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• 50m women targeted, 20,000 for Abuja gathering
• Opposition defectors boost APC in Jigawa
From Desmond Mgboh, Kano, Fred Ezeh, Abuja, Agaju Madugba, Katsina and Mohammed Abubakar, Dutse
President Bola Tinubu’s re-election campaign gathered momentum at the weekend as First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu; presidential aide, Ibrahim Kabir Masari and Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, intensified mobilisation for the President ahead of the 2027 election.
While the First Lady is targeting 50 million women nationwide, Masari inaugurated a grassroots political structure in Katsina and Yusuf canvassed support for the President in Kano. In Jigawa, defectors from three opposition parties joined the All Progressives Congress.
More than 20,000 women are expected in Abuja tomorrow for the Women Stakeholders’ Mobilisation and Empowerment Pre-Inaugural Campaign Roll-Out 2027, designed to advance the First Lady’s mobilisation target.
The event, organised by the Women Mobilisation Directorate of the 2027 APC Presidential Campaign Council, will hold at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre.
It is themed, “Renewed Hope Agenda 2.0: From Reforms to Prosperity,” with the campaign message, “One Voice, One Movement, One Choice, One Mandate 2027.”
A member of the campaign’s Women Mobilisation Planning Committee, Princess Gloria Akobundu, urged women to support the administration, citing its interventions in education, infrastructure, social protection and economic empowerment.
She said the Nigerian Education Loan Fund had registered more than 1.4 million students and received over 1.69 million loan applications, with more than N191 billion disbursed through over 320 participating institutions.
Akobundu also cited the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation, the Renewed Hope Conditional Cash Transfer Programme and interventions under NG-CARES, SOLID and HOPE.
On infrastructure, she said the administration had constructed more than 2,700 kilometres of highways, listing the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway and Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Road among its flagship projects.
She challenged women in the South-East and other parts of the country to take the Renewed Hope message to the grassroots, describing their support as critical to the Tinubu-Shettima re-election bid.
In Katsina, Masari, Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, inaugurated the 360Plus1 Forum to coordinate support for Tinubu across the state’s 34 local government areas.
The platform draws its membership from state lawmakers, councillors, community leaders, APC stakeholders and other supporters.
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“The inauguration provides a strategic platform for consultation, political engagement and grassroots coordination among stakeholders committed to strengthening democratic participation and effective representation,” Masari said.
He urged members to maintain meaningful engagement with their constituents while promoting development, stability and inclusive governance.
Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Muntaqa Rabe Darma, commended Masari for promoting dialogue, unity and grassroots participation.
In Kano, Governor Yusuf called for continued support for Tinubu and his administration during this year’s Kadiriyya Maukibi, attended by Islamic scholars, political leaders and thousands of followers of the Qadiriyya order.
The governor said the gathering provided an opportunity to promote unity, peaceful coexistence and support for the President’s leadership.
The event also featured the inauguration of a Maukibi platform constructed by the Kano State Government and commissioned by Masari on behalf of the President.
Former Zamfara State governor, Abdul’aziz Yari, and former Sokoto State governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, also attended and addressed the gathering.
The APC equally received defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party, African Democratic Congress and Nigerian Democratic Congress at a rally in Limawa Ward, Dutse Local Government Area of Jigawa State.
Receiving them, state APC chairman, Ahmed Garba, predicted a wide victory margin for the party in the elections.
Represented by the State Publicity Secretary, Bashir Kundu, Garba thanked residents for supporting Tinubu and Governor Umar Namadi and assured the new members of equal recognition within the party.
Kundu said the large turnout in Limawa, one of the state’s biggest political wards with about 15 polling units, demonstrated that opposition parties had little chance in the area.
APC House of Assembly candidate and former chairman of Dutse Local Government Area, Ibrahim Yakubu Yargaba, described the crowd as an endorsement of the Tinubu and Namadi administrations.
Urging supporters to remain vigilant against opposition incursions, he declared: “Don’t allow any opposition party to come here and deceive you so that you don’t dent the good record you have with the governor.”
