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Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has spoken again, and this time it is about how the APC should handle its presidential campaign.
In a short statement he titled “The APC Presidential Campaign Council and the Need for a Leaner Campaign Train,” he said something many people in the party have been thinking but were not saying out loud.
The President should be allowed to go for his campaign rallies without an unnecessarily large number of people following him everywhere. Instead of crowding the train, party leaders should go back to their states and work at the grassroots.
That statement came at a time when the APC has just released its full Presidential Campaign Council list for the 2027 election. On that list, Senator Kalu himself is named as the Coordinator for Parliamentary Mobilisation for the South East in the Senate, working with other senators like Kelvin Chukwu and Onyebuchi Ezenwa.
The list is very long, with coordinators for all six zones, for both Senate and House of Representatives, with directorates, secretaries and deputies. In fact, if you print the list, it runs into hundreds of names.
That is exactly what Kalu is worried about. When you have this kind of large council, the temptation is for everybody to want to be seen close to the President at every rally, from Kano to Port Harcourt to Lagos.
Kalu said that will not win election. What wins election is what happens in the wards, in the local governments, in the villages.
He said the campaign council members should return to their respective states and mobilise. Let the President go with a small, efficient team. Let the others stay back and talk to real voters. It is a simple point, but it is very important.
If you remember 2023, the APC Presidential Campaign Council also had more than 400 members, with President Muhammadu Buhari as Chairman and Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Deputy Chairman, with James Faleke as Secretary and all governors as state coordinators.
The crowd was always huge. Sometimes the stage was so full that you could not even see the candidate. The same thing is about to happen again now. The party just held its inaugural meeting of the campaign council in Abuja on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, and the talk there was about grassroots mobilisation.
Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, who is Deputy Director-General South II of the council, told journalists that the APC will campaign on projects and policies, not just posters. He said the party will focus on what the Renewed Hope Agenda has done for Nigerians.
That aligns with what Senator Orji Kalu is saying. You cannot campaign with projects if all your leaders are busy following the President from one stadium to another.
Somebody has to stay behind and explain those projects to the market woman in Aba, to the farmer in Ohafia, to the youth in Umuahia. Kalu knows this because he is one of the few senators whose impact is still felt at home.
Just on October 4, 2026, when he toured Ohafia, constituents said openly that he is the only lawmaker whose impact they have felt in Abia North since 2019.
He has been in the Senate since 2019 and he is now seeking another term. He also commands over 500,000 followers online and is seen as one of the most vocal defenders of Tinubu’s reforms, especially on economy and education.
But politics is not just online. Kalu’s argument is that a lean campaign train saves money, saves time, and reduces confusion. When you have fifty big men following the President, who is in charge of the state? Who is talking to the local party executives? Who is settling quarrels between APC members in the ward? If all leaders leave their states to follow the President, who will handle these small fires before they become big fires?
The President does not need a crowd to prove he is popular. In fact, a smaller train makes him look more serious. Nigerians want to see a President who arrives, delivers his message clearly, and leaves, while his foot soldiers remain on ground to do the follow-up.
That is how elections are won in America, in Ghana, even here in Nigeria in the old UPN and NPN days. The big rallies are for television. The real election is won door to door.
Kalu also expressed confidence that Tinubu will be re-elected in 2027, and he said extensive campaigning may not even be needed if the party does its grassroots work well. That sounds bold, but there is truth in it. People already know Tinubu.
What they need is reassurance at their level that the party remembers them. That reassurance cannot come from Abuja. It must come from their own senator, their own House member, their own local chairman who lives with them.
Rubby Obinna
October 28, 2026.
