Politics
Those fighting for Biafra, Oduduwa Republic are irritants –Tanko Yakassai
12 min read
Elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai has carpeted those groups and individuals seeking self- determination as well as those agitating for the creation of Biafra and Oduduwa Republic.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the 96-year-old founding member of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) described the Oduduwa Republic and Biafra agitators as irritants, even as he insisted that the debate about true and fiscal federalism is absolute nonsense.
Nigeria is troubled on many fronts: – Boko Haram in the North-East, bandits in the Northwest, herders- farmers clashes in most states, kidnapping, armed robbery and other crimes. What gave rise to these?
It is poverty occasioned by unemployment brought about by lack of programmes by the rulers.
Are you satisfied with the manner the government is handling the insecurity in the country?
No, no. I made a recommendation that the government should hold a meeting of experienced security operators – retired military, police, and other security agencies. When this large number of experienced people comes together, they will be able to develop some ideas on how to tackle all the security problems. But if the government feels that they alone have the solution to the problem, they will always be in trouble.
Some people are suggesting granting amnesty to the bandits as a way of halting their criminal activities. Do you agree with that?
Remember that the late President Yar’Adua was advised to speak to the Niger Delta militants. He appointed a minister who made recommendations, which were accepted by both the president and the militants. Then, a meeting took place. Then through the process of the meeting, the militants made their points, and the president accepted parts of their points, like giving them jobs, giving them scholarship overseas for studies, giving them some allowances, etc. He implemented it, and we don’t hear any war by the militants. Get a national meeting of people experienced in security issues to discuss these insecurity problems and come up with ideas. They will definitely give some leeway to government on how to tackle the problem and solve it. Two heads are better than one and ten are better nine.
When you talk of amnesty, it is only an aspect of the problem. If you are going to talk of amnesty, it has happened before with the Niger Delta militants. It was part of the recommendation; not just one item. If you gather the security experts, they will make a number of recommendations and from there the government chooses the ones that will solve the problems and then the conditions will be put to the bandits and if they accept, then the government goes into action.
Besides the security challenges, there are also the Biafra and Oduduwa Republic agitators. Some groups in the South-South have given the international oil companies notice to vacate the region. What does all this portend for the country?
These separatist agitators by whatever name they are called are irritants. Anybody, who doesn’t want to stay in Nigeria or who doesn’t want Nigeria as it is, is free to bring his own ideas or alternatives. Nobody has proffered alternatives to Nigeria. It is simple to make complaints, but what is the way out? People should come up with solutions. When you break up Nigeria, it is the same Nigerians that will retire into some units, and that will not solve the problem. If you know the reality or the background of the problem, then you see how you to solve it. Doctors will diagnose your problem and find out the type of disease you are suffering from and prescribe the medicine that will make you better. I hope there will be more Nigerians who proffer solutions to Nigerian problems than complaining. Complaining is not a positive thing.
How do we arrive at solutions to all these complaints?
I told you right from the beginning that it is poverty, unemployment and what have you. I will tell you my own little thinking. By the time this government assumed office, if they had come up with a programme of power; because the biggest problem in Nigeria which brought about all these is lack of electricity power, which is supposed to jump start the growth of small, medium and large industries. Now we are talking of power in a locality, when you provide modular power, either at local government level, a state level, at zonal level, people will create industries ranging from small to big ones left, right and centre and that will create employment for unemployed people. Employment will bring income to the unemployed and then they begin to attend to their various needs, and then their problems will begin to be solved bit by bit until they are solved fully. We have a country where you can grow any type of crop, and if we have a very good agriculture programme, we will be able to engage millions of people overnight because agriculture is the biggest avenue of engaging the largest number of people. It is a question of a programme by the government and all these programmes will help them. We have our previous National Development Plans, if we can take them and look at the ones we have not tackled and which one we have tackled and we didn’t succeed, gradually we will be sorting out our problems and all these problems will disappear because people are attacking others and robbing them of their things because they don’t have money. Have you seen anybody who is gainfully employed and still engaged in banditry? Most of the bandits are unemployed and if you can get them employment, they stop banditry. There is a lot we can do in this country about this problem; but we have to put heads together.
Talking about putting heads together, some people hold the view that most of the country’s problem will be solved if we restructure the country to true federalism, fiscal federalism, as we had in the First Republic?
There is nothing like true federalism. I attended a seminar way back in 1956 at the University College, Ibadan. It was a seminar on ‘Federalism’. Experts on constitutional federalism all over the world were invited. The record is there. All of them said there was no instance where two constitutions were similar. Every federal constitution is unique. There is nothing like true federalism. Every federalism is true, and it is done according to the constitution of the country where it is adopted.
So, all this talk of fiscal federalism and true federalism is nonsense. Nobody ever produced a paper to say what they are. Because of lack of what to say, some people pick it as a slogan and spread it all over the place and the younger people who didn’t know the problem will pick it and begin to talk about it. There is nothing called true federalism because every federalism is true federalism to the people that adopted the system.
Nigeria federalism is true to our people. We started with three regions and then an additional region, the Mid West. Then Gowon created 12 states and people said it was not enough and agitated for more and we went to 19 and 21 until we are now 36. Now they are saying we should go back to three regions. I hope when we go back to three regions people will stop agitating for more states. South-East and South-South should all be merged as one region, the entire South-West should merge as one region and the entire North becomes one region. The condition should be that once we go there, it is the end of agitations for more regions or states.
What they suggest is that even if the states are the federating units, that the centre is over-concentrated with power. They want the way it was in the First Republic where most of the items on the Exclusive List are moved to the Concurrent List?
Like what in the Exclusive List?
Education, Police, Prison, etc.
Education in the First Republic wasn’t exclusive. Police is excusive, but education is not, as you have state universities and federal universities. You have state colleges as well as federal colleges.
If education is not on the Exclusive List, why are states running the educational system, the curricular, etc based on federal government directives?
Who stopped them from changing the system and adopting theirs? Each state has its own legislature as well as executive council. Each state has elected governors, whose functions are defined by the constitution. However, you cannot exclude the federal government from any sector, but you can expand and allow state to participate in it. Definitely, you cannot deny the federal government because it is the government.
On the police, we started with the Native Authority Police in the North, State Police in the West, and people cried against it and I was a victim way back in 1953. Because of the way the local police was being run, everybody was crying. The military at the time of Gowon decided to merge the police to have a single police for Nigeria.
Those who are asking for Regional or State Police are only looking for an opportunity to recruit their party members. The day you create state or local police is the day you end democracy in Nigeria because they will recruit their party members into the police and they will not allow any opposition to exist. We have seen it in practical terms today. No opposition can win election conducted by a State Electoral Commission. Tell me where opposition party won majority in local government election conducted by state electoral commission. The moment you create a state or local government police, this is what is going to happen. Everybody will be force to belong to the party in power in the state. How many policemen did we have when we had three or four regions? What was the revenue allocated to policing at that time? How many policemen do we have now in the country? What is the percentage of the revenue that you are now allocating to policing in Nigeria? Our problem is how to increase the number of policemen in Nigeria. We are not increasing the number of policemen corresponding with the number of problems of security in the country. I will never support State Police or Local Government Police because that will be the end of democracy in Nigeria. I want democracy; there is no system of government in the world today that is accepted to the people of the world other than democracy. Anything that will erode it is a taboo and we shouldn’t attempt that. State police will kill democracy in Nigeria or any country that adopted it. Don’t let us kill democracy because without it we cannot develop.
Still on federalism, during the First Republic, each region produced and gave the centre. But now every state produces and sends to the centre and the centre dishes out to them. At that time the revenue allocation formulae was based on the Raisman Commission which stipulated 50 per cent to the producing region and 50 per cent to the centre. That is part of the restructuring they are talking about.
It was the time the centre was not producing anything. Now the bulk of the national revenue is coming through the centre because of oil. This is the reason you get from the centre, but that doesn’t stop all this huge amount of money the states are spending on building houses and so on. If they had used it in developing agriculture; if they had devoted them to small-scale industries, it would have been a different thing altogether. Go to every state, check their budget, see how much is spent to run the office of the governor, the office of the secretary to the government, commissioners, permanent secretaries and bureaucracy. Records show that bureaucracy in Nigeria consumes about 70 per cent of our revenue and they are only left with 30 per cent. In those times they are talking about, it was not the case. Now the main revenue is oil and everybody is thinking of how to get his own share of the oil. The federal government before didn’t have much money as it is getting today. We have two or three major sources of revenue – oil and tax. Now, all of them you have 13 per cent derivation. From the money you collected from oil, you give 13 per cent to the states generating the oil. How many states that are taking 13 per cent are using it to generate employment for the people? What they do is to build big mansion; they are not addressing problem of unemployment. This is what we need.
President Buhari, before he jetted out on Tuesday, directed the security chiefs to identify where the bandits are and go after them. Why is it that the security chiefs claim not to know where the bandits are, but somebody like Sheikh Gumi knows where they are and have met with them?
Go to Buhari media advisers and ask them this question. I have nothing to do with the government; I’m a layman like you. I’m not a government man and I have nothing to do with the government, so I cannot answer this question. You have to direct this question to the government.
Or to Sheikh Gumi himself?
Gumi was invited.
Was he invited or maybe he took the initiative as his own way of finding solutions to the problem?
He was invited. Are you not reading the papers? He was invited by the governor and they decided on where and where to go and he provided security and he went and met the people and so on and so forth. He was invited.
It was Zamfara State that he first of all went?
Yes. He was received by the governor. He didn’t go there on his own. They provided transportation, security for him, accommodation, etc. You better find out.
2023 is fast approaching, and the tempo of the debate over where the presidency should come from is high. Some argue that power should remain in the North; the Southerners say it must rotate to the South. In the South, the South-East says, if there is equity, justice and fair play. As one of the few remaining titans of the Nigeria project, what is your position on this thorny issue?
We have a multi-party system in this country. The APC zoned the presidency to the North, now they say they are going to change it. When they decide where to zone it to, the PDP is not bound by that decision, so also other parties. Let them do it; it is their own business, but I will tell you nothing will change unless we change the whole system. The political parties we have in this country today are not committed to any programme. They hire intellectuals to write manifestoes for them. The manifestoes in their constitution didn’t emanate from the need of the people or the situation on the ground. In our days, we would appoint some members of our party, provide funds to them to go round the country and find out what were the problems confronting people; problems bedevilling the country. They would come back and itemise them. We would appoint people who would go through those programmes and make recommendations on how the party was going to tackle the programmes. We put that thinking into manifestoes to show that we know the problems and these are how we are going to solve them. None of the political parties that we have in this country went round the country or appointed people specifically to find out the problem in every part of the country and come up with a national policy, and how the party should tackle those problems. Nobody is doing it. Members of a party looking for power are looking for opportunity to make money. Look at people contesting election, look at their position before contesting election; go to their houses and see the type of cars they are driving. Then a year after the election, go to their houses, look at the cars they are now driving and their houses. Are they the same as before?
So, anywhere the presidency comes from is immaterial now?
Nothing will change unless the parties have programmes, not programmes that editors write in good English for them, but programmes after finding out what is bedevilling the country. Let them get experts to draw programmes on how to tackle the problems and solve them. In England or even America, President Biden during his electioneering campaigns, he identified problems and promised what he would do to solve them and that is what he is going about doing. We don’t do that in this country. In 2015, APC made three promises. One of them was to tackle insurgency in the country. Go and see how many of them the party has been able to solve within the period it has been in power for six years.
By Okey Maduforo, Awka
The planned visit of the First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, to Anambra State has sparked controversy following a protest by the state Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Emma Anosike, that the party was not informed about the visit.
Anosike said the APC in Anambra was never consulted or briefed about the proposed visit, adding that the party was taken aback by reports that the wife of the party’s national leader and presidential candidate, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, would be visiting the state without recourse to the state chapter.
He said, “It is indeed strange that the First Lady of our presidential candidate is visiting Anambra State without recourse to the party in the state.
“The party wishes to state categorically that we are not part of the arrangements for the reception of our First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, because the party was never put in the picture.”
Anosike also dismissed the mantra that “The Progressives Are Working Together”, being canvassed by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), describing it as a smokescreen by the ruling party in Anambra to hijack President Tinubu’s re-election from the APC.
He said, “For instance, the APGA-led government in Anambra State did not interface with us on the organisation of the visit, and the party wonders if the progressives are indeed working together.”
The APC chairman, however, said the development would not compromise the First Lady’s visit, urging all APC members and supporters in the state to turn out and give Senator Oluremi Tinubu a warm welcome.
He stressed that despite the party’s reservations over the arrangements, APC members remained committed to welcoming the First Lady to Anambra State.
Former Deputy Governor of Bauchi State, Sagir Saleh, has resigned his membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Saleh, who served as deputy governor under former Governor Isa Yuguda, announced his resignation in a letter submitted to the party leadership in Katagum Local Government Area.
He cited personal reasons for his decision but did not provide further details.
His exit comes amid growing disagreements within the Bauchi APC following the party’s 2027 governorship primary. Other prominent members, including former governorship aspirant Bala Jibrin and Sunusi Kunde, an associate of Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, have also reportedly left the party.
Jibrin, a former National Auditor of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), resigned on August 31, 2026, following his opposition to the emergence of former Bauchi Governor Muhammad Abubakar as the APC’s 2027 governorship candidate.
He had criticised the primary process and questioned how the candidate emerged.
Kunde also resigned from the APC in August, submitting his resignation to the party chairman of Beti Ward in Misau Local Government Area.
The latest departures are coming as efforts continue to resolve internal disputes and disagreements among APC members in the state.
The Leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, has raised the alarm over an alleged plot to assassinate former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar ahead of the 2027 general election.
Ayodele issued the warning in a video shared on his verified X account on Sunday, urging both opposition figures to strengthen their security and remain vigilant.
The cleric did not identify those allegedly behind the purported plot but claimed that attempts were being made to eliminate Obi and Atiku.
According to him, divine intervention would prevent the alleged plan from succeeding.
“Obi and Atiku, be very conscious of your security. They are looking for any means to eliminate Obi and Atiku.
“But God will never allow it to happen. Watch out and be cautious about your security,” he said.
Ayodele also urged President Bola Tinubu to reconsider travelling to the United States, alleging that there were forces in America working against his political fortunes.
The claims come as political activities and realignments intensify ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections.
Why the Igbo Must Choose Political Strategy Over Emotional Politics
By Emma Igwe
There comes a moment in the political history of every people when sentiment must give way to strategy.
For the South-East, 2027 may be that moment.
The question before the Igbo nation is not whether an Igbo man should one day become President of Nigeria. Of course he should. The question is whether the Igbo people are prepared to do the difficult political calculations required to make that aspiration a reality.
And that is where the 2027 presidential election becomes more than a contest between political parties.
It becomes a referendum on the political intelligence of the South-East.
Will the region continue to vote primarily to satisfy ethnic emotions and demonstrate loyalty to its own?
Or will it begin to think several political moves ahead—like a chess player who understands that sometimes the best way to capture the king is to first control the board?
THE HARD TRUTH THE SOUTH-EAST MUST CONFRONT
Peter Obi has demonstrated something remarkable.
He has shown that an Igbo politician can generate extraordinary enthusiasm among millions of Nigerians, particularly young people. His political movement has changed the conversation about presidential politics and created a new generation of politically conscious voters.
But enthusiasm is not the same thing as electoral mathematics.
The South-East must ask a difficult question:
Can regional popularity, without a sufficiently broad and durable national coalition, deliver the presidency?
That question is not an attack on Obi.
It is the central question of Nigerian politics.
The same principle applies to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. His influence in Kano and parts of the North is considerable. Historically, Mallam Aminu Kano demonstrated how powerful regional political mobilisation could become.
But regional strength alone has never been enough to guarantee the Nigerian presidency.
Nigeria is a federation of competing interests.
The presidency is won by coalition.
And the Igbo must learn to build coalitions without surrendering their identity.
AZIKIWE, EKWUEME AND THE POLITICS OF REALISM
History provides the South-East with a political textbook.
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was one of Nigeria’s most influential nationalist leaders. Yet his enormous stature and regional influence did not automatically translate into the presidency.
Alex Ekwueme took a different route.
In the Second Republic, he became Vice-President through a political arrangement that placed an Igbo leader at the very heart of the federal government.
That distinction is important.
Zik represented the grandeur of the national dream. Ekwueme demonstrated the power of political positioning.
The lesson is not that the Igbo should abandon presidential ambition.
The lesson is that presidential ambition must be accompanied by political architecture.
This is precisely why the David Umahi argument deserves a more sophisticated examination than the usual name-calling that accompanies it.
UMAHI’S POLITICAL GAMBLE
Like him or hate him, David Umahi understands one fundamental principle of politics:
You cannot negotiate from the margins if you want to control the centre.
His decision to work with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has attracted criticism from many quarters of the South-East.
But political history will ultimately judge whether that decision was merely opportunistic or whether it represented a calculated attempt to reposition the South-East within Nigeria’s governing establishment.
As Minister of Works, Umahi is also uniquely positioned to make the infrastructure argument.
The Federal Government says major road and bridge projects are currently being executed across Ebonyi and the wider South-East, including sections of the Calabar–Ebonyi–Benue–Nasarawa–Abuja corridor and the Ndi-Egbe Bridge linking Ebonyi with Cross River.
Umahi has repeatedly argued that the Tinubu administration is reversing decades of infrastructure neglect in the region. In June 2026, he specifically cited projects that he said had remained unrealised for decades.
These claims should be scrutinised, not blindly accepted.
But neither should they be dismissed simply because they come from a politician whose political position many people dislike.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT LOVING TINUBU
Here lies the fundamental misunderstanding.
The argument for the South-East supporting Tinubu in 2027 does not have to mean that every Igbo man suddenly becomes an APC loyalist.
It does not mean that every policy of the Tinubu administration must be applauded.
It does not mean that the South-East should surrender its independent political voice.
It means something much more sophisticated:
The South-East should negotiate with power instead of permanently positioning itself outside power.
There is a difference between loyalty and strategy.
A political party is not a religion.
A presidential candidate is not a tribal deity.
Politics is transactional.
Every serious political region negotiates.
The Yoruba negotiate.
The North negotiates.
The South-South negotiates.
Why should the Igbo be the only people expected to vote purely from emotion?
THE 2031 CALCULATION
This is where the debate becomes particularly interesting.
If Tinubu wins in 2027, the political conversation will inevitably move toward the succession question.
Who takes over after Tinubu?
Which region?
Which coalition?
Which political bloc has accumulated sufficient goodwill, influence and bargaining power to negotiate the next presidential arrangement?
The South-East cannot wait until 2031 before asking these questions.
The political preparation must begin in 2027.
That is the strategic argument behind Umahi’s position.
If the South-East becomes a critical component of the governing coalition in 2027, it potentially creates a stronger negotiating platform for the future.
That does not guarantee an Igbo presidency.
Nothing in Nigerian politics comes with such a guarantee.
But it may create a better platform from which to negotiate one.
And that is the difference between political fantasy and political strategy.
THE BIGGEST MISTAKE WOULD BE TO TURN OBI AND UMAHI INTO ENEMIES
There is perhaps a more important question.
Why must Peter Obi and David Umahi be treated as political enemies simply because they have chosen different routes?
They are both prominent Igbo political figures.
One has demonstrated extraordinary grassroots mobilisation and national visibility.
The other currently occupies one of the most influential positions in the federal infrastructure establishment.
One understands mass political mobilisation.
The other understands the mechanics of government and federal power.
Why should these strengths not be brought together?
Why must the argument always be:
Obi versus Umahi?
Why can’t it become:
Obi and Umahi—what is the best strategic route for the Igbo nation?
The two men do not have to belong to the same political party.
They do not have to endorse the same presidential candidate.
They do not even have to agree on every issue.
But they can sit down as Igbo leaders and discuss the future beyond their personal political ambitions.
That conversation is long overdue.
THE SOUTH-EAST NEEDS A POLITICAL RESET
The greatest danger facing the South-East is not that it supports the wrong candidate.
It is that it continues to approach Nigerian politics primarily through the prism of emotional solidarity.
Every election becomes:
“This is our turn.”
“This is our brother.”
“This is our son.”
But Nigeria does not operate on sentiment.
The presidency is a national institution.
To occupy it, you need national numbers.
To acquire national numbers, you need alliances.
To sustain alliances, you need political relevance.
And to achieve political relevance, you must be present where national decisions are being made.
That is the political centre.
THE PRICE OF PERMANENT OPPOSITION
The South-East has spent years complaining about marginalisation.
Yet political marginalisation cannot be defeated by political isolation.
That is the paradox.
You cannot complain that Abuja is ignoring you while simultaneously refusing to develop a sustainable strategy for influencing Abuja.
You cannot demand inclusion while permanently behaving as though participation in the governing coalition is a betrayal of your identity.
The Igbo are too politically sophisticated for that contradiction.
The region must move beyond the politics of grievance to the politics of negotiation.
WHAT SHOULD THE IGBO DEMAND FROM TINUBU?
If the South-East is to support Tinubu, it should not be a blank cheque.
It should be a contract of political expectations.
The region should demand:
accelerated completion of strategic federal roads and bridges;
stronger federal presence in industrial and economic development;
greater political inclusion;
protection of businesses and investments;
improved security and regional connectivity;
greater representation in national appointments;
deliberate inclusion in future national power-sharing negotiations; and
a credible pathway toward greater political participation in the post-2027 era.
That is how mature politics works.
You do not merely vote. You negotiate.
UMAHI’S MESSAGE MAY BE UNCOMFORTABLE—BUT SHOULD NOT BE DISMISSED
Umahi has reportedly urged South-East political stakeholders to rally behind Tinubu in 2027, and has even framed the choice in terms of continued access to federal development projects.
That formulation will certainly provoke controversy.
But perhaps controversy is precisely what the South-East needs.
For too long, political debate has been reduced to accusations of betrayal.
Anyone who disagrees with the dominant regional political position is quickly labelled an enemy of the Igbo cause.
That mentality must end.
A political argument should be defeated with a better political argument—not with abuse.
If Umahi is wrong, prove that his strategy cannot deliver greater political influence.
If Obi is wrong, demonstrate why his strategy cannot build the coalition necessary to win the presidency.
But let the debate be about strategy, not personality.
THE CHOICE BEFORE THE SOUTH-EAST
The South-East now stands at a crossroads.
One road offers emotional satisfaction.
The other offers strategic uncertainty but potentially greater access to the political centre.
One says:
“Let us vote for our own because he is our own.”
The other asks:
“What political arrangement gives our people the greatest bargaining power?”
The second question is the question of statesmen.
The Igbo presidential dream should not be abandoned.
It should be redesigned.
It should be negotiated.
It should be built upon alliances stretching across the six geopolitical zones.
And if supporting Tinubu in 2027 can place the South-East in a stronger bargaining position for 2031 and beyond, then the question should not be whether such a strategy is emotionally satisfying.
The question should be whether it is politically intelligent.
LET UMAHI AND OBI SIT DOWN
Ultimately, this debate should not end with Tinubu.
It should begin with the future of the Igbo nation.
David Umahi and Peter Obi should sit down.
Not for a television debate.
Not for political combat.
Not to determine who is more popular.
They should sit down as two influential Igbo sons and ask one question:
“How do we get the Igbo nation back to the centre of Nigerian political power?”
If the answer requires supporting Tinubu today, let them say so.
If the answer requires another route, let them articulate it.
But let the South-East have the conversation.
Because the real tragedy would not be losing an election.
The real tragedy would be winning the argument for ethnic pride while losing the opportunity for political power.
The Igbo do not need another election of emotional satisfaction.
They need a political strategy.
And perhaps, for the first time in decades, the South-East must learn to choose not merely the candidate it loves—but the political arrangement that can take it where it wants to go.
National relevance must become more important than ethnic ego.
That is the uncomfortable conversation 2027 demands.
The African Democratic Congress has unveiled its governorship and deputy governorship candidates for the 2027 general elections in 28 states.
The party announced the candidates in a statement on Friday, saying they would fly the ADC flag in the various states and provide Nigerians with what it described as a credible alternative in the forthcoming elections.
Among the prominent candidates unveiled are Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour in Lagos State, Isa Mohammed Ashiru in Kaduna, Great Ogboru in Delta, Senator Ahmad Babba Kaita in Katsina and former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, in Kebbi.
Other states where the party has fielded candidates include Adamawa, Kano, Rivers, Oyo, Ogun, Plateau, Zamfara, Enugu and Ebonyi.
The ADC said the candidates were selected as part of its efforts to present credible leadership and offer Nigerians a “real alternative” ahead of the 2027 elections.
The full list is as follows:
- Abia: Kalu Kalu Agu — Governor; Alozie Ogadinma Darlington — Deputy Governor
- Adamawa: Modibbo Hammantukur Ribadu — Governor; Aguwa Kevin Iliya — Deputy Governor
- Akwa Ibom: Akpanudoedehe John James — Governor; Nsien Mkpombuk Tommy — Deputy Governor
- Bauchi: Senator Halliru Dauda Jika — Governor; Sama’ila Mohammed Kabir — Deputy Governor
- Benue: Rt. Hon. Herman Iorwase Hembe — Governor; Abba John Abba — Deputy Governor
- Borno: Babagana Buhari — Governor; Mamman Dauda — Deputy Governor
- Cross River: Nkoyo Toyo — Governor; Okwoche Andrew Adagbor — Deputy Governor
- Delta: Chief Great Ogboru — Governor; Afiari Gloria — Deputy Governor
- Ebonyi: Ukpai Mba Udeh — Governor; Onwe Daniel Ede — Deputy Governor
- Enugu: Ocho Obodoeze Chukwuma — Governor; Eze Arinze Christopher — Deputy Governor
- Gombe: Bala Bello — Governor; Bala Sani Isa — Deputy Governor
- Jigawa: Sabo Mohammed Nakudu — Governor; Musa Ya’u Balarabe — Deputy Governor
- Kaduna: Isa Mohammed Ashiru — Governor; Kantiok Irmiya Ishaku — Deputy Governor
- Kano: Ibrahim Ali Amin — Governor; Shehu Abdulkadir Bari — Deputy Governor
- Katsina: Senator Ahmad Babba Kaita — Governor; Aminu Yar’adua Ahmed — Deputy Governor
- Kebbi: Abubakar Malami — Governor; Zagi Musa Mohammed — Deputy Governor
- Kwara: Zakari Mohammed — Governor; Olawuyi Julius Olayide — Deputy Governor
- Lagos: Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour — Governor; Gbadamosi Babatunde Olalere — Deputy Governor
- Nasarawa: Nuhu Angbazo — Governor; Ahmed Yusuf — Deputy Governor
- Niger: Dr Mohammed Kpautagi — Governor; Musa Mamman — Deputy Governor
- Ogun: Biodun Collins Ogundipe — Governor; Muraina Oluwaranti Oluyemi — Deputy Governor
- Oyo: Taofeek Adegboyega Adegoke — Governor; Wahab Adeniyi — Deputy Governor
- Plateau: Brig. Gen. John Sunday Sura — Governor; Pwajok-Kele Chundung Bitrus — Deputy Governor
- Rivers: Gabriel Pidomson — Governor; Okumgba David Amapakaye — Deputy Governor
- Sokoto: Manir Mohammad Daniya — Governor; Isah Bello Ambarura — Deputy Governor
- Taraba: Abubakar Umar Tutare — Governor; Kwetishe Haruna Kwenyan — Deputy Governor
- Yobe: Kassim G. Gaidam — Governor; Kori Lawan Mohammed — Deputy Governor
- Zamfara: Shinkafi Bilyaminu Yusuf — Governor; Muhammad Abdulmuddalib Auwal — Deputy Governor
The party said the candidates would work under its platform to advance its agenda and present voters with an alternative ahead of the 2027 governorship elections.
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