President Bola Tinubu will begin his campaign for re-election on October 24 in Kaduna, with subsequent rallies planned for Rivers and Borno states, the Director-General of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Abdulaziz Yari, has said.
Yari disclosed this on Friday after briefing Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on preparations for the 2027 general election.
He said the campaign council would hold its inaugural meeting on October 14 at the State House Banquet Hall, after which it would release the full timetable for rallies across the country.
“We are going to hit the ground running by the 24th of October,” the former Zamfara State governor told State House correspondents.
Yari said the President had approved the proposed schedule of state visits, adding that Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and Maiduguri, Borno State, would be the next destinations after the Kaduna flag-off.
Defending Tinubu’s chances against opposition candidates, Yari argued that winning the presidency required substantial support from both northern and southern Nigeria.
He questioned whether the presidential candidates of the African Democratic Congress and the Nigeria Democratic Congress could secure enough support across the two regions to defeat the incumbent.
Yari argued that Tinubu had a stronger geographical spread of support than his challengers, claiming that the President enjoyed backing in more than 10 states in each region.
“This calculation shows us that even if you have control of 80 per cent of the South, if you don’t have anything in the North, you cannot make it,” he said.
The APC campaign chief also defended Tinubu’s performance in office, saying the administration had made progress on the economy and had achievements to present to voters.
“We are not promising. We are doing it, and we are going to continue,” he said.
Tinubu appointed Yari as director-general of the APC presidential campaign council on August 22, 2026, with Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma serving as secretary.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scheduled the presidential and National Assembly elections for January 16, 2027. Campaigns are expected to end on January 15, 2027.
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