2027 election: Atiku calls Tinubu’s campaign council a ‘confession of fear’
Ahead of the 2027 elections in Nigeria, opposition leader Atiku Abubakar has reacted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s revised APC campaign council.
Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-president and perennial opposition figure, has repeatedly positioned himself as a leading challenger to President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general election, having contested the presidency multiple times, including against Tinubu in 2023 on the PDP platform. His latest remarks target the APC's newly expanded Presidential Campaign Council, a structure parties typically assemble ahead of elections to coordinate political mobilisation, fundraising and strategy across the country's geopolitical zones and party structures.
Campaign councils in Nigeria are often scrutinised for their size and composition, as large, inclusive lists are sometimes read as attempts to appease competing political interests and placate potential defectors rather than purely strategic appointments. Atiku's "confession of fear" framing suggests he sees the breadth of Tinubu's council as a sign of anxiety within the ruling party about its re-election prospects, though the coverage does not detail the council's actual membership numbers or which political blocs it incorporates. The competing headlines largely agree on Atiku's central claim, with ThisDay providing a fuller quote describing the list as "crowded," while neither outlet yet reports an official APC response.