…Soludo, Adeleke join re-election machinery; Otti signals support for President as Mohammed wavers between Tinubu, Makinde
By Jeremy Fregene
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is opening the 2027 presidential race at the head of a formidable political coalition, with political observers estimating that as many as 34 of Nigeria’s 36 governors are either firmly within his political structure or aligned, to varying degrees, with his re-election project.
The extraordinary concentration of gubernatorial support has become more evident with the expanded Presidential Campaign Council, which has brought governors and political heavyweights from outside the All Progressives Congress directly into Tinubu’s campaign machinery.
Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke of Accord are among the most significant additions.
Soludo has been appointed coordinator of Tinubu’s campaign in Anambra, while Adeleke will coordinate the President’s re-election campaign in Osun.
Their appointments mean that two serving opposition governors are no longer merely political allies of the President but have been assigned operational responsibilities in the APC presidential campaign.
The development reinforces what political analysts describe as Tinubu’s emerging “Rainbow Coalition” — an alliance combining the APC’s extensive control of state governments with politicians who support the President while remaining outside the ruling party.
The political arithmetic behind the 34-governor calculation was first publicly advanced from within the opposition, where an assessment in August claimed Tinubu already enjoyed the support of “34 and a half” governors.
Under that calculation, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde was identified as the only governor clearly outside Tinubu’s political camp, while Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed was described as the “half” because his position remained uncertain.
Subsequent political developments have strengthened some aspects of that assessment while complicating others.
Soludo and Adeleke have now formally entered Tinubu’s campaign structure, providing clear evidence of cross-party gubernatorial support for the President.
Adeleke’s political organisation has gone further, pledging to mobilise 1.5 million votes for Tinubu in Osun, while APGA has welcomed Soludo’s inclusion in the campaign council as consistent with his advocacy of strategic cooperation between Anambra and the Federal Government.
Political analysts say the significance goes beyond two additional governors.
They say that it demonstrates a strategy under which politicians do not necessarily have to defect to the APC before joining Tinubu’s presidential coalition.
Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike confirmed that arrangement during a media parley in Abuja on Tuesday, explaining that the coalition was deliberately designed to bring APC members and supporters of the President in other political parties together for the 2027 election.
“If you see that word, PBT/APC, it means those who are supporting the President who are not members of the party, together with the party, are working together to achieve that purpose,” Wike said.
According to him, the overriding objective is Tinubu’s re-election, while individual political actors can retain their party identities.
“The major thing is Mr President. Whatever we do, anyone with an idea or anything to contribute is contributing to Mr President’s success. That is the whole thing,” he said.
Observers say the arrangement potentially gives Tinubu two complementary campaign machines — the formal APC structure and a broader cross-party network capable of penetrating territories where the ruling party would ordinarily face entrenched opposition.
Abia State Governor Alex Otti is said to present a more nuanced example of that political relationship.
Otti, a Labour Party governor, has publicly said he supports Tinubu as President and is “not in a position to oppose his candidacy,” citing his responsibilities as governor and member of the National Economic Council.
He has, however, drawn a distinction between supporting Tinubu’s administration and his eventual electoral choice, saying he has a presidential candidate whom he expects to support.
Political observers therefore consider Otti politically friendly towards the President but say it would go beyond his public declaration to classify him unequivocally as a confirmed Tinubu campaign governor.
The situation in Bauchi is similarly fluid.
Governor Bala Mohammed, national leader of the Allied Peoples Movement, has been associated with Seyi Makinde’s presidential project and has previously backed the Oyo governor’s ambition.
But Mohammed has also publicly praised aspects of Tinubu’s performance, including the administration’s handling of finance, health, and security — comments that have generated questions within opposition circles over the firmness of his alignment.
Analysts say Mohammed’s mixed signals explain why he has repeatedly been treated as the uncertain figure in calculations of Tinubu’s gubernatorial support.
Makinde, by contrast, is unmistakably outside the coalition.
The Oyo governor is the APM presidential candidate and will confront Tinubu directly in the January 16 election.
Political observers say the larger significance is the extent to which Nigeria’s gubernatorial map has shifted since Tinubu won the presidency in 2023.
Tinubu secured 8,794,726 votes in that election, defeating Atiku Abubakar with 6,984,520 and Peter Obi with 6,101,533.
He achieved that victory without many of the governors and state political structures now associated with his re-election effort.
Since then, successive defections and political realignments have dramatically expanded the APC’s control of state governments.
This virtual ‘Rainbow Coalition’ now adds another dimension by allowing non-APC politicians to work for Tinubu without formally abandoning their parties.
Wike has described himself as an illustration of that model.
Although outside the APC, the former Rivers governor has been appointed coordinator of Tinubu’s campaign in Rivers and the Federal Capital Territory.
Soludo remains in APGA but will coordinate Anambra, while Adeleke remains in Accord but will coordinate Osun.
Political analysts say those arrangements could be especially important in states where Tinubu struggled in 2023.
In Anambra and the wider South-East, where his 2023 performance was weak, the President now has the sitting Anambra governor directly involved in his campaign, alongside the governors of Enugu, Imo and Ebonyi.
In Osun, a state Tinubu lost in 2023, the sitting governor is similarly now leading his re-election effort, while in Rivers, Wike’s established political network is being deployed behind the President.
The strategy, according to observers, is to consolidate APC-controlled territory while using the coalition to reach voters and political structures beyond the party’s traditional boundaries.
They caution that while the support of governors does not automatically translate into votes, they, however, remain invaluable to national campaigns because of the political organisations, local networks, and mobilisation structures around them.
Analysts maintain that the importance of Tinubu’s coalition lies not in a 100 percent guarantee of victory but in the breadth of the political machinery available to his campaign as the election process begins.
The revised Presidential Campaign Council now gives that coalition an organisational framework stretching from the national leadership through the six geopolitical zones to individual states.
Tinubu chairs the council, with Vice President Kashim Shettima and other senior party and government figures in its top leadership, while former Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari serves as Director-General.
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