Rep Abejide seeks one million Yoruba votes in Kano for Tinubu in 2027

A member of the House of Representatives, Leke Joseph Abejide, has launched a mobilisation drive to win one million votes for President Bola Tinubu from Yoruba residents in Kano State in the 2027 elections.

Abejide, who chairs the House Committee on Customs and represents a Kogi State constituency, spoke on Saturday at an empowerment programme in Kano. Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello attended, according to The Sun and Leadership.

The lawmaker, who holds the traditional title of Asiwaju of Yoruba in Kano, said he was unhappy with the roughly 500,000 votes Tinubu got in the state in 2023, given that the Yoruba population there is estimated at about five million.

He said the plan is to organise Yoruba voters from polling unit to ward level across Kano's 44 local government areas, and to deliver a block vote for the Tinubu/Shettima ticket and other All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates.

Loans for women, and a disputed figure

At the event, Abejide announced support for widows and women, including food, clothing, cash and interest-free loans through cooperative societies. The two reports give different figures for the loan scheme: The Sun put it at ₦500 million, while Leadership reported ₦600 million.

Leadership reported that the programme was organised by his foundation for Yoruba, Igala, Ebira and Bassa communities in Kano. Abejide said he arrived in Kano in February 1993 and built much of his business there before entering politics, describing the state as his second home.

According to Leadership, he said coordinators would be picked from among the women beneficiaries to monitor and protect the party's votes, and that the programme would later be extended to unemployed youths and men.

Bello, who also spoke, said the votes of non-indigenes in Kano should not be underestimated. He argued that federal projects such as the Abuja-Kano highway show the President's commitment to the North, and said Tinubu should be allowed to serve eight years, after Muhammadu Buhari's eight years from the North.

Governor Yusuf commended Abejide for running the empowerment programme outside his own constituency. He urged other federal lawmakers to support Nigerians regardless of ethnic or religious background, saying such moves promote unity and peaceful coexistence.

What happens next

The 2027 general elections are still more than a year away, and no official campaign period has begun. For now, the push is a party mobilisation effort in one state, with the size of the loan scheme still unclear from the reports.