2027: How Tinubu, APC are pushing for electoral fortunes in S’East

After posting dismal results in the five South-East states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo during the 2023 presidential election, President Bola Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC) have been making inroads to overturn and overcome all electoral impediments fortunes in 2027. LAWRENCE NJOKU looks at some of the various interventions of the President and his party to shape future verdict.

Last week, the South-East All Progressives Congress Renewal Movement (SARM) raised the political ante for 2027 in the region, when it warned of a possible impediment to the improved electoral fortunes of President Bola Tinubu in the area. Their alarm followed an alleged stop work order by the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, on the construction work on the 110-kilometre Enugu–Onitsha highway.

A founding member of the party, who is also the National Coordinator of the group, Osita Okechukwu, had added in a statement that the road being constructed under the MTN Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme (RITCS) had previously progressed smoothly, but was now facing setbacks allegedly at the instance of the Minister’s order.
The immediate past Director General of Voice of Nigeria (DG, VON) had asked the president to investigate the situation, warning that delays in the completion of the very important road project could harm voter mobilisation efforts in the region ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

But Umahi, who responded to the allegation, expressed strong confidence that President Tinubu would secure his reelection in 2027, stressing that the region would fully support him based on the numerous projects and policies of his administration.

While insisting that the Works Minister had no reason to stop the ongoing road construction, Okechukwu said, “we have every reason to do the right thing, and it is not peculiar to that job; that is what we are doing in all the projects.”

Umahi, who listed the Enugu–Abakaliki Road and Afikpo-Abia-Okigwe Road among others, as part of Tinubu’s legacy achievements in the zone, noted that the president would have “99 per cent of the votes of the South-East because he has been very nice to the people of the South-East.”

And, in the attempt to justify the action taken by his office on the said road project, the Works Ministry had later in the week held a meeting among representatives of the MTN, its Contractor and other officials. During the meeting, a decision was reached that the construction of the dual carriageway must be completed by 10th May 2026 in accordance with the procedure contained in the Conditions of Contract.

The federal highway in contention has become a source of worry on residents of the region and users of the road. This is due to the number of mishaps that have occurred on it due to its poor state. Although it is a dual carriage way, it has been reduced to one lane due to its impassable nature.

In 2022, however, the immediate past administration of Muhammadu Buhari had handed the road over to the MTN for construction under its Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme (RITCS).

But, ever since the Osita Okechukwu-led group sounded the alarm last week on the likely implication of a continued delay on the project for President Tinubu’s second term ambition in 2027, a fresh flurry of debates has been triggered. The worry revolves around whether the president can win the next general election in the southeast region going by what he has been able to deliver in the zone since he assumed office in 2023.

In the 2023 presidential election, President Tinubu and APC lost in the entire five states, securing about 127,607 votes against Peter Obi, who won the zone with 1,960,590 votes. Many expect that since he mounted the saddle, he would be able to use his performance in office to improve his vote tally in the region to win convincingly during the next general elections.

Findings showed that aside from the road project in contention, the Tinubu administration has awarded the Ninth mile –Enugu-Makurdi Road that became dilapidated long ago; the Enugu- Port Harcourt highway, reconstruction of the collapsed bridge along the highway in September 2023 at the New Artisan market.

The President has also approved and inaugurated the membership and Governing Board of South-East Development Commission (SEDC); a body expected to facilitate the rebuilding of infrastructure in the region.

Coming over fifty years after the civil war and had long been craved for by Ndigbo, the expectations from SEDC are very high in the region. President Tinubu has in addition promised to dredge the Urashi River, the completion of the Eastern Rail line connecting Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, as well as support the development of the Anambra Basin; an energy reserve estimated to hold up to 1 billion barrels of oil and 30 billion cubic feet of gas.

Those close to the President readily boast that part of what he had done so far in the region were geared towards rewriting his electing outing of 2023 and prepare ground for a better 2027.

But, President of Njiko Igbo, an affiliate of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Rev. Okechukwu Obioha, while reacting to the development, insisted however, that nothing had changed about the situation of Igboland to warrant support for Tinubu in 2027 and improve his electoral report card in the region.

“We are yet to feel the impact of his administration in the South-Eeast region. Our Eastern Railway corridor remains the only one in the country where nothing has happened. It is not working and nothing serious has been heard about its rehabilitation. Granted that the President has promised to complete it, but is there any contract that has been signed or allocation made towards that?

“The Akanu Ibiam International airport, Enugu; is very dear to Ndigbo. We have not seen anything being done to complete it even when the southeast is the only region without an international airport in Nigeria. The truth is that there is a serious infrastructure gap in the southeast and every right-thinking Nigerian is aware that the poor state of infrastructure is affecting the economic growth and social development of the region.

“We are aware of the road contracts awarded so far, but how many of such roads have been completed in the region? It is not about awarding jobs, but the resources to execute them,” he said.

On appointments made by the President so far, Obiora maintained that it is still skewed against the region and in favour of the Southwest region, particularly Lagos State.

“What we got were only five Ministers in the President’s 48-member cabinet. While other regions got more than their statutory number, he insisted on the statutory one person per state as it concerns the southeast, despite the several appeals from the people to him to pick more Ministers from the region,” he said.

Okechukwu further pointed at the continued incarceration of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, even in the face of plethora of calls for his release. He regretted that that the President has not responded to the appeals despite the spate of insecurity it has generated in the region remains another sour point of the Tinubu administration. Kanu’s issue, he added, could have been treated as a political issue, as being suggested by many Nigerians, had it been that he was not an Igbo.

In his contribution, a Professor of International Law and Global Politics at the University of Kansas Law School, USA, Prof. Jehu Nnaji, agreed that assessing whether President Bola Tinubu’s performance so far could earn him support from Ndigbo in 2027, explaining that it would involve looking into how his policies and actions were impacting the region.

Taking the argument further, Nnaji said that the inclusion of a route passing through Ebonyi State in the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway project by Tinubu would enhance connectivity and economic growth in the region.

He stated that the President has implemented significant economic reforms, including the removal of fuel subsidies and the liberalisation of the exchange rate aimed at stabilising the economy, noting however that the measures have increased living costs, sparking protests and public discontent.

He stated: “While President Tinubu has initiated policies and received endorsements that may bolster support among the Ndigbo, challenges remain. Addressing economic hardships and regional concerns will be crucial in determining the level of support he can expect from the Southeast in the 2027 elections,” he added.

Speaking to The Guardian, founding National Chairman, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie, insisted that the Southeast region had not fared well in terms of infrastructure improvement in the hands of previous administrations of the country, stressing however, that Ndigbo are never coaxed into unguided support during elections.

He stated: “The indisputable truth is that subsequent Nigerian governments since the end of the Biafra/Nigeria war in 1970 (54 years ago) have by their deliberate policies given Ndigbo, especially those in the Southeast geopolitical zone, the short end of the stick.

“In spite of the 1970 end of war declaration of No Victor, No Vanquished by the then Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, and the programme of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation (3R) all the governments of Nigeria deliberately observed these policies and programs in the breach.

“The unfortunate state of affairs gave rise to the persistent cry of marginalization by Ndigbo in Nigeria and their compatriots in the diaspora, leading to the agitation to exit the Nigerian Federation.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo was formed in 1976, barely six years after the war, to mobilize Ndigbo on the platform of a socio-cultural organization to prepare the people to face squarely the challenges of surviving in Nigeria under post-war Nigerian governments that were unpretentious about their hostility towards Ndigbo and determined to continue the war by other means.

“It is an undisputed fact that for a period of about 50 years after the Civil War, the federal governments of Nigeria deliberately ensured that no meaningful federal project was started and completed in the Southeast geopolitical zone. The entire zone was littered with uncompleted and abandoned projects.”

The Igbo leader quickly added: “Notwithstanding President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s unbridled nepotistic tendencies, it can be said that there are visible signs that his administration is bringing federal presence to the Southeast in a manner not seen before.

“Some abandoned critical projects in the zone that are being resuscitated and geared towards completion, such as the second Niger bridge, Enugu-Onitsha and Enugu-Port Harcourt highways, narrow gauge railway tracks from Port Harcourt to the Northern parts of Nigeria and the reconstruction of the eastern coast seaports are good examples. The latest is the establishment of the Southeast Development Commission.

“President Tinubu’s unprecedented attention to the South-East is commendable but rebuffing the overwhelming demand of the entire people of the Southeast to unconditionally release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and other Igbo prisoners of conscience leaves a sour taste in the mouth. It is doubtful whether any other geopolitical zone in Nigeria would make such demand by the consensus of its citizens in Nigeria and the diaspora without the president invoking his special presidential dispensation to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to enter a nolle prosequi in court to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

“Regarding the 2027 presidential election, it must be understood that Ndigbo are republican in their dispositions and highly sophisticated in their political choices and support. Available statistics of Igbo electoral support since the first Republic has never been determined by ethnicity. Ndigbo voted overwhelmingly for Abiola/Kingigbe, Obasanjo/Atiku, Yar’adua/Jonathan, and even when there were Igbo presidential candidates who contested presidential elections in those dispensations.

“Similarly, Ndigbo joined the NCNC to form a coalition government with the NPC in the first republic and played the same role in the NPP/NPN accord to form a government of national unity. What this means is that the support Ndigbo will give President Tinubu in 2027 will largely depend on the extent he deploys his political sagacity and savvy to engage our people in the build up to the next election. It will do him a lot of good to spread out his wings and ferret out to attend to the yearnings of the Igbo masses who command their own voting choices and power. Ndigbo are never coaxed into unguided support during elections.”