have won,” Wike said.
The minister expressed confidence in his own assignment, saying Rivers and the FCT would deliver massive votes for Tinubu in the January 2027 presidential election.
Wike stated, “Simple, there is not too much work for me. It’s Rivers and FCT, and let me say and pledge, by the grace of God, Rivers and FCT will vote massively for Bola Tinubu. That is my job.
“Rivers and FCT, it is taken. I challenge any area council that can say they don’t see the presence of Mr President.
“For me, as an opposition party member, as the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, there are not two leaders of the PDP. I’m the leader of the PDP, so I speak on behalf of the Peoples Democratic Party.”
Defending his support for Tinubu, Wike said being an opposition party member should not prevent politicians from acknowledging what they consider positive actions by the ruling party.
He said, “Democracy allows the opposition to be there to look at things that the ruling party has not concentrated on and say these are the issues you are not tackling. Democracy is not that if the ruling party is doing well, because you are in opposition, you say they are not doing well. That is not democracy.”
Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo and his Osun State counterpart, Ademola Adeleke, also expressed optimism about Tinubu’s re-election.
[b]Soludo, a member and national leader of the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), disclosed that his party would campaign round the clock for Tinubu’s second term[/b].
He told the president, “Count on us, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, 24/7. We are with you because we believe.”
The former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) declared that the president’s return for a second term was already settled in the minds of his supporters.
He said, “We are talking about when you get into the second term. It is the acceleration in the transformation process — from stability and reform to shared prosperity.”
Soludo described Tinubu as a symbol of “the unity of Nigeria, the security of Nigeria and the shared prosperity of Nigeria”, saying those values informed APGA’s decision to back him.
He also defended the government’s economic reforms, acknowledging their difficulty but insisting they were necessary.
“The path you have chosen, that you have had the courage to take, is the difficult but necessary path,” he said.
Adeleke also declared that no one could stop the second term movement of Tinubu.
Adeleke of the opposition Accord Party said the president would emerge victorious during the January poll.
He stated, “I can see the victory in 2027. Nobody can stop this movement. I am going to lead. We will sing and dance all the way back to Aso Rock. Four years isn’t enough, that’s why I am here to throw my weight.
“Let us rise from all nooks and crannies to ensure his victory. Let us pray for Mr President and, by the grace of God, we shall be there.”
