‘Tinubu Should Be Commended’ For 12-State Campaign Plan –Alake

Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development and the spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2027 Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Alake, has said the 12 states selected for President Bola Tinubu’s proposed campaign rallies are key election-deciding states, arguing that the president should be commended for balancing campaigning with governance.

Alake said Tinubu, as a sitting president, could not afford to suspend government business to campaign across every state in the country, unlike in 2023 when he was not the incumbent president.

The APC campaign council spokesperson stated this during an interview on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), while defending the president’s decision to limit his physical campaign appearances to selected locations ahead of the 2027 general elections.

According to him, the states selected for the rallies are pivotal to the electoral process, adding that Tinubu’s decision to continue discharging his presidential responsibilities alongside campaigning should not be misconstrued as a lack of commitment to the election.

“I would not overwhelm the attention or suppress the attention to other issues of national importance. That’s why the president said categorically at the inauguration of the campaign council a few days ago that we should excuse him, that he’s not going to abandon governance for campaign,” Alake said.

He noted that while some media organisations interpreted the president’s statement as a commitment to maintaining governance during the electioneering period, others had portrayed it as an indication that Tinubu would not campaign extensively.

“Of course there’s also the, you know, negative section of the media that screamed, oh Tinubu will not go everywhere, oh Tinubu will not campaign and stuff like that. No, because the president has a lot on his plate,” he said.

Alake also spoke about the demands of the presidency, describing the responsibilities placed on Tinubu as enormous.

Asked why he sympathised with the president, the campaign council spokesperson said his proximity to Tinubu had given him an insight into the workload associated with governing the country.

“The weight on his shoulders is enormous and I admire him a lot. Why? Because his resilience, his stamina, he’s unparalleled,” he said.

Alake explained that Tinubu’s circumstances during the 2023 presidential election differed from his current position as an incumbent president, who must continue to oversee government affairs while seeking re-election.

“Ashiwaju was not a sitting president in 2023. He wasn’t. So he could afford all the time in the world to go to every corner of the nation. But when you’re a sitting president with so much work to do, no you cannot,” he added.

He said the president had instead selected states considered strategically important to the electoral contest.

“And what has he done? He has chosen some states, zonal pivotal states to visit. And if you were to do a serious empirical verification of those zones and states, you find out that those places he’s chosen to go are actually deciders, election deciders, those states,” Alake said.

He insisted that the president’s decision should be viewed in the context of his dual responsibilities, rather than as an indication that he was unwilling to campaign.

“And the man has said he should be commended for that. He’s not going to abandon campaign, I mean governance, for campaign,” he said.

Alake further argued that Tinubu would have faced criticism if he had suspended governance to focus on electioneering, saying his political opponents and critics would have questioned his commitment to running the country.

“Now imagine if you were to say, oh, he would leave governance for now and face campaign. The same nabobs of negativism say, ah, we said this man is not interested in Nigeria, in salvaging the country. But the man is there, now I’m not going to abandon governance for campaign. Oh, you say he has no capacity,” he said.

The APC campaign council spokesperson described such criticism as negative, maintaining that the president had to balance the demands of governing the country with the activities of his re-election campaign.

APC proposes 12 campaign rally locations

The APC had outlined a proposed nationwide campaign rally schedule covering the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory ahead of the 2027 general elections with the president scheduled to visit 12 states.

According to the proposed timetable, the campaign is scheduled to begin in Kaduna, Kaduna State, on October 24, 2026, and end with a grand rally in Lagos on January 9, 2027.

The proposed rally locations and dates for the president visit are:

1. Kaduna, Kaduna State — October 24, 2026
2. Port Harcourt, Rivers State — November 7, 2026
3. Jos, Plateau State — November 14, 2026
4. Ibadan, Oyo State — November 21, 2026
5. Maiduguri, Borno State — November 25, 2026
6. Enugu, Enugu State — November 28, 2026
7. Bauchi, Bauchi State — November 29, 2026
8. Sokoto, Sokoto State — December 4, 2026
9. Asaba, Delta State — December 12, 2026
10. Kano, Kano State — December 17, 2026
11. Yola, Adamawa State — January 4, 2027
12. Lagos, Lagos State — January 9, 2027