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| President Bola Tinubu. Official portrait, 2023. Nosa Asemota / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. |
Asiwaju Kano for Asiwaju Jagaban (AKA) has inaugurated coordinators across Kano State’s 44 local government areas, setting a target of securing at least 1.5 million votes from non-indigenous residents for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027.
The organisation, spearheaded by House of Representatives member Leke Abejide, also unveiled its executive structure. Its organisers said the network would campaign for Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and other All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates alongside the President.
Planning committee chairman Ekundayo Emmanuel outlined the coordinators’ responsibilities during the inauguration in Kano, identifying residents from other states as the focus of the mobilisation effort.
“Today, we are inaugurating coordinators across all 44 local government areas. Our responsibility is to mobilise at least one million five hundred thousand votes from non-indigenes residing across Kano State for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our esteemed governor and leader, the people’s governor, Engineer Abba Kabir Yusuf, popularly known as Abba Gida Gida, as well as all APC candidates in the state,” Emmanuel stated.
He said the organisation would promote the programmes of Tinubu and Yusuf, adding that ward-level mobilisation was underway to pursue its electoral target.
Yusuf joined the APC on 26 January 2026, having won the governorship on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party. The AKA initiative brings together supporters seeking votes for both the governor and the President ahead of the next elections.
AKA’s Kano coordinator, Seyi Olorunsola, linked Abejide’s involvement in the campaign to his longstanding relationship with communities in the state.
Abejide represents Yagba East, Yagba West and Mopamuro Federal Constituency in Kogi State. In an earlier account published by the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, the lawmaker said he had lived in Kano for more than 30 years and regarded it as his second home.
Olorunsola put the number of residents reached through Abejide’s support programmes at more than 300,000, including nearly 5,000 widows. He said beneficiaries received ₦50,000 each, together with rice and wrappers.
“Hon. Abejide’s gesture is truly commendable, especially when you consider that several other politicians who rose to national prominence through their ties to Kano have not undertaken similar initiatives to uplift communities here,” Olorunsola said.
“His decision to return to Kano and invest directly in the welfare of residents demonstrates genuine commitment to his roots and reinforces the goodwill President Tinubu enjoys among the masses.”
The chairman of the Yoruba community in Kano, Olajide Johnson Ogunleye, asked community members and other non-indigenous residents to participate in the campaign. He urged those attending the inauguration to take responsibility for explaining its objectives to people around them.
“It is a duty and a call to action for every one of us to ensure that this vision becomes achievable. We must all see it as a task before us. We know the vision, and it is now time for each of us to communicate it to the people around us,” Ogunleye charged.
The governor’s adviser, Yusuf Sharada, addressed the position of residents from different parts of Nigeria, saying the state government remained committed to treating people fairly regardless of their state of origin.
Sharada described Kano as a home for people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. He encouraged non-indigenous residents to participate in the state’s affairs and support peaceful coexistence, economic activity and political stability.