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Says governors, lawmakers, council chairmen must deliver wards or face voters’ verdict
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Defends Tinubu’s reforms
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Hope Uzodimma, Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, has warned that All Progressives Congress (APC) officials at all levels will be judged by Nigerians on their performance ahead of the January 16, 2027, presidential election.
Uzodimma, who is also the Secretary of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, said the election would be a referendum not only on President Bola Tinubu’s administration but also on the governors, legislators, council chairmen and other party officials who have exercised political power over the past three years.
He challenged party leaders to deliver their polling units and wards, stressing that the APC’s control of the federal, state and local governments did not automatically translate into electoral support.
Speaking on Wednesday at the inauguration of the APC Presidential Campaign Council in Abuja, the Imo State governor said the ruling party must justify the confidence Nigerians had placed in it by demonstrating tangible results in governance.
“The verdict they return in January will be shaped, to a very great extent, by what they have seen of their governors, their council chairmen and their legislators over these past three years.
“Mr President will be on the ballot on 16 January 2027, but if we are honest with ourselves, so will we. This election is as much a referendum on every APC official present here as it is on the Presidency, and I include myself in that without reservation,” he said.
The governor said the party’s widespread political control placed a greater responsibility on its officials to deliver results and persuade voters to support its candidates.
He warned against complacency, noting that the size of the party’s political structures should not be mistaken for the depth of its support among Nigerians.
“A party that controls every tier of government can easily grow comfortable and begin to mistake the size of its structure for the depth of its support. But as critical as structures are, it is citizens who vote, and each one of them has to be persuaded,” Uzodimma said.
He added that the APC had no excuse for failing to win the election if its leaders remained united, committed and focused on the task ahead.
“It follows that our party has no excuse not to win. Victory is guaranteed when we are united, committed and work as a focused team. So we must jettison any misgivings we have against each other,” he said.
Uzodimma urged governors, council chairmen, legislators and party executives to intensify grassroots mobilisation, insisting that the campaign’s success would depend on the ability of party leaders to take their message directly to voters.
“If I may reduce all of this to a single prayer, it is that every one of us should go home and deliver our polling units and our wards,” he said.
The governor said the APC’s control of government at all levels meant that voters would assess the performance of the entire party, rather than isolate the President’s record from that of other elected officials.
He noted that the party controlled the Federal Government, held majorities in both chambers of the National Assembly, governed 31 of the 36 states and had approximately 685 elected local government chairmen.
According to him, the concentration of political power under the APC was evidence of the trust Nigerians had placed in the party, but that trust must be sustained through effective governance.
“The Nigerian people have given us every advantage a political party could reasonably ask for, and Mr President has made our task easier still by giving us a record we can defend with pride,” he said.
Uzodimma cautioned that party leaders could not blame unfavourable circumstances if they failed to secure victory after enjoying such extensive political control.
He also called on APC candidates who had emerged from the party’s primaries to set aside their differences and support one another ahead of the general election.
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“The primaries are behind us. Whatever disagreements they may have left, the success of any one of us cannot be built on the failure of another, and every candidate who carries our flag deserves the full support of the whole party. Our unity should be unassailable,” he said.
He warned that internal divisions could weaken the party’s campaign, urging members to reconcile their differences and present a united front to the electorate.
While charging party officials to take responsibility for the campaign, Uzodimma appealed to Tinubu to remain focused on governing the country rather than become distracted by political exchanges during the electioneering period.
He said the President’s economic reforms required sustained attention to deliver their intended results, adding that the campaign council and party structures would handle the task of mobilising support for his re-election.
“An election season has a way of consuming everything around it, and there will be no shortage of people who would like to see you spend the next three months responding to every distraction on the campaign trail.
“We would ask that you do not allow it to distract you from governance. The reforms you began need your full attention if they are to deliver everything they promise,” he said.
Uzodimma added: “Please, Your Excellency, leave the heavy lifting of this campaign to us.”
He outlined a grassroots strategy in which governors would lead mobilisation in their states, council chairmen would take the campaign to local governments and wards, while legislators, party executives and Renewed Hope Ambassadors would engage voters in their constituencies and polling units.
The governor said the APC would have to explain the administration’s policies and achievements to Nigerians and demonstrate how they had affected their daily lives.
Uzodimma also defended the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms, particularly the removal of petrol subsidy and changes to the foreign exchange system, describing them as difficult but necessary decisions to address longstanding structural problems.
He said the administration had begun laying the foundation for sustainable economic growth, although he acknowledged that Nigerians had experienced hardship during the reform process.
“Nobody here pretends that the work is finished, or that Nigerians have not felt the strain of the journey,” he said.
“But the institutions that measure economies for a living are now saying what we have been saying for some time, which is that Nigeria is on the right course.”
He cited economic growth, easing inflation and improvements in Nigeria’s sovereign credit rating as indicators of progress, while pointing to government interventions in education, consumer credit, cash transfers and infrastructure as evidence of efforts to improve citizens’ welfare.
Among the initiatives he highlighted were the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which he said had supported more than 1.5 million students with over N350 billion in disbursements, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme.
Uzodimma said the reforms required time to mature and argued that abandoning them could mean starting the process afresh.
He urged the APC to communicate its record with evidence, acknowledge the challenges Nigerians faced and explain the administration’s plans for addressing them.
The governor also called for a peaceful and lawful campaign, warning that the conduct of the ruling party would influence the atmosphere of the election.
“Our strength in numbers also places a greater obligation on us to campaign peacefully and within the law, because the conduct of the governing party sets the tone for the whole election,” he said.
At the end of his address, Uzodimma moved a motion of implicit confidence in Tinubu’s leadership and administration and reaffirmed the party’s commitment to the Tinubu-Shettima ticket for a second term.
