We have examined the APC Presidential Campaign Council. Let us now await the composition of the opposition parties’ presidential campaign councils and subject them to the same standard. Nigeria deserves no less.
By Umar Ardo, Ph.D
I know we operate a political system that cares little for laws, values, integrity and honour. But there must be a limit to everything. Yet, like the contents of the infamous Epstein Files, the composition of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council for the 2027 presidential election appears to recognise no such limit. And that should concern every Nigerian who cares about the moral health of our democracy and country.
- President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has constituted the APC Presidential Campaign Council, with himself as Chairman, Vice-President Kashim Shettima and APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda as Vice-Chairmen and former Zamfara Governor, Sen. Abdulaziz Yari, as Director-General. The council contains many of the country’s most senior political figures. There is nothing objectionable about experienced politicians campaigning for their party. The concern is what happens when a governing party’s principal campaign machinery contains a striking concentration of people whose public records include allegations, petitions, investigations, arrests, charges or criminal proceedings.
- The issue is therefore not simply who is on the list, but what the list says about the values, judgment and standards of the President and the party that assembled it. Being accused does not mean being guilty; a petition does not establish wrongdoing; investigation does not prove guilt; arrest is not conviction; a charge is an allegation; and prosecution does not establish guilt until a court so determines. These distinctions are fundamental to the rule of law. But the presumption of innocence does not prevent citizens from examining the public records of people chosen to represent a presidential candidate.
- Having examined this council, one cannot escape the impression that some of its members have been lifted straight out of a Nigerian Epstein File. The question is not whether these people are guilty. It is whether a government seeking another mandate has exercised the ethical judgment expected of it in assembling its principal campaign machinery.
- The most striking appointment is Senator Abdulaziz Yari as Director-General. Public records indicate that Yari was arrested and detained by the EFCC in April 2021 over alleged illegal financial dealings and misappropriation of funds. In May 2022, he was again reported arrested in connection with an EFCC investigation into an alleged ₦84 billion fraud involving the suspended Accountant-General of the Federation. Reporting alleged that Yari benefited by approximately ₦22 billion through a company connected with the transactions. These allegations remain unresolved and are not presented here as convictions. But the arrests and investigations were documented by Nigeria’s principal financial-crimes agency. Yet the APC did not merely include Yari; it placed him at its operational apex. What standard of integrity does the APC believe should govern the person organising the campaign for the renewal of the President’s mandate?
- Senator Godswill Akpabio, President of the Senate and Deputy Director-General, has also been publicly reported to have faced serious corruption allegations and EFCC investigation concerning the alleged diversion of more than ₦100 billion during his tenure as Governor of Akwa Ibom. No criminal charge resulted from that investigation, based on the record presently available. As Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, he was also accused of financial misdemeanours and inappropriate sexual advances by a female NDDC official. Those allegations remain unresolved.
- Senator Adams Oshiomhole, another senior campaign figure, has likewise faced allegations concerning diversion of public funds during his tenure as Edo governor. In 2018, he challenged a court action seeking to compel the EFCC to investigate and prosecute him over alleged diversion of public funds. The allegations must not be converted into convictions, but neither should they disappear from the public record.
- Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Tinubu and a senior campaign council member, presents an especially recent case. He was reportedly questioned by the ICPC in July 2026 over its investigation into a purportedly fictitious Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council. His lawyer confirmed that he appeared before investigators in compliance with the President’s directive. It would be irresponsible to pronounce him guilty merely because he was questioned. But it would be equally irresponsible to pretend that the investigation does not exist. The irony is obvious: an administration campaigning on its record has placed in its campaign machinery a senior presidential aide questioned by an anti-corruption agency only weeks before the council was unveiled.
- Hadiza Bala-Usman, the daughter of my intellectual icon of high moral probity, late Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman, listed as Assistant Secretary, has previously been subjected to official scrutiny over her stewardship of the Nigerian Ports Authority. She was suspended as Managing Director over allegations concerning approximately ₦165 billion in unremitted operating surplus. The investigative panel established to examine the matter, however, did not find her guilty of financial misappropriation, although it criticised her conduct regarding official directives and insubordination. The controversy involved accusations and counter-accusations between her and her supervising Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, now the ADC vice-presidential candidate.
- Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the South-West Zonal Campaign Coordinator, is also publicly associated with an EFCC investigation involving the Lagos State Government. Premium Times reported in March 2026 that the EFCC was investigating the government’s connection to $13 million traced to contractors and linked to businesswoman Aisha Achimugu. The report did not establish Sanwo-Olu’s personal participation in wrongdoing. The proper statement, therefore, is that a financial investigation involving his administration has generated questions concerning substantial funds. In an election, that is a legitimate matter for scrutiny.
- Ali Modu Sheriff, the North-East Campaign Coordinator, has a long record of controversy regarding creating the dreaded Boko Haram and has faced EFCC scrutiny. According to Vanguard, in 2015 he surrendered himself to the EFCC for questioning over allegations concerning more than ₦300 billion in Borno State funds, with the agency investigating alleged theft and abuse of office. The following year, TheCable reported that he was again invited by the EFCC in connection with alleged PDP campaign funds. These episodes form part of the public record, whatever one’s political interpretation of them.
- Governor Uba Sani, the North-West Coordinator, was the subject of a 2022 EFCC petition alleging the use of COVID-era NIRSAL funds to influence party delegates. He denied the allegation. Governor Dapo Abiodun, the Director of Fundraising, was likewise the subject of an EFCC petition by HEDA concerning alleged fraud over the presentation of a private rice farm as a state project. A petition is not a finding of guilt. But Abiodun’s appointment to oversee fundraising makes the matter worthy of scrutiny because transparency and financial integrity are indispensable to fundraising.
- Dr Ngozi Olejeme, listed as Zonal Director for the South-South, falls into a different category. She was arraigned by the EFCC in October 2025 on an eight-count charge involving conversion, transfer, procurement and possession of proceeds of unlawful activity amounting to about ₦1 billion. She pleaded not guilty and, according to the available record, remains on trial. This is fundamentally different from an unverified allegation: she is facing criminal proceedings and remains presumed innocent.
- Hon. Audu Maikori, listed under Election Planning, Coordination and Monitoring, was reportedly arraigned in Kaduna in April 2026 on two counts concerning alleged attempts to incite the public through false information under the Cybercrime Act and was granted bail. Muiz Adeyemi Banire, SAN, assigned to the legal structure, was reportedly investigated by the EFCC in 2016 over an allegation concerning ₦500,000 paid into the account of a judge. Banire denied that the payment was a bribe, explaining that it was a personal contribution towards an old friend’s funeral expenses, and voluntarily offered to step aside from his APC legal position pending the investigation. There is no justification for calling Banire convicted of bribery; equally, the investigation cannot simply be erased from history.
- Governor Hope Uzodimma, Secretary of the Campaign Council, was reported to have faced a criminal complaint concerning an alleged ₦200 million dud cheque. In October 2018, an FCT High Court referred the complaint to the EFCC for investigation and action. The matter appears dormant, with neither conviction nor acquittal. Senator Abdullahi Adamu was reportedly charged on 149 EFCC counts involving alleged fraud and money laundering of approximately ₦15 billion; that case also appears effectively dormant, with no conviction established nor acquittal entered. Governor Ibrahim Shema had an ₦11 billion ALGON case brought against him by the Katsina State Government, but the state withdrew it on 14 February 2023. Separately, the EFCC prosecuted Shema over alleged laundering/misappropriation of approximately ₦5.7 billion in SURE-P funds. He was arraigned and remanded in EFCC custody in 2018; that matter also appears to have gone dormant, with no conviction or acquittal established.
- What does this concentration tell Nigerians? A presidential campaign council is not merely a collection of political supporters. It is the public face of the candidate’s values, judgment and conception of government. When that council contains individuals whose records include allegations, petitions, investigations, arrests, charges or prosecutions involving corruption, financial misconduct and other serious accusations, the question becomes unavoidable: is this confidence in the integrity of the political class, or an inability to distinguish political usefulness from ethical fitness?
- The APC may argue that nobody should be condemned without conviction. That is correct. But a presidential campaign is not a criminal trial, and the electorate is not required to wait until every case reaches its final judicial conclusion before asking whether those campaigning for the candidate possess the moral authority to lecture Nigerians about good governance. The proposition that unless a politician has been convicted there is no legitimate question to ask about his conduct sets an extraordinarily low threshold for public leadership.
- This risks normalising impunity. If political relevance is sufficient to overcome serious allegations and investigations, politicians receive the message that electoral usefulness matters more than ethical conduct. It also weakens confidence in anti-corruption institutions: why should citizens believe EFCC and ICPC investigations matter if people under investigation can simultaneously occupy central positions in the political machinery of government? It damages the moral authority of government when the public perceives one standard for ordinary citizens and another for politically useful elites.
- Once allegations cease to have political consequences, the incentive to maintain clean public records diminishes. The ultimate victim is Nigeria. The troubling question is whether unresolved cases can become instruments of political leverage. When individuals facing investigations or criminal proceedings receive important political positions from a government controlling the federal machinery of justice, questions inevitably arise about whether political support could influence the treatment of cases.
- These possibilities must not be asserted as facts without evidence. There is presently no basis in the material reviewed here to state that the APC government has entered into quid-pro-quo arrangements to bury cases, or that anybody has been blackmailed into joining the campaign. But the fact that such questions can reasonably arise from the composition of the council is itself a warning sign.
- In a healthy democracy, no politician should believe that political loyalty can purchase immunity from investigation, just as no government should threaten legitimate opponents with selective prosecution. Investigations must continue irrespective of political affiliation; prosecutions must proceed where evidence warrants them; and cases must end only through lawful judicial or prosecutorial processes. The deeper indictment of the APC is therefore not that every person on its council is guilty, but that the party appears insufficiently concerned about ethical judgment and the appearance of integrity.
- Political parties have enormous discretion in choosing campaign officials. They can choose people of unquestionable integrity, competence and clean public records, or people whose political experience is accompanied by controversy. The choice communicates a message. And the message sent by this council is troubling.
- The APC is asking Nigerians to give President Tinubu another mandate while placing at the heart of its campaign structure several individuals whose public records include investigations, arrests, criminal charges, prosecutions, petitions and serious allegations. The Director-General himself has twice been arrested by the EFCC in connection with major financial investigations. One zonal director is currently on trial on eight alleged money-laundering-related counts. Another senior campaign figure was recently questioned by the ICPC in an ongoing investigation. Others have previously been investigated, petitioned against or charged.
- None of this proves that these people are criminals. But it unquestionably creates a credibility problem. And that credibility problem ultimately belongs to the President who chose them.
- Mr President, Nigeria deserves better. Our democracy cannot mature if political parties—especially the ruling party—operate on the assumption that electoral usefulness is a sufficient qualification for public leadership. The 2027 election should be about more than slogans, ethnic mobilisation, religious appeals, patronage networks and political arithmetic. It should be an examination of character, competence, integrity and institutional responsibility.
- The APC has every constitutional right to campaign for President Tinubu. Nigerians equally have every democratic right to examine the people whom the President has chosen to make the principal messengers of that campaign. The question is not whether every person on this list is guilty. The deeper question is: Why would a government seeking another mandate choose to surround its presidential campaign with so many people whose public records require explanations concerning allegations, investigations, arrests and criminal proceedings?
- That is a legitimate democratic question, and Nigerians deserve an answer. For a country struggling with corruption, insecurity, poverty, unemployment, institutional and moral decay, and declining public trust, leadership cannot merely be about winning elections. Those who campaign for power must demonstrate that they understand the ethical covenant that comes with power. Otherwise, the campaign council becomes a troubling symbol of the political culture Nigeria must overcome.
- We have examined the APC Presidential Campaign Council. Let us now await the composition of the opposition parties’ presidential campaign councils and subject them to the same standard. Nigeria deserves no less.
