The All Progressives Congress has named three politicians from rival parties as state coordinators for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid, barely two months after one of them defeated the APC at the polls. Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo and Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke appear in the party’s revised Presidential Campaign Council list released on Tuesday. Tinubu is expected to inaugurate the expanded council at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.
Under the new arrangement, Wike will coordinate the campaign in Rivers State and the FCT, Soludo will handle Anambra, while Adeleke takes charge of Osun. None of the three is a member of the APC. Wike remains in the Peoples Democratic Party, Soludo belongs to the All Progressives Grand Alliance, and Adeleke governs on the platform of the Accord Party.
Adeleke’s appointment stands out most. On August 15, he beat the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, in the Osun governorship election, polling 511,067 votes to Oyebamiji’s 444,815, according to results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission. That 66,252 margin gave Adeleke about 51.9 per cent of the 985,079 valid votes and victory in 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas.
The revised list also handed a key role to the man Adeleke unseated in 2022. Marine and Blue Economy Minister Adegboyega Oyetola, the former APC governor of Osun, was named Deputy National Coordinator I for stakeholders’ mobilisation in the South West. INEC figures show Adeleke defeated Oyetola in that 2022 contest by 403,371 votes to 375,027.
Wike, speaking at a media parley in Abuja on Tuesday, said the President’s campaign should reach beyond the APC to anyone committed to his continued leadership, regardless of party. Wike has served in Tinubu’s cabinet since August 2023 while retaining his PDP membership. Neither Soludo nor Adeleke had publicly commented on their appointments as of Tuesday evening.
The choice of states carries electoral weight. In the 2023 presidential election, INEC results show Tinubu won Rivers with 231,591 votes but lost the FCT to Peter Obi, who polled 281,717 votes to Tinubu’s 90,902. Osun went narrowly to Atiku Abubakar, with 354,366 votes against Tinubu’s 343,945.
Anambra produced the starkest gap. Obi took 584,621 votes in the state in 2023, while Tinubu managed 5,111. Soludo, who won a second term on the APGA platform in November 2025, now leads the APC effort in a state where the party has historically struggled.
The expanded list is a reworking of the council the APC first unveiled on August 22, which named former Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari as Director General. Yari keeps that post. Tinubu chairs the council, with Vice President Kashim Shettima and APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda as vice chairmen, while Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma remains secretary.
There were changes at the top. Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas and Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq are now Deputy Vice Chairmen I, II and III. Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni, earlier a deputy director general, becomes Deputy Director General I for the North.
The council also names all 32 APC governors as coordinators in their states. Where the party does not hold the governorship, it turned to its candidates, including Sharafadeen Alli in Oyo. Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori is Director of Finance, while Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun and Nigeria Revenue Service Chairman Zacch Adedeji will oversee fundraising.
The advisory board draws heavily on party elders. It includes former APC national chairmen Adebisi Akande and Abdullahi Adamu, former Ogun governors Ibikunle Amosun and Segun Osoba, former Osun governor Iyiola Omisore, Senators Ibrahim Dankwambo and George Akume, and Wale Edun. Obafemi George is listed as media adviser, while Solid Minerals Development Minister Dele Alake continues as spokesman.
A Directorate of Election Planning, Coordination, Monitoring and Mobilisation has also been created. It is headed by James Faleke as Deputy Director General, with Stella Okotete and Abdullahi Garba Ramat as Secretaries I and II, and Audu Maikori as a secretary. Other members include Soares Omotola, Bashir Dabo, Sheriff Mohammed Usman, Jibrin Bancir, Ayoola Peter Olajolo, Abubakar Sadiq Sada and Folasade Ogunbiyi.
The council takes off with about three months left in the campaign season. INEC has fixed the presidential and National Assembly elections for January 16, 2027, with campaigns closing on January 14. Governorship and state Assembly elections follow on February 6.