The All Progressives Congress (APC) has charged its governors, lawmakers, council chairmen and party executives to take President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign to the grassroots, saying the party’s control of the three tiers of government gives it an advantage that must be converted into votes.
Hope Uzodimma, Imo State governor and Secretary of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), gave the charge on Wednesday in Abuja at the inauguration of the council for the 2027 election, where the party’s leadership acknowledged that its extensive political structure would not by itself guarantee victory.
Mr Uzodimma said the party must use its control of the federal, state and local governments to build a coordinated campaign reaching wards and polling units across the country. Mr Uzodimma said the gathering, which included APC governors, members of the National Assembly, party executives and local government chairmen, represented the party’s political structure across the federation.
“Every campaign is, at heart, local,” Mr Uzodimma said, adding that governors would lead campaigns in their states, council chairmen would take the message to local governments and wards, while legislators and party executives would work through their constituencies and polling units. He said the party controlled the federal government, majorities in both chambers of the National Assembly, 31 of the 36 states and about 685 of the 774 local government councils.
“This is the strongest position any party has occupied in the Fourth Republic,” he said. But Mr Uzodimma warned that the APC’s dominance could create complacency if the party assumed its structures automatically translated into voter support. “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,” he said.