2027: Uzodimma deploys grassroots team to mobilise support for Tinubu’s re-election

Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, has inaugurated a grassroots media team to campaign for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election, using the administration’s policies and reforms over the past three years as the basis for its outreach.

Mr Uzodimma, who is also chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), mandated the team to engage Nigerians across communities on the benefits of the Renewed Hope Agenda and the administration’s policies ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

The governor established the team under the Renewed Hope Ambassadors, which he chairs, and serves as its director-general for party outreach, engagement and mobilisation.

The Director of Logistics of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors, Shehu Usman, disclosed the establishment of the grassroots media team while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.

Mr Usman said the team had developed strategies to organise campaigns in communities across the country, including weekly media outreach and appearances on television programmes.

He noted that the team would also counter misinformation about the administration’s policies and communicate Mr Tinubu’s achievements and reform gains since he assumed office in May 2023.

“It’s an effective use of digital and new media platforms to enlighten the general public about the federal government’s policies, counter misinformation, and connect the administration’s reforms narrative with the voters at the grassroots,” Mr Usman said.

He said the team would mobilise across communities, markets, wards, and polling units ahead of the 2027 elections.

“The media strategy is consequently being positioned not merely as an information campaign, but as a grassroots communication network capable of taking the Renewed Hope message into communities, markets, campuses, wards and polling units ahead of the 2027 presidential election and beyond,” he said.

Mr Usman said the initiative showed Mr Uzodimma’s plan to use the media to mobilise support for Mr Tinubu, particularly at the grassroots, ahead of the 2027 election.

Uzodimma, Wike disagreement

The grassroots mobilisation initiative comes amid a disagreement between Mr Uzodimma-led PGF and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, over the creation of a parallel campaign structure for Mr Tinubu’s re-election.

Mr Wike, a chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), serving in the APC-led federal government, has been promoting a Rainbow Coalition, which he says aims to mobilise support for Mr Tinubu’s re-election.

The coalition began in Rivers State, where Mr Wike served as governor, but has since expanded to other parts of the country.

The PGF, chaired by Mr Uzodimma, has opposed the coalition, saying it could undermine the party and its candidates ahead of the 2027 elections.

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The governors have said they would not support any political arrangement that could undermine the APC and its candidates in the elections.

Some APC leaders have also alleged that Mr Wike is using the coalition to support politicians who lost the party’s primaries and are now contesting elections on the PDP platform.

Mr Wike, however, has accused the governors of opposing the coalition because they fear losing their elections. He has also criticised their performance in their respective states.

The FCT minister specifically named Mr Uzodimma, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State and Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State as opponents of the coalition, accusing them of acting for “selfish reasons”.

The PDP has also weighed in on the dispute, backing Mr Wike’s continued mobilisation for Mr Tinubu’s re-election despite the party’s decision to field Sandy Onor as its presidential candidate for the 2027 election.

The APC South-east caucus and other mobilisation groups within the party have, however, rejected the coalition and called on Mr Wike to apologise to the party’s governors over his comments about their political capacity and their opposition to the Rainbow Coalition.

Amid the disagreement, the APC national leadership has not publicly taken a position on whether it supports Mr Wike’s coalition, leaving the arrangement’s status within the party unclear.