• Says campaign won’t distract him from governance • Tells govs, lawmakers: No credit until you deliver votes • Our campaign’ll centre on achievements, future plans –Yari
• Shettima tackles Atiku, Obi • Wike demands results from coordinators • 4 years not enough for reforms –Adeleke . • Uzodimma: Govs, lawmakers, LG chairmen must deliver wards or face voters’ verdict
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Romanus Ugwu, Abuja and Noah Ebije, Kaduna
President Bola Tinubu has charged his rainbow Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), bringing together leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and political figures from opposition parties, to take his administration’s record, vision and agenda to Nigerians ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Inaugurating the council at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, Tinubu said members would lead campaigning across the states and local government areas while he continued to discharge his presidential responsibilities, insisting that electioneering would not interrupt governance.
He also warned governors, lawmakers and other party leaders that their assignment would remain incomplete until they delivered their wards and secured votes in the election.
“This council will carry our vision, our record and our agenda to every Nigerian,” he said.
The council’s Director-General, Abdulaziz Yari, affirmed that the administration’s achievements and future plans would form the centrepiece of the campaign, pledging to work with every member to secure Tinubu’s re-election.
The PCC brings together APC leaders and allies from other parties, including Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, of the Accord Party; and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Tinubu described the council’s assignment as a renewal of the governing party’s covenant with Nigerians, saying its members must communicate the administration’s work throughout the country.
“We have not gathered merely to inaugurate a council. We have gathered to renew a covenant, a covenant with Nigerian people and the historic responsibility they have entrusted to us as Nigeria’s governing party,” he said.
Responding to an appeal by the council’s secretary and Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, to remain focused on governance while campaign officials handled mobilisation, Tinubu said Nigeria’s pressing needs required his attention.
“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.”
He said he would not accompany campaigners to every location, but would make time to address Nigerians directly.
“However, I will still make time to speak directly with Nigerians, even as you lead the campaign in the states and local government areas.
“The job must go on,” Tinubu added, citing the government’s financial obligations and the need to attract investors. “We have bills to pay.”
He told party leaders that previous efforts would not substitute for completing their electoral assignment.
“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 also pledged support for legislative efforts to increase women’s representation in the National Assembly and state legislatures, describing women as central to political mobilisation.
“Women are the greatest mobilisers and voters. The women deserve seats. Go and work for it, come to fruition. We increase the number of women representation at both National Assembly and sub-national level. I assure you that.”
On security, he declared: “State police will be a reality.”
Tinubu commended APC National Chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda, for strengthening the party and praised members for participating in congresses that constituted its leadership structures.
“Let the word go out from this hall to every corner of our nation. The APC is ready,” he said.
In his acceptance speech, Yari said campaigners would take the administration’s record and plans to Nigerians through engagements with traditional rulers, religious leaders and other stakeholders.
“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.’
The former Zamfara State governor commended Tinubu’s infrastructure projects and what he described as interventions touching ordinary Nigerians, arguing that the President’s record had eased the campaign team’s assignment.
He urged council members to put aside personal interests and work together towards their common objective.
“It’s no time for ego. We are all one in this business. We have only one agenda. What is that agenda? To ensure that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu returns as President.
“We are going to do it all honestly with the trust and, by God’s grace, we are going to deliver.”
Yari also described women as central to the APC’s mobilisation, citing the appointment of eight female ministers and women heading federal agencies as evidence of the administration’s commitment to inclusion.
He said the campaign would seek to translate that support into votes at polling units, wards, local government areas and states.
Reinforcing the charge to take the administration’s record to voters, Special Adviser to the President on Political and Other Matters, Ibrahim Masari, warned campaign officials against empty promises and inflated vote projections, saying their contributions would be assessed through actual results at the grassroots.
“This time around, we must move beyond making empty promises and announcing figures that cannot be delivered. The government will put in place serious assessment mechanisms to assess everyone’s performance based on their actual results at the grassroots, not the volume of their talks or promises.
“Everyone should be rewarded according to their performance, and it can no longer be business as usual where people claim to deliver huge numbers but cannot deliver their own state, local government, ward or even their polling unit.”
Masari urged members to reduce unnecessary visits to Abuja and excessive directorate meetings, directing their attention instead to engaging voters in their communities.
“Politics is not about opening and painting offices, pettiness, unnecessary talk or endless debates. Politics is at the grassroots; it is about our polling units, wards, local governments and communities.
“Stop talking to yourselves and start talking to the people.”
He said campaigners must explain the administration’s achievements and future plans in education, healthcare, economic reforms and infrastructure, while honestly acknowledging outstanding challenges and listening to voters’ concerns.
“We must listen as much as we speak, engage respectfully, answer concerns with facts and demonstrate through our actions that public trust is a responsibility we take seriously,” he said.
Warning against gossip, hate speech and internal divisions, Masari urged members to put the APC’s collective interest above personal ambitions and work for the success of all its candidates.
Addressing Yari, he said: “Your task is to unite us, harness our collective strengths and ensure that every member works as part of one disciplined, purposeful and winning team.”
He described the assignment as a sacred trust from Tinubu and urged the council to reach every ward and community, pledging that its mobilisation would deliver more than twice the votes secured by all opposition parties combined.
“I want to use this opportunity on behalf of the members of this council to assure Mr President that the votes that will be secured by all the opposition parties put together will not reach half of what this council will deliver for you,” he said.
“That, we promise and by the grace of Allah we will deliver.”
Vice-President, Kashim Shettima, in his address, challenged the leadership credentials and economic prescriptions of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, arguing that Nigeria’s population, institutions and economic structures required policies suited to its circumstances.
Taking aim at Obi’s use of 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.”
He argued that policies adopted in Bangladesh could not simply be transplanted to Nigeria without accounting for differences between the countries.
Shettima also challenged Obi’s assertion that he won the 2023 presidential election, accusing him of making the claim “without adducing a shred of evidence to buttress his assertion.”
He described Obi as “the master of bogus statistics and incoherent economic prescriptions” and argued that Atiku’s presidential ambition must be matched by character, discipline and an understanding of the responsibilities of public office.
Despite his criticism, the VP urged campaigners to treat opponents with dignity and respond to their arguments with evidence.
“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,” he said.
Defending petrol subsidy removal and changes to the foreign exchange system, Shettima said the administration had confronted severe fiscal pressures and longstanding economic distortions.
He cited economic growth of 4.2 per cent in the first half of 2026 as evidence of progress, but acknowledged that improved indicators must translate into employment, earnings and better living conditions.
“We must protect the reforms, improve their execution, and carry their benefits from the treasury to the household.
“President Tinubu deserves a second term because the work has acquired momentum that Nigeria cannot afford to squander,” he said.
Wike, on his part, warned campaign coordinators that a nationwide victory for Tinubu would not excuse failure in their assigned states.
“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,” he said.
The minister, who coordinates Tinubu’s campaign in Rivers State and the FCT, said officials must take personal responsibility for securing votes.
Recalling a conversation with the President’s Chief of Staff, he said: “If you don’t win in Lagos, don’t say we have won.”
Wike pledged substantial support for Tinubu in his assigned territories.
“Let me say and pledge, by the grace of God, Rivers and FCT will vote massively for Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That is my job,” he said.
The former Rivers governor also claimed leadership of the PDP, saying: “I’m the leader of the PDP, so I speak on behalf of the Peoples Democratic Party.”
Defending his support for Tinubu, he argued that opposition membership should not prevent politicians from acknowledging policies they considered beneficial.
“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.’
Uzodimma warned that the presidential election would also be a referendum on the performance of governors, legislators, council chairmen and other APC officials.
“Mr President will be on the ballot on 16 January 2027, but if we are honest with ourselves, so will we. This election is as much a referendum on every APC official present here as it is on the Presidency, and I include myself in that without reservation,” he said.
The chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum cautioned against assuming that the party’s extensive control of government guaranteed electoral support.
“A party that controls every tier of government can easily grow comfortable and begin to mistake the size of its structure for the depth of its support. But as critical as structures are, it is citizens who vote, and each one of them has to be persuaded.”
Uzodimma said the APC controlled the Federal Government, majorities in both chambers of the National Assembly, 31 states and approximately 685 elected local government chairmanships, arguing that these advantages imposed a responsibility to deliver.
“If I may reduce all of this to a single prayer, it is that every one of us should go home and deliver our polling units and our wards.”
He urged members to reconcile differences arising from the primaries and support every candidate carrying the party’s flag.
“The primaries are behind us. Whatever disagreements they may have left, the success of any one of us cannot be built on the failure of another.”
Appealing to Tinubu to concentrate on governing, Uzodimma said: “The reforms you began need your full attention if they are to deliver everything they promise.
“Please, Your Excellency, leave the heavy lifting of this campaign to us.”
He acknowledged the hardship associated with the reforms, saying: “Nobody here pretends that the work is finished or that Nigerians have not felt the strain of the journey.”
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, urged Nigerians to sustain the reforms until their expected benefits reached households and businesses.
“The first term confronted instability. The first term expanded public revenue. The second term must turn revenue into public value.
“Nigeria has paid the price of reform. Nigeria must now receive the dividend of consolidation.”
Abbas acknowledged the costs of the adjustment measures, but argued that reversing course midway could undermine the gains recorded.
He stressed that the ultimate test would be whether economic improvements produced better living conditions, employment and stronger public services.
Challenging opponents to present credible alternatives, he told supporters: “When opponents raise their voices, we must raise the quality of our arguments.”
Adeleke argued that Tinubu needed another term to consolidate his reforms, saying four years was insufficient for the policies to deliver the desired results.
“We must give our father, the President of this nation, time for his reform to work. It’s not easy. Four years is not enough. That is why I’m here to throw my weight,” he said.
Osun governor said mobilisation had begun. “We don’t have time. The work has begun. I’ve already started mine. We’re going to sing, we’re going to dance all the way back to Aso Rock,” he said.
On his part, Soludo pledged round-the-clock campaigning by APGA.
“Count on us, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, 24/7. We are with you because we believe,” he said.
The Anambra governor defended the reforms as difficult but necessary, saying a second term should move Nigeria from stability and reform towards shared prosperity.
“There is no way you change a winning team,” he said. “If it is not broken, why mend it?”
Yilwatda charged the council to communicate the administration’s achievements while acknowledging challenges and addressing concerns about living costs, security, employment, education, healthcare and agricultural productivity.
“Our responsibility is to explain what has been achieved, what is progressing and what remains to be done. We must demonstrate how these reforms and investments will translate into practical improvements in the lives of Nigerians.”
He called for coordination among governors, legislators, party leaders and grassroots structures, alongside meaningful participation by women, young people and persons with disabilities.
“Confidence is not complacency. It is the determination to prepare thoroughly, work together and earn the trust of the people,” he said.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, urged Tinubu to sustain his relationships with political allies and called for cooperation among supporters. He also proposed consideration of the minority caucus for inclusion in the initiative, subject to the President’s approval.
Meanwhile, in Kaduna, Arewa Think Tank Convener, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu, welcomed the choice of the state for Tinubu’s October 24 campaign flag-off, describing it as significant for Kaduna and the wider northern region.
Yakubu commended Governor Uba Sani’s preparations and urged political stakeholders, security agencies and supporters to ensure a peaceful gathering.
“Political activities should not be reduced to rivalry or hostility. They should provide opportunities for engagement, the exchange of ideas, and discussions about the policies and programmes that can improve the lives of Nigerians,” he said.
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