President Bola Tinubu will officially launch his 2027 re-election campaign in Kaduna State on October 24, the Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, has announced.

Yari disclosed this on Friday after briefing the President on the council’s preparations during a meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The former Zamfara State governor said Tinubu requested an update on the campaign arrangements, including the proposed schedule for visits to states across the country.

According to Yari, the campaign council has agreed on a timetable, with its inaugural meeting scheduled to hold on October 14 at the State House Banquet Hall.

“By God’s grace, his team, I, and Mr President himself, we have agreed on how it’s going to be done,” he said.

“We have put forward a proposal. The inaugural meeting [of the campaign council] is going to be done on the 14th of this month. That’s next Wednesday at the State House banquet hall, and by God’s grace, on the 24th of October, we’re going to do our flag-off campaign in Kaduna, inshallah.”

Yari added that the President had approved the proposed visits to various states, noting that the campaign would begin in earnest after the Kaduna event.

He identified Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and Maiduguri, Borno State, as the next destinations after the campaign launch.

“We have the timetable, and we are going to make it available after the inauguration. But this has all been understood and approved by the team of Mr President and I,” he said.

The APC campaign chief also expressed confidence in Tinubu’s chances of securing re-election, dismissing the prospects of opposition figures, including the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is running on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Yari argued that Tinubu’s previous support for both politicians was evidence, in his view, that they would not be able to defeat the President.

“We are talking of the President of the country, and this President, who, by God’s grace, Almighty God used him to support Atiku some time back, and at the same time to support Peter Obi,” he said.

“So if Allah uses me to support you, there is no way Allah will use you to bring me down.”

He further questioned the opposition candidates’ political influence across the country, arguing that winning the presidency would require substantial support in both northern and southern Nigeria.

“Can the ADC candidate today in the southern part of the country beat his chest and say he has control of one state in the South? And I don’t think Peter Obi, who used to be my colleague, can beat his chest. Can he say he has control of one state in northern Nigeria?” Yari asked.

He maintained that strong support in one region alone would not be enough to secure victory in a presidential election.

“This calculation shows us that even if you have control of 80 per cent of the South, if you don’t have anything in the North, you cannot make it,” he said.

“If you have 80 per cent of control of the North, if you don’t have any state in the South, you can’t make it, and that’s what it is.”

Yari cited the late former President Muhammadu Buhari’s electoral history to support his argument, claiming that Buhari had enjoyed considerable backing in the North but struggled to secure sufficient support in the South.

He contrasted this with Tinubu’s alleged political strength across both regions, claiming that the President had the backing of more than 10 states in the South and a similar number in the North.

“This is calculation, it is not rocket science,” he said.

Yari also defended the Tinubu administration’s performance, arguing that the government had made progress in addressing the challenges it inherited and that the economy was improving.

He said the APC would campaign on its record rather than rely solely on promises.

“So I think we have done enough that we can tell our opponents about what we did. We are not promising. We are doing it, and we are going to continue,” Yari added.