APC campaign council member says North-West is behind Tinubu for 2027 after Kaduna rally
- Dr Musa Illiyasu Kwankwaso said the Kaduna rally showed the North-West backs President Tinubu's 2027 bid.
- He spoke to journalists at the rally, which he described as the formal start of the APC presidential campaign.
- Kwankwaso rejected claims that northern support for Tinubu is transactional.
A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Dr Musa Illiyasu Kwankwaso, has said the crowd at the party's presidential rally in Kaduna shows the North-West is behind President Bola Tinubu's re-election bid in 2027.
Kwankwaso spoke to journalists at the VIP Pavilion on the sidelines of the rally, which he described as the formal kick-off of the APC presidential campaign. He said the gathering had settled any question about where the zone stands.
He said the people of the North-West had made their position clear, and that backing Tinubu was tied to what he called a commitment to national cohesion.
Why it matters
The North-West holds the largest bloc of registered voters in Nigeria, so where the zone leans is closely watched ahead of every presidential election. For ordinary voters, the debate over which region backs which candidate often comes down to promises about jobs, security and how federal resources are shared.
Kwankwaso argued that a second term for Tinubu would help spread development and resources more evenly across the country's six geopolitical zones. He said the President's administration stands for fair sharing of resources to every zone.
He also pushed back at the suggestion that northern support for the President is transactional, saying the region intends to keep its word. He described Tinubu as the North's candidate and said the region would deliver him in 2027.
He called on political stakeholders across the country to put national unity and collective progress ahead of narrow interests.
The rally and the comments from a campaign council member are early signals of how the 2027 race is being framed in the North-West. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has not announced a date for the presidential election, and no official results or figures from the Kaduna gathering were given in the reports.
What happens next: attention will turn to whether other zones and parties respond to the Kaduna show of force, and to how the APC and opposition parties build their campaigns as 2027 approaches.
