Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has urged leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop following President Bola Tinubu from one campaign rally to another and instead concentrate on mobilising voters in their respective states, local government areas and wards ahead of the 2027 general election.
Kalu, who represents Abia North Senatorial District and serves as Coordinator of Parliamentary Mobilisation for the South-East, made the call in a statement titled “The APC Presidential Campaign Council and the Need for a Leaner Campaign Train.”
He argued that the President should be accompanied by a smaller campaign team, while other party leaders remain in their political constituencies to engage voters and strengthen the party’s grassroots structures.
According to him, the focus of the campaign should be direct engagement with voters rather than the number of political leaders surrounding the President at rallies.
The senator’s position comes days after the APC Presidential Campaign Council issued guidelines restricting ministers, political appointees and campaign council members to rallies organised in their respective home states.
The directive, contained in a November 3 circular signed by the council’s Director-General, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, instructed political appointees to concentrate on mobilisation within their polling units, wards and local government areas.
The council said the arrangement was designed to improve coordination and strengthen grassroots mobilisation through what it described as the pyramid concept.
Under the guidelines, campaign activities are expected to begin at polling-unit level before extending to wards, local government areas and states.
Kalu cited his own political activities in Abia State as an example of the importance of grassroots mobilisation.
He recalled leading thousands of APC members in his Igbere Ward A, Bende Local Government Area, during the party’s presidential primary in May, arguing that political support must be built from the grassroots rather than through appearances at national rallies.
President Tinubu had also urged members of the Presidential Campaign Council to take responsibility for mobilisation across the country, while he concentrates on governance.
The APC commenced its 2027 presidential campaign activities with a rally in Kaduna on October 24, with plans to take the campaign to states across the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
However, the campaign council’s guidelines are intended to ensure that party leaders and political appointees concentrate on their assigned areas instead of travelling across the country to attend rallies outside their home states.
The directive also seeks to give greater visibility to APC candidates contesting legislative elections by encouraging party leaders to participate in mobilisation activities within their constituencies.
Kalu’s intervention underscores the party’s growing emphasis on local political organisation, voter engagement and the strengthening of ward-level structures as preparations intensify for the 2027 general election.
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