Tinubu’s 2027 Campaign Council Sparks Divergent Reactions

The Grassroots Mobilisation Network (GMN), a political support group backing the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has urged Nigerians to reject President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 general elections, describing the newly constituted campaign council as self-serving and detached from the hardships confronting citizens.

The position is one of several divergent reactions trailing the reconstituted APC presidential campaign council, with stakeholders divided over President Tinubu’s decision to retain several experienced political actors from the party’s 2023 campaign structure.

While some have questioned the absence of more fresh faces and new ideas, others believe the retention of experienced politicians could give the APC the institutional memory, political networks and grassroots structures required to prosecute a difficult presidential contest.

GMN, in a statement by its national secretary, Peter Okoye, said Nigerians should not expect meaningful change from what it described as an assemblage of individuals who had failed to provide solutions to the country’s worsening economic and security challenges.

The group argued that a presidency genuinely concerned about the plight of Nigerians would have assembled a more progressive and forward-looking team capable of addressing the deteriorating socio-economic conditions in the country.

“This same group of people who have failed to make a meaningful impact in almost four years of their tenure cannot fashion a fresh agenda capable of taking our nation out of its current anguish,” the group said.

GMN also questioned the records of some members of the campaign council, alleging that several individuals who had previously served in public office had yet to demonstrate sufficient commitment to the common good.

It urged Nigerians to scrutinise the composition and records of members of the council rather than simply accepting their political credentials, saying the 2027 election should be about accountability and the ability of political leaders to improve the lives of citizens.

The group further alleged that the council was designed to serve personal political interests and urged Nigerians to resist what it described as an attempt to deploy political machinery to perpetuate policies that had deepened hardship, hunger and insecurity.

But speaking with LEADERSHIP Sunday in Lokoja, a former chief press secretary to a former deputy governor of Kogi State, Michael Abu, said President Tinubu had the prerogative to choose individuals he wanted to work with, particularly those whose previous performances he considered satisfactory.

Abu, however, said the political landscape had changed significantly since the 2023 elections, especially with the emergence of new political alliances and realignments ahead of 2027.

He said the changes should have been reflected more prominently in the composition of the campaign council.

“To this end, one would have expected that he brings in new hands for new ideas and to address the peculiarities of the nation’s politics.

“I still believe the list released is a work in progress. I am still hopeful that, following the outcry in some quarters, he will inject new blood into his campaign strategy,” he said.

Also speaking, a public affairs commentator, Yakubu Salami, said the president should have introduced new members into the campaign council for strategic reasons.

Salami observed that the political dynamics had evolved considerably in the last three years and should have prompted the president to bring in fresh hands.

“For energy and new strategies, I think the president should have a rethink,” he stressed.

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), however, offered a more nuanced assessment of the composition, saying the retention of experienced political actors could reflect the president’s preference for continuity, loyalty and institutional memory.

In a statement by its executive director, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, CISLAC said members who participated in the 2023 campaign already understood the political machinery and networks that helped the APC secure victory in the last presidential election.

The organisation, however, noted that the prominent positioning of experienced Northern politicians could also indicate the strategic importance attached to Northern Nigeria in the APC’s 2027 electoral calculations.

It specifically cited the appointment of Senator Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State as director-general of the campaign council and Gombe State Governor Inuwa Yahaya as North-East Zonal Coordinator for Stakeholder Mobilisation.

According to CISLAC, the appointments suggest an attempt to combine continuity with regional political calculations, particularly the need to maintain strong political coalitions across the North-West, North-East and North-Central.

The organisation, however, cautioned against reducing the 2027 election to regional arithmetic, elite alliances or the recycling of influential politicians based solely on their ability to deliver electoral blocs.

CISLAC said the more important question should be whether the political parties and their campaign councils would address the major governance challenges confronting Nigerians, including insecurity, poverty, unemployment, inflation, rising cost of living, corruption, deteriorating public services and declining confidence in democratic institutions.

It therefore urged the APC and other political parties to make the 2027 campaigns issue-based and accountable.

The organisation also called on political parties to ensure that those appointed to campaign structures were not used merely as electoral “vote mobilisers”, but publicly committed themselves to peaceful elections, rejection of vote-buying, non-use of political thugs, responsible political communication and respect for INEC, security agencies, election observers and the electorate.

For CISLAC, the credibility of the 2027 elections would not be measured by which political party had the strongest campaign council, but by whether Nigerians were genuinely free to make their choices without violence, intimidation, manipulation, misinformation or vote-buying.