Bola Ahmed Tinubu
The APC inaugurated his re-election campaign council on October 15 for the January 2027 vote; the same day he chaired the National Security Council and ordered security chiefs to dismantle all terrorist and bandit camps and ensure a credible election.
Bola Tinubu is running for re-election with his campaign machinery at full throttle and rivals coming at him personally. His party inaugurated the campaign council on October 15 for the January 2027 vote, and the same day he chaired a National Security Council meeting, ordering security chiefs to dismantle every terrorist and bandit camp in the country, rescue all abducted persons and guarantee a free, credible election.
The pitch is the record. Works Minister David Umahi flagged off the N1.5 trillion, 401-kilometre Lambata-Kontagora dualisation in Niger State and says the president needs another term to finish 5,500 kilometres of road work nationwide. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo cites N36 billion approved to settle decades-old Nigeria Airways pension debts. Tinubu says he will not campaign everywhere himself, telling allies 'You will excuse me from going everywhere with you' because 'the responsibility of this office does not pause, and we have bills to pay.'
Others are filling the field. Nyesom Wike styles himself commander of operations in the capital and Rivers State, Tompolo's door-to-door movement has 114 vehicles across Kogi, Lagos and Oyo, and Vice President Kashim Shettima works the northern flank. Allies promise vote counts from 1.2 to two million in Kaduna, where the campaign flags off on October 24, up to 15 million across the North-West.
The attacks run personal and numeric. Atiku Abubakar calls the council's Villa launch a gross breach of public trust and has branded the government 'Yahoo Yahoo.' Peter Obi recites N7.7 trillion in debt interest against N6.2 trillion in first-half revenue. Oyo Governor Seyi Makinde says Tinubu ignored his ministerial recommendation. The president is also pressing the judiciary to stop letting 'legal pyrotechnics and procedural pedantry' shelter criminality, with bills pending on drug enforcement and expanded transport-crash probes.
On their plate
He chaired the National Security Council on October 15 and ordered security chiefs to dismantle all terrorist and bandit camps across Nigeria, rescue all abducted persons and ensure a free, credible election. The directive is backed by fresh recruitment and the procurement of about 10 new aircraft and helicopters. The orders land with the January 2027 vote approaching.
The re-election pitch is the governance record itself: infrastructure, economic reforms and the student loan fund, sold through grassroots engagement rather than the traditional rally circuit, with mobiliser Betta Edu rallying APC women to carry the message that 'now is time for prosperity.' APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda has directed the newly inaugurated campaign council to sell that record while honestly acknowledging employment, security and cost-of-living challenges. Tinubu himself has told campaign allies he will not campaign state-by-state, saying 'You will excuse me from going everywhere with you' because 'the responsibility of this office does not pause, and we have bills to pay.' Works Minister David Umahi flagged off the N1.5 trillion, 401-kilometre Lambata-Kontagora dualisation in Niger State and says the president needs another term to finish 5,500 kilometres of road work nationwide, while Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo cites N36 billion Tinubu approved to settle decades-old Nigeria Airways pension debts.
Nyesom Wike has built a cross-party Rainbow Coalition, APC and PDP members together, for the re-election and declared himself 'commander of field operations' for the Federal Capital Territory and Rivers State. Tompolo's PBAT Door-to-Door Movement has put 114 vehicles on the road across Kogi, Lagos and Oyo, 57 of them in Lagos, the state Tinubu lost to Peter Obi in 2023 and where Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu declares 'the entire Lagos is for Tinubu.' Vice President Kashim Shettima is working the northern flank, telling the Arewa for Tinubu think tank 'the president loves the north' and citing N450 billion in Bank of Agriculture loans, 70 percent of it to northern smallholder farmers. Vote targets are explicit: 15 million in the North-West, 1.2 to two million in Kaduna, where the campaign flags off with a rally on October 24, five million North Central youth votes and 100 percent of Kogi, whose governor Ahmed Ododo has pledged it. New structures keep coming, among them Governor Dikko Radda as Katsina campaign chairman and former Peter Obi strategist Marcel Ngogbehei directing the Tinubu Must Stay alliance. The build is drawing warnings from the other side: activist Martins Vincent Otse accuses the presidency of enabling political impunity, and the Obidient Movement says any manipulation of the 2027 result would be an unforgivable electoral offence.
Atiku Abubakar, the ADC presidential candidate, calls the campaign council's size a confession of fear and its inauguration inside the Presidential Villa a gross breach of public trust, tying Tinubu to 17.9 million more Nigerians in multidimensional poverty. Tinubu's council, through spokesman Dele Alake, condemned him for addressing the president as 'Bola' after he branded the government 'Yahoo Yahoo' and insinuated Tinubu lacked formal education, pledging to answer personal attacks only with the administration's record. Peter Obi, the NDC candidate, cites N7.7 trillion in first-half debt interest against N6.2 trillion in revenue and dismisses the 30-day petrol price discount, limited to about 900 NNPC stations, as a political gambit aimed at 2027. ADC chieftain Dele Momodu claims a secret strategy to deny Tinubu a second term, alleging scared governors, judges and legislators and an untrustworthy INEC, while former NERC chairman Sam Amadi warns that skipping traditional state campaigns and leaning on governors could damage democracy. Oyo Governor Seyi Makinde, now the Allied Peoples Movement presidential candidate, says Tinubu ignored his ministerial recommendation by appointing Adebayo Adelabu as Minister of Power and reneged on a post-2023 government-of-national-unity understanding. Officials are separately fighting off activist Chidi Odinkalu's claim that Tinubu's address to the campaign council was pre-recorded, with Keyamo calling it a Buhari-era-style conspiracy and spokesman Bayo Onanuga accusing Odinkalu of partisan false narratives.
He is pressing the judiciary, through Vice President Kashim Shettima at an EFCC workshop, to stop letting politically exposed persons escape trial on technicalities, saying courts must no longer permit 'legal pyrotechnics and procedural pedantry' to shelter criminality; Chief Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun has promised specialized training for digital-evidence cases. He has also sent the National Assembly an NDLEA bill repealing the Indian Hemp Act to consolidate drug enforcement, along with a Safety Investigation Bureau amendment expanding crash investigations to rail and maritime under Presidency oversight, a reform that follows the October 5 Air Force ATR-42 crash that killed 32 people, with Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas handling the transmittals. Separately, three Nigeria Basketball Federation presidential aspirants, Igoche Mark, Olumide Oyedeji and Ejike Ugboaja, have petitioned him to direct the National Sports Commission to investigate alleged delegate-rigging and manipulation of the federation's electoral process in favor of Mustapha Abdullahi.
Key relationships
The ADC presidential candidate calls Tinubu's campaign council a confession of fear and its launch inside the Presidential Villa a gross breach of public trust, and has branded the administration 'Yahoo Yahoo.'
His vice president fronts the re-election message north and presses Tinubu's case to the judiciary.
The FCT minister has built a cross-party Rainbow Coalition for Tinubu's re-election and declared himself 'commander of field operations' for the capital and Rivers State.
The aviation minister is defending Tinubu on two fronts, citing his approval of N36 billion for decades-old Nigeria Airways pension debts against Atiku's attacks and dismissing the pre-recorded speech claim as a Buhari-era-style conspiracy.
The pro-Tinubu mobilizer is bankrolling the ground game, donating 114 vehicles across Kogi, Lagos and Oyo for the PBAT Door-to-Door Movement.
The activist claims Tinubu's address at the campaign council inauguration was pre-recorded, a charge Tinubu's officials are publicly rejecting.
The Chief Justice is the institutional counterpart to his push for courts that stop letting politically exposed persons escape trial on technicalities.
