“Can Atiku Beat His Chest And Say He Has Control Of One State In The South? Can Peter Obi Say He Has One In The North?” — Yari Mocks Opposition’s National Spread

The Director-General of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, has mocked the national spread of opposition candidates, asking whether Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress can claim control of one state in the South and whether Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress can claim control of one state in the North.

Yari threw the challenge while dismissing Atiku and Obi as threats to President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027, saying neither candidate has the nationwide structure to win the presidency.

“Can the ADC candidate today in the southern part of the country beat his chest and say he has control of one state in the South? And I don’t think Peter Obi, who used to be my colleague, can beat his chest and say he has control of one state in northern Nigeria,” Yari said.

He said the calculation is simple, that even if a candidate controls 80 per cent of the South without anything in the North, he cannot win, and vice versa.

“This calculation shows us that even if you have control of 80 per cent of the South, if you don’t have anything in the North, you cannot make it. If you have 80 per cent control of the North, if you don’t have any state in the South, you cannot make it. And that’s what it is,” he said.

Yari, a former Governor of Zamfara State, disclosed this after meeting President Tinubu at the State House in Abuja.

He also declared that President Bola Tinubu’s re-election campaign will be formally inaugurated on October 14 and flagged off in Kaduna on October 24, with a nationwide tour of states already approved by the President.

He said President Tinubu has control of over 20 states of the federation while his opponents cannot boast of having control of any state outside their region.

“The President asked for me to come and brief him on where we are, and to discuss the timetable for the state visits,” Yari said. “By God’s grace, his team, I, and Mr President himself, we have agreed on how it’s going to be done. We have put forward a proposal.”

He said inauguration of the campaign organisation would hold on Wednesday, October 14, at the State House Banquet Hall, while the official flag-off would take place in Kaduna on October 24.

“By God’s grace, on the 24th of October, we’re going to do our flag-off campaign in Kaduna, inshallah,” he said. “Then we outlined our state visits to each and every place where we will go, and then the President has approved them. So we are going to hit the ground running by the 24th of October, inshallah.”

Yari said Kaduna would be followed by Port Harcourt in Rivers State and Maiduguri in Borno State, adding that the full itinerary would be released after the inauguration.

“The next state is going to be Port Harcourt. From there, we will be in Maiduguri,” he said. “We have the timetable, and we’re going to make it available after the inauguration. But these have all been understood and approved by the team of Mr President and I.”

On whether Atiku and Obi are threats, Yari dismissed their chances, arguing that no candidate can win the presidency without a national spread.

“We are talking of the president of the country, and this president, who, by God’s grace, Almighty God used him to support Atiku some time back, and at the same time to support Peter Obi,” Yari said.

“If Allah uses me to support you, there is no how Allah will use you to bring me down. I mean, they cannot bring him down.”

Yari cited the 2011 presidential election, in which the late former President Muhammadu Buhari won strong support across northern states but lost nationally, to illustrate his argument that regional strength alone is insufficient.

“Look at Buhari, of blessed memory. He had control of over 70 per cent at that time, over 11 states in the North, and had no control of one in the South. He couldn’t make it all the way,” he said.

“And today, I’m sure Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has control of more than 10 states in the South, in a conservative estimate, and I believe he has control of more than 10 states in the North. This is calculation; it is not rocket science.”

The former Zamfara governor insisted that Tinubu had improved the country since taking office and that the APC would campaign on performance rather than promises.

“President Bola Tinubu, since the time he assumed office, has turned around the situation that he met on ground; still, the economy is moving,” Yari said.

“So I think we have done enough that we can tell our opponents about what we did.”

“We are not promising. We are doing it, and we are going to continue.”

Yari was appointed Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council in August 2026 to lead the party’s mobilisation for Tinubu’s second-term bid.