By Alex Ter Adum, PhD
There is something profoundly disturbing about the composition of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 Presidential Campaign Council.
At first glance, it is simply an electoral machine: 286 names, dozens of directorates, zonal coordinators, ministers, governors, legislators, technocrats, former office holders and political operatives assembled to prosecute the President’s re-election campaign. But look closer and another picture emerges.
It begins to look less like a campaign council and more like a political rehabilitation centre for men and women whose public reputations have been bruised, battered or substantially compromised by allegations, investigations, prosecutions, forfeiture proceedings and, in some cases, outright convictions for corruption.
That is not a statement that every person on the list is corrupt. It would be intellectually dishonest and legally reckless to say so. Some have been acquitted; others have denied allegations; some cases remain unresolved.
But that is precisely the point.
A presidential campaign is supposed to communicate a candidate’s values. The people selected to sell a President to Nigerians become part of the moral and political advertisement of that presidency.
And when a ruling party repeatedly places people with serious integrity questions at the centre of its campaign machinery, Nigerians are entitled to ask whether this is coincidence, political convenience or a deliberate philosophy of governance.
THE QUESTION ABOUT YARI
Let us begin with the man chosen to lead the entire operation.
How did Abdulaziz Yari become so extraordinarily wealthy?
This is not a question based on social-media gossip or speculative estimates of anybody’s net worth. There is a documented public record that makes the question legitimate.
Yari was Governor of Zamfara State from 2011 to 2019. In January 2021, the Federal High Court ordered the final forfeiture of funds traced to him and companies associated with him after the court found that the respondents had failed to establish a legitimate source for the monies. The forfeited sums included naira and dollar-denominated funds.
In February 2022, another Federal High Court ordered the interim forfeiture of about ten properties linked to Yari, including properties in Abuja, Kaduna, Zamfara and Maryland in the United States, following an application by the ICPC. The anti-corruption agency alleged that the properties represented proceeds of corruption.
There were also allegations by a Zamfara transition committee that more than ₦250 billion in liabilities and expenditures associated with the Yari administration could not be accounted for. Those allegations were rejected by Yari’s representatives.
None of this means that every asset belonging to Yari is illicit. It does not mean that every allegation against him has been judicially established.
But it establishes something much more modest and much harder to dispute:
There are serious, documented questions surrounding the financial history of the man President Tinubu has chosen to lead his presidential campaign.
And then comes the extraordinary development of August 2026.
Yari, now chairman of Geregu Power, personally intervened with approximately ₦6 billion to settle an outstanding bond obligation after the company defaulted on a payment due to bondholders.
Pause for a moment.
Approximately ₦6 billion in personal resources is an extraordinary amount of liquidity by any Nigerian standard.
So the question remains:
What is the legitimate source of Yari’s wealth?
What businesses generated it?
What investments produced it?
What did he own before becoming governor in 2011 as verified from his assets declaration before assumption of office?
What did he acquire during his eight years in office?
What did he accumulate after leaving office as also declared in his office exit assets declaration?
These are not unreasonable questions.
Being wealthy is not a crime.
Owning businesses is not a crime.
Having ₦6 billion available for a corporate intervention is not a crime.
But when a former public official accumulates extraordinary wealth and subsequently becomes the Director-General of a presidential campaign, the public is entitled to ask for an explanation of the provenance of that wealth.
Indeed, the question becomes even more compelling because the person asking Nigerians to trust President Tinubu is himself carrying unresolved questions about his financial history.
AND THEN THERE ARE THE OTHERS
Yari, however, is not an isolated case.
Consider the people surrounding him.
- GODSWILL AKPABIO
The Senate President and Deputy Director-General of the campaign council has had a long-running history of corruption allegations.
The EFCC interrogated Akpabio over allegations concerning the alleged diversion of public funds during his tenure as Governor of Akwa Ibom. The agency subsequently said it was investigating allegations involving him in relation to the NDDC.
None of these allegations constitutes a criminal conviction against Akpabio. But they form part of the integrity questions surrounding one of the country’s most senior political figures.
And this is the man positioned to help sell the President’s message of accountability.
- ABDULLAHI GANDUJE
The APC’s former National Chairman and one of its most prominent political figures has his own enormous baggage.
Ganduje faces an eight-count corruption case filed by the Kano State Government, including allegations that he received hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from contractors. He has described the charges as politically motivated.
The allegations became internationally notorious after the publication of videos purporting to show him receiving bundles of dollars.
Yet Ganduje remains within the political establishment surrounding the President.
- BELLO MATAWALLE
The former Zamfara Governor and serving Minister of State for Defence occupies a strategic position as Deputy Director of Security and Intelligence in the campaign council.
The EFCC has maintained allegations concerning the alleged mismanagement, fraudulent contract awards and diversion of more than ₦70 billion during his tenure as governor.
Again, allegations are not convictions.
But one has to ask why a presidential campaign that claims to represent a new moral direction would repeatedly choose individuals surrounded by such serious unresolved questions for sensitive political assignments.
- YAHAYA BELLO
Then there is the former Kogi Governor.
Yahaya Bello is facing an EFCC prosecution involving alleged money laundering, breach of trust and misappropriation of approximately ₦80.2 billion.
Yet a man standing trial in an alleged ₦80.2 billion financial crime case remains within the ruling party’s political ecosystem.
That alone should make Nigerians stop and ask what exactly the APC considers disqualifying.
- HOPE UZODIMMA
Governor Hope Uzodimma is the Secretary of the campaign council.
His public record has also not been free of serious financial controversy, including past allegations concerning contracts and financial transactions.
More recently, reports have linked an EFCC investigation involving an official of the Energy Commission to wider allegations concerning the management of funds associated with the Progressive Governors’ Forum, including claims relating to Uzodimma’s role as its chairman. Uzodimma and his supporters have rejected allegations of wrongdoing.
Yet he is entrusted with the administrative machinery of the President’s re-election campaign.
- ROCHAS OKOROCHA
The council also includes former Imo Governor and Senator Rochas Okorocha.
The EFCC filed a 17-count charge against him involving an alleged ₦2.9 billion fraud. The allegations included conspiracy, diversion of public funds and conversion of public assets. Okorocha pleaded not guilty.
The case has subsequently gone through several legal twists.
Again: allegation, not conviction.
But why does the Tinubu campaign seem so comfortable surrounding itself with people who have spent years answering serious questions about public money?
- JOSHUA DARIYE
Perhaps the most extraordinary example is former Plateau Governor Joshua Dariye.
Dariye was convicted of corruption involving approximately ₦1.16 billion and sentenced to imprisonment. The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction, although the sentence was reduced on appeal. He was subsequently granted a state pardon in 2022.
Now he is part of the APC campaign architecture.
A man once imprisoned for corruption has been returned to the political centre.
That is not rehabilitation through demonstrated public integrity.
That is political rehabilitation.
- JOLLY NYAME
And then there is former Taraba Governor Jolly Nyame.
Nyame was convicted over the diversion of approximately ₦1.6 billion in public funds. His conviction and 12-year prison sentence were affirmed by the Supreme Court before he was granted a state pardon.
He too appears in the campaign council.
If a man who has actually served a prison sentence following a corruption conviction can be welcomed into a presidential campaign structure, what exactly is the moral threshold for political rehabilitation under today’s APC?
- ORJI UZOR KALU
The council also contains Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
Kalu was convicted in 2019 over an alleged ₦7.65 billion fraud involving Abia State funds, although the Supreme Court subsequently nullified the trial and ordered a retrial because of the trial judge’s elevation to the Court of Appeal.
A later Federal High Court ruling stopped the retrial, and the Federal Government has continued litigation over the matter.
So this is not a simple case of calling Kalu a convicted criminal. His conviction was nullified on procedural grounds and the subsequent legal position remains contested.
But that history is precisely why his inclusion raises legitimate questions about the ethical standard being applied to campaign appointments.
- IBRAHIM SHEMA
Former Katsina Governor Ibrahim Shema is also on the council.
The EFCC prosecuted him over allegations involving approximately ₦11 billion in public funds. The Supreme Court cleared the way for the prosecution to proceed after rejecting his jurisdictional challenge.
Although the Katsina State Government subsequently discontinued one prosecution, Shema’s legal history continues to include allegations concerning the diversion of public funds.
Again, the issue is not to pronounce guilt where the courts have not done so.
It is to ask why the people carrying these kinds of unresolved histories keep finding themselves rehabilitated into the inner political circle of the Tinubu presidency.
THIS IS BIGGER THAN CORRUPTION
The more disturbing issue is that the problem goes beyond individual reputations.
It concerns the bastardisation of the distinction between government and party.
The campaign council includes serving governors, ministers, legislators and numerous serving public officials and agency heads.
This is where the Public Service Rules become relevant.
The Federal Government’s Public Service Rules restrict public officers from partisan political activities and require public servants to maintain the political neutrality expected of the public service.
To be precise, not every minister or presidential political appointee is a career civil servant to whom the Public Service Rules apply in exactly the same way. Ministers and many political appointees occupy constitutionally or politically appointed offices.
But that qualification does not rescue the larger principle.
The public service is supposed to serve the Nigerian state, not the electoral interests of the incumbent political party.
When serving heads of public institutions and government officials are visibly incorporated into a partisan campaign machine, the wall separating the state from the governing party becomes dangerously thin.
The inclusion of serving officials such as the Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service, Zacchaeus Adedeji, and other serving government officials in campaign structures should therefore provoke serious questions about institutional neutrality.
The issue is not whether these individuals are competent.
The issue is whether a public officer can simultaneously be a partisan campaign operative and remain visibly detached from the political interests of the government institution he or she heads.
If the answer is yes, then the government should explain why the Public Service Rules contain restrictions on partisan political activity.
If the answer is no, then who has authorised these officers to cross that line?
And if public officials can openly campaign for the incumbent President while remaining in strategic government positions, what message does this send to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the police, security agencies, regulatory bodies and the wider public service?
Are they also being put on notice that neutrality is now optional?
Would the INEC Chairman be expected to maintain public confidence in the Commission’s independence while senior government officials are openly embedded in the ruling party’s campaign structure?
That is the dangerous precedent.
THE REAL DECONSTRUCTION
There is a deeper constitutional problem here.
Nigeria cannot claim to operate a democratic constitutional order while allowing the governing party to progressively absorb the institutions of the state into its electoral machinery.
The public service must remain bigger than the political party in power.
The police must be bigger than the APC.
The civil service must be bigger than the Presidency.
Regulatory agencies must be bigger than the interests of an incumbent.
And electoral institutions must be completely insulated from the partisan calculations of whoever occupies Aso Rock.
Otherwise, we are no longer talking about a normal electoral campaign.
We are talking about the capture of the state by the party.
And that is what makes this campaign council so troubling.
It is not merely that President Tinubu has surrounded himself with politicians.
Every candidate does that.
It is that the council contains an uncanny concentration of people with corruption allegations, financial controversies, prosecutions, convictions, forfeiture proceedings and other serious integrity questions, alongside serving officials whose institutional responsibilities ought to demand political neutrality.
The cumulative effect is devastating.
It creates the impression that under Tinubu, political loyalty is becoming a more valuable qualification than public integrity.
It suggests that once a politician demonstrates sufficient loyalty to the incumbent, yesterday’s scandal can become tomorrow’s campaign credential.
And that is precisely why the phrase political rehabilitation centre is not entirely unfair.
A presidential campaign should be a showcase of the values a candidate intends to defend.
Instead, this one risks becoming a showcase of the people a President is willing to forgive, rehabilitate and redeploy, irrespective of how complicated their public records may be.
The question Nigerians should therefore ask is not merely:
Who is campaigning for Tinubu?
The more important question is:
What does the composition of Tinubu’s campaign council tell us about the kind of political system he intends to preserve?
If the answer is a system in which public office can be followed by unexplained wealth, corruption allegations, criminal prosecution, conviction, pardon and eventual political rehabilitation, then the APC has inadvertently given Nigerians a manifesto without writing one.
And perhaps the most troubling part of that manifesto is this:
In the Tinubu political order, integrity appears negotiable, loyalty appears priceless, and the boundary between the Government of Nigeria and the campaign machinery of the ruling party is becoming increasingly difficult to see.
Alex
