Parallel campaigns within APC

From Hope Abah (Makurdi), Promise Adagba (Akure) & Abdullahi Abdulrahaman Chakwa (Gusau) & Ibrahim Musa Giginyu, Katsina

While the All Progressives Congress (APC) officially kicked off its presidential campaign last week, a major hindrance to its effective spread in all the geopolitical zones and states in the country has remained the lack of synergy in many states.

Weekend Trust checks revealed that there are many states where leaders of the party claiming to work for the reelection of its presidential candidate, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, prefer to work in isolated camps, without as much as involving other leaders in its operations.

This, our correspondent learnt, is due to unresolved leadership disputes, personality clashes and the bid outdo each other to prove the one with the bigger political worth.

The intensity, however, varies in degree from state to state, with some openly defying each other, while some put up a façade of working together, but beneath the surface are trying to undermine each other’s efforts.

Investigations reveal that in states where the governors joined the APC only after winning elections, the process of integrating the party structure on ground has not been concluded, leading to suspicion between those who moved the governors and those they met on ground.

In states like Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa and Kano, there are still vestiges of animosity between the two major camps of the defecting governors and those they met on ground.

In states like Anambra and Osun, where the governors are members of other parties but have been integrated into the APC presidential campaign council, the preexisting party structures there have shown that they are not comfortable with the arrangement.

States like Benue, Ondo, Katsina, Zamfara have shown that the contending forces are not aligned to work together for the reelection bid of its presidential candidate due to unrestrained rivalries between the governors and other powerful figures from the party in their states, who have the ears of Abuja.

Our correspondents capture what is going on in some of the states.

Masari yet to attend Radda’s campaign rallies in Katsina

As the Katsina State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) begins its 2027 re-election campaign, the Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Political and Other Matters, Alhaji Ibrahim Kabir Masari, is yet to attend any of the party’s major campaign activities in the state.

Masari, who is considered one of the influential APC figures in Katsina, was absent during the inauguration of the Dikko/Tinubu Campaign Council by Governor Dikko Umaru Radda. He was also missing at the official flag-off of the campaign in Funtua Local Government Area.

However, rather than joining the governor at the public campaign events, Masari is said to have intensified separate political consultations within and outside Katsina State ahead of the 2027 general elections.

His recent engagements suggest efforts to build support for the Tinubu-Radda re-election project through religious leaders, academics, former political office holders, grassroots organisations, party stakeholders, community influencers and members of the business community.

On October 26, Masari held a meeting with 1,121 Islamic clerics in Katsina, comprising members of the Qadiriyya and Tijjaniyya orders, the Izala movement, as well as male, female and youth Islamic scholars.

At the meeting, he reportedly appealed to the religious leaders to communicate their positions to their congregations and encourage eligible voters to support President Tinubu.

Similarly, on October 9, Masari was among prominent Katsina political figures who attended a high-level APC stakeholders’ meeting convened by Governor Radda at the Katsina State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja.

Although details of the discussions were not made public, the meeting was held behind closed doors amid preparations by the ruling party for the 2027 elections.

Earlier, on October 2, Masari inaugurated two political support organisations in Katsina: the Wazirin Tinubu Ambassador Movement and the 360Plus1 Support. The initiatives were reportedly designed to strengthen grassroots mobilisation for the Tinubu-Radda ticket.

He also received the leadership of the Joint Islamic First Aid Organisation in Abuja during the same month. The delegation was led by its chairman, Ahmad Jingi Adamu.

Masari had also engaged senior academics from universities across the country in September 2026 during a high-level meeting themed, “Consolidating the Renewed Hope Agenda: Three Years of President Tinubu’s Achievements and the Road to 2027.”

In another political engagement, he addressed thousands of APC supporters and political stakeholders at Nabanje, his hometown in Kafur Local Government Area, as part of efforts to consolidate support for the ruling party.

Interestingly, despite the inauguration of the main Dikko/Tinubu Campaign Council, Governor Radda also inaugurated an Independent Campaign Council (ICC) on October 28, 2026, in what appears to be another mobilisation structure ahead of the elections.

At the inauguration, Radda expressed confidence in the APC’s preparedness for the 2027 general elections and urged the council’s officials and members to work harmoniously with other political groups within the party to achieve their objectives across the state’s 34 local government areas.

The ICC Director-General, Abubakar Abdullahi-Matazu, disclosed that the council had established a five-member structure for each polling unit across the state to strengthen its grassroots presence ahead of the elections.

However, political analyst Ahmad Aminu Malwa believes that the true state of affairs within the Katsina APC may not become clear until after the presidential election.

According to him, it is only then that the underlying disagreements, political rivalries and other issues within the party may fully emerge into the public domain.

“With all the visible indicators showing the existing rift between the two Katsina APC big wigs and taking into consideration the INEC’s elections timetable, it will be very difficult to see the real misunderstanding indices between the two, but believe me, whatsoever is the issue, it will be visible after the presidential election,” he said.

Alia, Akume camps go different ways for Tinubu

For a party seeking to consolidate its grip on power ahead of the 2027 general elections, the inability of two of its most influential leaders in Benue State to close ranks currently presents a challenge for the APC as the camps of Governor Hyacinth Alia and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, mobilise separately for President Bola Tinubu’s reelection.

Our correspondent reports that despite repeated reconciliation efforts over the past three years, including another reported peace initiative in less than a week, the political differences between the two leaders remain unresolved, with the Akume-aligned faction insisting that support for Tinubu does not automatically translate into support for Alia, while the governor’s camp maintains that it is focused on governance rather than rival political alliances.

To this end, both respective camps are now pursuing separate mobilisation strategies for President Tinubu’s reelection in 2027.

Although both camps profess support for Tinubu’s second term ambition, their inability to harmonise their political structures raises questions about the prospects of a coordinated campaign ahead of the general elections.

No doubt, the disagreement, which could be traced to the control of party structure in the state, had over the past three years polarised APC stakeholders from the state executive to ward levels, with the faction loyal to Akume associated with Comrade Austin Agada’s leadership, while the other operates under the party structure led by Chief Benjamin Omale, whose emergence was backed by Governor Alia.

Consequently, the situation illustrates the competing political influence of Akume, who commands considerable federal connections and longstanding party structures, and Alia, who wields the authority of an incumbent governor and maintains his own grassroots support base.

Rather than resolving the underlying disagreements, the reconciliation efforts appear to have left the two camps operating through separate political networks, with implications for the party’s ability to present a united front in the 2027 elections.

Austin Agada, a factional state chairman of the APC, who presently fronts the Rainbow Coalition as its national secretary, confirmed the division recently to journalists in Makurdi when he disclosed that the group would support Tinubu’s reelection but would not back Alia unless the governor demonstrated a commitment to the coalition and its political interests.

Agada said the coalition was prepared to work with political parties and stakeholders committed to Tinubu’s second term ambition.

Agada also accused the governor of disregarding an alleged understanding reached at a peace meeting held at the Government House, Makurdi in May, where Tinubu reportedly proposed that incumbent elected officials from the state seeking reelection should be allowed to pursue a second term.

According to Agada, the meeting, presided over by Akume, was convened to address disagreements within the party, but he alleged that Alia opposed the proposal and supported moves to challenge the president’s position on the automatic tickets.

But the governor’s camp has since dismissed Agada’s suggestions that emerging political alliances and rival mobilisation structures constituted a threat to Alia, who is also working assiduously for Tinubu’s second term in office.

The Chief Press Secretary to Alia, Tersoo Kula, said the governor was more concerned about delivering democratic dividends to the people than the emergence of political alliances ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“Governor Hyacinth Alia is more focused than ever on delivering for the people of Benue State. He is not particularly bothered by political gang-ups here and there because he anticipated them,” Kula said.

The governor’s position indicated that that his camp intends to rely on its own political strength and record in office to support his 2027 ambition and the president’s reelection rather than allow the activities of rival groups to dictate its strategy ahead of the elections.

Alia, in all public for a, has continued to drum support for the president’s reelection while backing various group campaigning for Tinubu’s second term in office.

Similarly, the state APC publicity secretary, Benedict Yawe, in a conversation with our correspondent in Makurdi, played down the significance of the separate political operations as he insisted that the activities of the two camps should not be interpreted as an evidence of weakness within the party.

Yawe argued that the APC remained a broad-based political family whose leaders and support networks could operate through different structures while pursuing common objectives.

“What matters is our shared commitment to the party’s success,” he said, adding that separate structures could expand grassroots mobilisation and bring more voters into the party’s fold if they operated with mutual respect, discipline and the collective interest of the APC in mind.

He said the party would present the Alia administration’s interventions in road infrastructure, agriculture, education, health care, workers’ welfare, rural development and digital transformation to the electorate as part of its campaign.

“Alia and Akume camps have the opportunity to deploy their respective networks towards communicating the APC’s programmes and engaging citizens across Benue State. Our focus is not on whether every leader operates through the same structure but ensuring that our collective political activities reinforce the party’s objectives at the presidential, gubernatorial and legislative levels.

Speaking for the Agada-led faction, Morgan Ihomun, said the separate mobilisation structures showed a failure to achieve effective coordination and genuine reconciliation within the party.

He argued that Tinubu’s intervention in the Benue APC crisis should have provided a foundation for both camps to work together, but accused Alia of failing to unite stakeholders despite what he described as efforts by Akume to engage the governor.

“The fact that the camps associated with Senator George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and leader of the APC in Benue State, and Governor Hyacinth Alia are campaigning separately for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reelection does not in itself mean that their commitment to the president is in doubt. The real issue is the absence of effective coordination and genuine reconciliation within the APC in Benue State,” he said.

Ihomun, who is the state publicity secretary of Agada’s faction, also alleged that Akume was once prevented by the governor’s security aides from entering the Government House.

The allegation, however, indicated the depth of mistrust between the camps, although the circumstances surrounding the reported incident were not independently established at the time of filing this report.

He warned that unresolved divisions could affect the party’s electoral fortunes, but maintained that the disagreements should not be allowed to undermine Tinubu’s reelection bid.

“Our commitment to the president’s reelection should not be held hostage to unresolved internal disagreements within the APC in Benue State.

“Ultimately, President Tinubu’s reelection and Governor Alia’s political ambitions are two distinct issues that should not be conflated,” Ihomun added.

Meanwhile, the separate campaigns have also attracted calls for reconciliation from political stakeholders who fear that the continuing rivalry could weaken the party and heighten tensions ahead of the elections.

Otunba Segun Showunmi, the convener of The Alternative Movement and a member of the media and communications community of the presidential campaign, appealed to APC members in Benue to unite and reconcile Alia and Akume in the interest of the party’s electoral success.

In the same vein, Adai Edwin Adai, the state coordinator of The Alternative Movement and its director of planning, operations, policy and administration, called on the governor and the SGF to embrace dialogue to prevent political tensions from escalating into violence ahead of the 2027 elections.

Adai warned that prolonged political disagreements could lead to avoidable loss of lives if leaders failed to prioritise peace and the collective interests of Benue residents.

Citing former Senate presidents – David Mark and Iyorchia Ayu, alongside Akume – Adai argued that political leaders could disagree without allowing their differences to destroy personal relationships or peaceful coexistence.

Lawal, Matawalle camps in on, off alliances

Our correspondent in Zamfara reports that supporters of the state governor, Dauda Lawal and the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, have not really aligned but waiting for the composition of the state campaign council to know whether all camps would be accommodated.

Although the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Abdulaziz Yari is from Zamfara State, there are indications that each camp of the camps prefers to work on its own.

Some of the camps, our correspondent learnt, have even bought vehicles that bear their names and logo with that of the president.

So far, the Lawal and Matawale camps have denied divisions between their political camps, insisting that they are working together to secure President Tinubu’s reelection in 2027.

Our correspondent, however, reports that the two camps have separately mobilised their supporters for Tinubu’s second-term bid, raising questions about the level of coordination between their political structures despite their shared commitment to the president’s ambition.

However, Mustapha Jafaru Kaura, Senior Special Adviser to Governor Lawal on Media and Public Enlightenment, dismissed suggestions that the two camps are working at cross purposes, describing them as political speculation.

“All you are hearing is just political hypothesis and the views of some political analysts, but we are all working for President Tinubu,” Kaura said.

He said Lawal had convened a stakeholders’ meeting about three weeks ago to discuss strategies for promoting unity within the All Progressives Congress fold in the state.

“At the stakeholders’ meeting, we told ourselves the plain truth, and the governor emphasised the need for unity. We will soon release the state campaign council with adequate representation of all camps,” he said.

Kaura acknowledged that disagreements were inevitable in a large political party such as the APC, but maintained that such differences did not amount to a division within the party.

“In any strong political party like the APC, you must find people with divergent opinions. But I assure you that what is going on is just like Nigeria as a country. It is unity in diversity,” he said.

Similarly, the former Commissioner for Security and Home Affairs and chairman of the Matawalle Amalgamated Forum, Abubakar Dauran, said his group was working with Lawal’s camp to ensure the success of Tinubu and other APC candidates in the 2027 elections.

“We are not aware of any division. Matawalle held a meeting with all his former appointees during his administration in the state and directed us to rally round President Tinubu, Governor Lawal and all our APC candidates. We are doing that,” Dauran said.

He expressed optimism that the state campaign council being planned by the governor would accommodate supporters of the various political tendencies within the party.

Efforts to obtain the reaction of the camp of Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, who represents Zamfara West and the Director-General of the presidential campaign council, were unsuccessful as those approached declined to comment.

The assurances from the two camps came amid efforts by the APC leadership in Zamfara to consolidate its position ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Lawal joined the party in March 2026, bringing together political interests that had previously operated on different sides of the state’s political divide with solid alliance to their masters.

At a stakeholders’ meeting in Gusau on April 25, APC leaders, including Lawal, Matawalle and three other former governors of the state, endorsed Tinubu and Lawal for reelection in 2027.

Matawalle, who read the communiqué issued at the meeting, affirmed the stakeholders’ commitment to the party and Tinubu’s second term ambition.

Although both camps have publicly pledged support for Tinubu, the composition of the proposed state campaign council is expected to provide a clearer indication of how their respective political structures will be accommodated and coordinated ahead of the elections.

Aiyedatiwa, Tunji-Ojo mobilise separately for Tinubu

Despite their common objective of securing President Tinubu’s reelection in 2027, the Ondo State governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa and the Minister of Interior, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, appear to be pursuing separate mobilisation strategies, raising questions about unity and leadership within the All Progressives Congress in the state.

The division reportedly started after the APC primaries for National Assembly seats in Ondo State, during which several candidates believed to have enjoyed Aiyedatiwa’s support were reportedly displaced by decisions of the party’s National Working Committee. Tunji-Ojo was alleged to have influenced some of the decisions, although the allegations have not been independently established.

The outcome reportedly triggered protests, violence and resentment among some aggrieved party members, with accusations of anti-party activities emerging from the political disagreements.

Another point of contention is the reported influence of Tunji-Ojo’s political network in the state. The minister was said to be backing a significant number of support groups mobilising for Tinubu’s reelection, with some reports putting the figure at 80 per cent.

The groups were reportedly reluctant at some point to register with the APC campaign committee constituted in the state but later complied after the party chairman, Babatunde Kolawole directed them to do so. The development has further fueled discussions about whether the different mobilisation networks are operating under a genuinely coordinated structure.

Speaking with Weekend Trust on the situation, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Aiyedatiwa on Public Engagement, Steve Otaloro, said the Governor had established the recognised structure for the 2027 campaign and made provisions for different political interests within it.

“The established structure for the 2027 elections in Ondo State is the APC Campaign Council constituted by Governor Aiyedatiwa. The governor has ensured that leaders sponsoring different political caucuses and their members are accommodated within this structure,” he said.

Otaloro, however, argued that the existence of separate political groups did not necessarily indicate a division within the party, adding that their activities should be coordinated to achieve a common objective.

“Our objective is to avoid fragmented mobilisation and ensure that every effort contributes to the same electoral goal. We are working towards delivering one million votes for President Tinubu in Ondo State,” he said.

He also said Aiyedatiwa had directed the establishment of a reconciliation committee to engage aggrieved members, including Tunji-Ojo, as part of efforts to resolve any differences within the party.

According to him, the governor provides the overall political leadership for the APC in Ondo State, while the campaign council’s director-general, Victor Olabintan and the state party chairman, Kolawole, have defined responsibilities in coordinating mobilisation and party activities.

However, Pelumi Jaiyeoba, an aide to Tunji-Ojo, said the minister’s mobilisation efforts were focused on Tinubu’s reelection rather than any disagreement with the governor.

“BTO’s mobilisation efforts are just distinctly excellent. It might not be totally separate as far as it operates within the APC. The governor’s camp may have issues with his outstanding performance and personality, but BTO never thinks in that direction. He only believes in the Renewed Hope mantra of President Tinubu and makes sure he does everything possible for his return in 2027,” Jaiyeoba said.

He maintained that the APC should work together, but alleged that some National Assembly candidates associated with the governor were willing to work with politicians in other parties.

“The APC is one and we have to work together, but there are some indications that there is the presence of some candidates of the National Assembly in other parties the governor is willing to work for and with. BTO stands on the APC from top to bottom,” he said.

Jaiyeoba further alleged that the situation could create a clash of interests if the governor’s camp continued to engage with the Rainbow Coalition, a political platform associated with interests beyond the APC.

The competing positions have also brought renewed attention to the question of who exercises ultimate leadership over the APC in Ondo State.

While many party stakeholders have identified Aiyedatiwa as the party’s state leader, supporters of Tunji-Ojo have also highlighted the minister’s political influence and mobilisation network.

The disagreement has become more noticeable following Tunji-Ojo’s reported absence from a recent meeting of the Ondo State Campaign Committee for Tinubu’s reelection, although his absence alone does not establish a breakdown in relations between the two camps.