2027: As Tinubu Constitutes Campaign Council, Banks on Mbah in S’East…

That President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress constituted his Campaign Council  at the weekend ahead of the January, 2027 poll, appears good on paper, but the taste of the pudding will be in the eating, writes Deji Elumoye.

The lifting of ban on presidential campaign by the Independent National Electoral Commission effective August 19, 2026 set the stage for the 2027 presidential contest.  Various political parties and their presidential candidates are beginning to put their houses in order.

Although the opposition appears fragmented, especially with the collapse of the much-expected coalition under the platform of African Democratic Congress (ADC), President Bola Tinubu, has left no one in doubt that he is not under any delusion that the 2027 election contest would be a walk in the park. After all, one of the agelong cardinal rules of politics is  not to underestimate your opponent.

It was not surprising, therefore, that he went all out in constituting a 233-member All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council. The number and calibre of personalities empaneled clearly show a determination to successfully navigate the presidential election challenge and its numerous landmines. To underscore his understanding of the task before the party, Tinubu named himself at the helm of his reelection bid as the Chairman of the Campaign Council (PCC).

He will work with a body of advisers namely pioneer national Chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande; former Ogun state Governor, Chief Segun Osoba; ex-Imo State Governor, Senator Rochas Okorocha; former national Chairmen of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and Mai Mala Buni and former presidential aide, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa.

According to a statement released by presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, on Saturday, the PCC also has the Vice President Kashim, Kashim Shettima and the APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, as Vice Chairman I and Vice Chairman II, respectively, while Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma is to serve as the Secretary. APC National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Bashiru and Special Adviser to the President, Hadiza Bala-Usman, will serve as deputy Asistant Secretaries.

Also, former Governor of Zamfara State and incumbent Senator, Yari Abdullaziz, will serve as the Director-General of the PCC, President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio; House Speaker, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas; and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, were appointed Deputy Director-Generals each in the South and North zones. They are to work with Senator Bamidele Opeyemi and Senator Jibril Barau in the South and North, respectively.

Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, was appointed as Zonal Coordinator for South East, Governor Bassey Out of Cross River, and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos were named the Coordinators for South South and South West Zones, respectively. Other Zonal Campaign Coordinators are Governor Umar Bago of Niger (North Central), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff (North East) and Governor Ubah Sani (North West).

Former National Chairman of the APC, Senator Adams Oshiomhole will serve as Deputy Director-General in charge of Mobilisation, while the President’s Chief of Staff, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, will serve as Deputy Director-General, Administration.

A ranking member of the National Assembly, Hon James Abiodun Faleke, who played a pivotal role in the 2022/2023 campaign, has returned as Deputy Director-General for Election Planning, Coordination and Monitoring, working with Senator Olushola Adeyeye in the South West, Dr Ngozi Olejeme in the South South, Senator Uche Ekwunife in the South East, Muntaqha Rabe in the North West, Ahmed Muhammed Ketso in the North Central, and Senator Sani Danladi in the North East.

Muiz Adeyemi Banire will lead the legal directorate as director, with Dr Liman Hassan and Babatunde Ogala as deputies. Other members are Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, former governor Ibrahim Shema, Worgu Boms and Dr Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh.

Tinubu has charged Members of the Council to work tirelessly to overcome those, who want to take Nigeria backwards and ensure victory for the APC in the January 16, 2027 polls.

“We have delivered on our campaign promises and set our country on a path of economic progress. We are definitely out of the dark tunnel and are now at the cusp of reaping the benefits of a prosperous economy that will benefit all Nigerians.

“As we march into the campaign season, we have many achievements to trumpet—let us confidently showcase our record and inspire hope in every corner of our nation. Let us soundly defeat all those forces who plan to take our country backwards,” he charged the team.

Meanwhile, Mbah’s appointment as the Coordinator for APC’s PCC in South East has underhandly caught the attention of political observers and analysts. And the reasons are not far-fetched.

The APC has serially recorded its worst presidential results in the South since first outing in 2015. While ex-President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got 2,464,906 votes (about 92.5 per cent), the eventual winner, former President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC garnered 198,248 votes (about 7.5 per cent) of the votes cast in the region in the 2015 presidential election. In 2019, APC’s Buhari polled 403,968 votes whereas the PDP’s Alhaji Atiku Abubakar got 1,693,485.

APC recorded its worst results in the region in 2023. Entangled in internal squabbles by principal actors, plus the Mr. Peter Obi wave fueled by the perceived denial of PDP’s ticket, the Labour Party garnered 89.42 per cent of South East votes, while Tinubu struggled with 127,605 votes (5.83 per cent). Enugu State contributed only 4,772 votes to Tinubu, the least nationally.

South East sentiments towards APC was not equally helped by what they saw as Buhari’s scorched mistreatment of the region as par his ontroversial “95 per cent and 5 per cent” statement. For instance, for Buhari’s eight years, the South East was not considered fit for the headship of any security or paramilitary agency.

For these and more reasons, Tinubu needed someone that could turn around the fortunes of the party in the region.  Although Mbah joined the APC in October 2025, less than a year ago, he has obviously earned Tinubu’s trust and appears to have learned the art of APC’s internal politics quite fast. This fact is underscored by the emergence of his preferred candidates as members of the Zonal Executive Committee at the South East APC congress as well as during the national convention in Abuja, which notably produced Dr. Ben Nwoye as the Deputy National Chairman (South).

There has since been a steady effort to build peace among party leaders and buoy up public goodwill towards the APC.

The President must also have considered good governance quotient, as Mbah resonates among Nigerians as one of the revelations in the current dispensation, thus a poster boy for the party both in the South East and nationally.

Only recently, Enugu was named the fastest-improving state in the Philips Consults 2026 State Performance Index, that measured governance, performance, and development across the states of Nigeria.  It is measured based on five indicators: citizen satisfaction, debt sustainability, revenue growth, fiscal transparency, and internally-generated revenue relative to federal allocations.

And according to the report, Enugu State’s emergence as the fastest-improving state reflects deliberate governance, strong fiscal discipline and sustained implementation of reforms.

Indeed, Enugu State, under Mbah’s leadership, has witnessed deliberate reforms and investment in education, security, health, transport, housing, agriculture, road infrastructure, among others – a fact attested to by the President himself when the governor led a delegation of who-is-who in Enugu State to pay him a thank you visit at the State House in Abuja in April, 2026.

“The future of this country rests on people like you with the commitment, great vision, and seriousness that you have embarked upon since you assumed the office.

“You have been a transformative leader, and we genuinely appreciate what is evolving in Enugu today in a manner that we have witnessed a rapid development of the state,” the President had said.

With the PCC constituted, the taste of the pudding will now rest in the eating. Will the PCC deliver Tinubu’s second term? Can Mbah and other South East APC leaders turn around the party’s fortunes in the region come 2027? Only January, 2027 poll can tell.