The campaign council this briefing has tracked since Tuesday is now inaugurated, and its first public act was a leadership bid. President Bola Tinubu formally launched the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday, telling the gathering the council would coordinate campaigning across states and local government areas while he concentrated on governing, and that he would not go everywhere with them because, as he put it, there are bills to pay. The council, led by Director General Abdulaziz Yari, is set to open the presidential campaign in Kaduna on October 24.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio used his remarks to make an open request. He asked the president to take seriously the continuity argument made by Governor Chukwuma Soludo, in substance that a National Assembly already aligned with the president should be encouraged to return and support his second term, and he warned governors against abandoning their people to eye a position that is not available, urging them to complete the eight years the constitution gives them. He did not name his target. The target was in the room: Imo governor Hope Uzodimma, the council’s secretary and the APC’s senatorial candidate for Imo West in 2027, whom Premium Times reports has prepared plans to resign as governor before his term ends in January 2028 and move to the Senate if elected, putting him in contention for the Senate presidency when the 11th Senate is inaugurated in June 2027.
Uzodimma answered in kind, without naming the contest. He told the gathering that the president will be on the ballot on January 16, 2027, but that, honestly, so will they, confirming he will be on the ballot as a senatorial candidate, and he urged party members to drop their misgivings and rally as one family behind every APC candidate. The Senate presidency is formally decided by senators, on the composition the election produces, but a president’s preference has historically weighed heavily, which is why both men made their cases to Tinubu rather than to the chamber.
The exchange matters because it happened at the unity event. The council was built, unusually, around cross party coordinators including opposition governors, a design Minister Nyesom Wike defended on Tuesday; Wednesday’s proceedings showed the internal APC contest arriving before the external campaign has begun. Status: council inaugurated, campaign launch set for October 24 in Kaduna, Senate presidency contest open.