President Bola Tinubu launched his re-election campaign at a Kaduna rally on Saturday. He defended his economic record and blamed political opponents for hunger and poverty. The President asked voters for a second term in the 2027 presidential election.
Speaking at Ranchers Bees Stadium, also known as Kaduna Township Stadium, on 24 October, Tinubu said his government was working to reduce hardship. He presented continuity and development as the basis of his appeal for another mandate.
“They created hunger, they created poverty, we are trying to eradicate it,” he said in remarks carried by Channels Television.
The President also defended the removal of fuel subsidy. He argued that the previous system encouraged corruption, false invoices and fuel smuggling, and urged supporters to reject opponents’ promises about the policy. Tinubu announced the removal of petrol subsidy in his inaugural address on 29 May 2023, on taking office.
Tinubu thanked Kaduna voters for supporting him in the previous election. He also said salaries were being paid regularly and praised governors for their work, according to the speech reported by Punch.
Vice-President Kashim Shettima, First Lady Oluremi Tinubu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio and APC national chairman Nentawe Yilwatda attended. Campaign director-general Abdulaziz Yari and Works Minister Dave Umahi were also among the party leaders at the event.
Kaduna Governor Uba Sani used his address to highlight federal interventions in the state. He said Tinubu had honoured commitments made during a 2022 campaign visit to Birnin Gwari concerning road reconstruction and security.
Sani said work was continuing on the Kaduna-Birnin Gwari road and claimed security along the corridor had improved. He also said more than 300 schools and over 150 primary healthcare centres previously closed because of insecurity had reopened.
The governor pointed to ongoing work on the Zaria-Soba-Pambegua road and a proposed metropolitan railway. He said $865 million had been approved for the 20-kilometre rail project and that the contractor had told him it had received $300 million in mobilisation funds.
Shettima cited the Federal University of Applied Sciences in Kachia and the transition of the Federal College of Education, Zaria, into a university of education among initiatives he said reflected the administration’s commitment to Kaduna.
Ahead of the event, residents interviewed by Leadership called for stronger action on insecurity and the cost of living. Joseph Uche, a trader on Jos Road, welcomed the visit but appealed for relief from hardship and unemployment.
“As a trader I know what I am facing,” Uche told the newspaper. His appeal focused on everyday economic conditions as the party prepared to begin its campaign.
The launch followed preparations announced by Yari after a meeting with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa on 9 October. The former Zamfara governor then identified Kaduna as the starting point for the party’s presidential campaign.
Support groups staged a separate solidarity march through Kaduna on Friday. The procession, led by Silas Ali Agara of the campaign council’s Support Groups Mobilisation Directorate, went to Government House before returning to the APC state secretariat, according to Punch’s account.
Russell Watkins / Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, 4 November 2024, Abuja. Cropped archive photograph, not the Kaduna rally. Source, CC BY 2.0. Cropped and resized; edges faded on prepared social artwork.
