President Bola Tinubu has approved state visits as part of early mobilisation for the 2027 general elections, even as Senator Abdulaziz Yari, named Director-General of the campaign, has outlined the strategy for the ruling party’s re-election bid.
Senator Abdulaziz Yari, a former governor of Zamfara State, said the campaign council would hold its inaugural meeting on October 14 at the State House Banquet Hall before launching the effort in Kaduna ten days later on October 24.
Yari said he met Tinubu at the presidential villa to brief him on preparations and to secure approval for the itinerary.
“The President asked for me to come and brief him on where we are, and to discuss the timetable for the state visits,” he told State House correspondents.
After Kaduna, the campaign is expected to move to Port Harcourt, in Rivers State, and then Maiduguri, in Borno State.
The full schedule will be released after the council’s inauguration, Yari said.
Yari dismissed the prospects of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, arguing that neither has the cross-regional political structure needed to defeat an incumbent president.
“Even if you have control of 80% of the South, if you don’t have anything in the North, you cannot make it,” he said, adding that the same logic applies to a candidate dominant in the North but weak in the South.
He said Tinubu’s coalition spans more than 10 states in each region, invoking the electoral history of former President Muhammadu Buhari, whose strong northern base was insufficient in earlier presidential bids without broader national support.
“This is calculation; it is not rocket science,” Yari said.
Yari also defended the administration’s record, saying the government had improved conditions it inherited and maintained economic momentum.
“We are not promising. We are doing it, and we are going to continue,” he said.
The comments mark an early effort by the ruling party to frame the 2027 contest around Tinubu’s incumbency, national reach and economic record, while portraying the opposition as regionally constrained.
