President Bola Tinubu has named Senate President Godswill Akpabio as the Deputy Director General South I of the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2027 Presidential Campaign Council, as the ruling party formally organises its push to secure a second term for the Nigerian leader.
The 223-member Presidential Campaign Council will serve as the main body driving Tinubu’s re-election effort, covering political mobilisation, stakeholder engagement, and the planning and coordination of campaign activities across the country. The Punch noted this development.
Tinubu’s bid for a second term arrives at a politically difficult moment. His main challengers, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Obidient Movement’s Peter Obi, have both built their campaigns around widespread frustration over economic hardship and insecurity, arguing that nearly 12 years of APC rule have left Nigeria poorer, more indebted, and no safer than when the party first came to power under Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
Cheta Nwanze, a partner at Nigeria-based risk advisory firm SBM Intelligence, said, according to Reuters: “The APC’s tenure from 2015 to 2026 makes for unhappy reading and Tinubu’s reforms have particularly brought severe pain.
“Our voter tracker shows nearly 80% of Nigerians say the country is headed in the wrong direction with 45% citing economic hardship and insecurity as their top concern.”
Since taking office, Tinubu moved quickly on economic policy, removing a decades-old fuel subsidy and devaluing the naira twice.
While those moves won approval from investors and international lenders, they triggered a sharp cost-of-living crisis that many Nigerians describe as the worst in a generation, and fuelled widespread street protests.
Tinubu, who critics have nicknamed “T-Pain” in reference to soaring living costs under his watch, has defended the reforms as necessary corrections to years of excessive government intervention in the economy.
His argument to voters is that short-term hardship will give way to longer-term gains, though polling figures suggest many Nigerians remain unconvinced.
Peter Obi, one of Tinubu’s key rivals, resigned from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on May 2, 2026, and was ratified as the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 2027 elections on May 29, 2026, adding further competitive pressure to the ruling party’s campaign planning.
