…Taking a cue from alleged 1,000 northern clerics’ warning.
by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
The decision by the All Progressives Congress, APC, to choose Kaduna over Kano State for the flag-off of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 presidential campaign on October 24, 2026, is being linked to ‘growing political discontent’ in Kano, where more than 1,000 Islamic clerics last week warned Muslims against re-electing the President.
The APC’s choice of Kaduna was announced at a press briefing in Kaduna on Sunday by the state publicity secretary, Mohamed Sani Haruna, who said Kaduna is adequately prepared to receive Nigerians, and described it as the heartbeat of Northern Nigeria.
But the announcement comes less than a week after a major northern religious uprising in Kano.
According to the Daily Trust newspaper, more than 1,000 Islamic clerics met in Kano on Sunday, October 5, 2026, under the banner of a national conference on ‘An Assessment of the State of the Nation under President Tinubu and the 2027 General Elections,’ and issued a communiqué warning Muslims against re-electing President Tinubu next year unless his administration changed its economic policies.
The clerics, who included prominent scholars such as Dr Abdulmuddalib Ahmad Gidado, Prof Muhd Muslim Ibrahim, Sheikh Kabir Bashir Abdulhamid, Dr Aminu Isma’il Sagagi, Dr Najibullah Abdallah Nuhu, Sheikh Abdurrazaq Uba Musa and others, cited hardship, unemployment, killings and kidnappings, blaming the administration for worsening conditions.
A hard-hitting analysis by columnist Lasisi Olagunju, titled, ‘Muslim clerics and Muslim president,’ published October 12, 2026, described the Kano meeting as a political battle line drawn by northern religious leaders “who carry enough weight to overload the fragile neck of any bumbling government.”
Olagunju noted that wise presidents understand that northern Muslim clerics are no audience for games they do not approve, recalling that even Lord Lugard after conquering Sokoto, in 1903, had to assure that his government would not interfere with religion.
He argued that less than 24 hours after the clerics’ resolution became public, the Federal Government announced a petrol price discount and other palliatives, which he described as a panic response.
“Wise conquerors know the limits of their victory. They know where power must stop and restraint must begin,” he wrote.
It is against this backdrop that the APC’s decision to bypass Kano – traditionally the most populous state in the North and the location where the anti-Tinubu clerics’ revolt broke out – for Kaduna is being interpreted by political observers as strategic.
At the APC briefing, Haruna justified Kaduna’s selection by saying Kaduna is the former capital of Northern Nigeria and encompasses the interests of every northern Nigerian, living or dead.
“Kaduna being the former capital of Northern Nigeria is the heartbeat of northern Nigeria. So, anybody that chooses Kaduna is showing love to the whole of northern Nigeria because of the sentiment northerners have for Kaduna,” he said.
He said Kaduna is a miniature Nigeria where every shade of opinion, tribe and geopolitical zone is represented, and is now wearing a new look under Governor Uba Sani, whose inclusive leadership has brought peace and unity.
He also boasted that Kaduna will produce 2 million votes for Tinubu, in 2027, and that for the first time in history, all 255 wards, 23 LGAs, 16 federal constituencies and three senatorial districts are controlled by APC.
Political analysts say picking Kaduna avoids a direct confrontation in Kano, where the President’s campaign director-general, Senator AbdulAziz Yari, had claimed on Friday that Tinubu enjoys solid support in more than 10 northern states – a claim immediately contradicted by the clerics’ communiqué and reported anti-government marches in Kano on Sunday.
Yari’s claim that the President’s policies were making life better and that people were happy, analysts note, stands in sharp contrast to the clerics’ assessment of ‘swamps of misery on northern streets.’
The analysis also references a report by The Economist on October 1, 2026, titled, ‘Nigerians dislike their president, but may re-elect him anyway,’ which identified economic pain and worsening insecurity as sources of public discontent – issues the Kano clerics also raised.
The Federal Government’s response – a 30-day petrol discount described by Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele as “price modulation” and “selling at cost” – has been dismissed by critics as ‘semantic engineering’ that does not reduce hardship. Olagunju likened it to Orwellian political language “designed to make lies sound truthful.”
With the flag-off now set for Kaduna on October 24, the APC is banking on Governor Uba Sani’s peace narrative to mobilise hundreds of thousands of supporters and project national unity, while steering clear of Kano where the Muslim clerics’ revolt poses a direct threat to Tinubu’s northern support base. As Olagunju warned: “Some victories defeat the victor.”