Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development and the spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2027 Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Alake, has mentioned the 12 states chosen for President Bola Tinubu’s proposed marketing campaign rallies are key election-deciding states, arguing that the president must be counseled for balancing campaigning with governance.
Alake mentioned Tinubu, as a sitting president, couldn’t afford to droop authorities enterprise to marketing campaign throughout each state within the nation, in contrast to in 2023 when he was not the incumbent president.
The APC marketing campaign council spokesperson acknowledged this throughout an interview on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), whereas defending the president’s resolution to restrict his bodily marketing campaign appearances to chose places forward of the 2027 basic elections.
According to him, the states chosen for the rallies are pivotal to the electoral course of, including that Tinubu’s resolution to proceed discharging his presidential duties alongside campaigning shouldn’t be misconstrued as a scarcity of dedication to the election.
“I would not overwhelm the attention or suppress the attention to other issues of national importance. That’s why the president said categorically at the inauguration of the campaign council a few days ago that we should excuse him, that he’s not going to abandon governance for campaign,” Alake mentioned.
He famous that whereas some media organisations interpreted the president’s assertion as a dedication to sustaining governance throughout the electioneering interval, others had portrayed it as a sign that Tinubu wouldn’t marketing campaign extensively.
“Of course there’s also the, you know, negative section of the media that screamed, oh Tinubu will not go everywhere, oh Tinubu will not campaign and stuff like that. No, because the president has a lot on his plate,” he mentioned.
Alake additionally spoke concerning the calls for of the presidency, describing the duties positioned on Tinubu as monumental.
Asked why he sympathised with the president, the marketing campaign council spokesperson mentioned his proximity to Tinubu had given him an perception into the workload related to governing the nation.
“The weight on his shoulders is enormous and I admire him a lot. Why? Because his resilience, his stamina, he’s unparalleled,” he mentioned.
Alake defined that Tinubu’s circumstances throughout the 2023 presidential election differed from his present place as an incumbent president, who should proceed to supervise authorities affairs whereas in search of re-election.
“Ashiwaju was not a sitting president in 2023. He wasn’t. So he could afford all the time in the world to go to every corner of the nation. But when you’re a sitting president with so much work to do, no you cannot,” he added.
He mentioned the president had as a substitute chosen states thought-about strategically essential to the electoral contest.
“And what has he done? He has chosen some states, zonal pivotal states to visit. And if you were to do a serious empirical verification of those zones and states, you find out that those places he’s chosen to go are actually deciders, election deciders, those states,” Alake mentioned.
He insisted that the president’s resolution must be considered within the context of his twin duties, quite than as a sign that he was unwilling to marketing campaign.
“And the man has said he should be commended for that. He’s not going to abandon campaign, I mean governance, for campaign,” he mentioned.
Alake additional argued that Tinubu would have confronted criticism if he had suspended governance to give attention to electioneering, saying his political opponents and critics would have questioned his dedication to operating the nation.
“Now imagine if you were to say, oh, he would leave governance for now and face campaign. The same nabobs of negativism say, ah, we said this man is not interested in Nigeria, in salvaging the country. But the man is there, now I’m not going to abandon governance for campaign. Oh, you say he has no capacity,” he mentioned.
The APC marketing campaign council spokesperson described such criticism as adverse, sustaining that the president needed to stability the calls for of governing the nation with the actions of his re-election marketing campaign.
APC proposes 12 marketing campaign rally places
The APC had outlined a proposed nationwide marketing campaign rally schedule overlaying the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory forward of the 2027 basic elections with the president scheduled to go to 12 states.
According to the proposed timetable, the marketing campaign is scheduled to start in Kaduna, Kaduna State, on October 24, 2026, and finish with a grand rally in Lagos on January 9, 2027.
The proposed rally places and dates for the president go to are:
- Kaduna, Kaduna State — October 24, 2026
- Port Harcourt, Rivers State — November 7, 2026
- Jos, Plateau State — November 14, 2026
- Ibadan, Oyo State — November 21, 2026
- Maiduguri, Borno State — November 25, 2026
- Enugu, Enugu State — November 28, 2026
- Bauchi, Bauchi State — November 29, 2026
- Sokoto, Sokoto State — December 4, 2026
- Asaba, Delta State — December 12, 2026
- Kano, Kano State — December 17, 2026
- Yola, Adamawa State — January 4, 2027
- Lagos, Lagos State — January 9, 2027
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