Uzodimma launches grassroots media drive for Tinubu’s 2027 bid

Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma has inaugurated a grassroots media team to mobilise support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid ahead of the 2027 presidential election. The team was established under the Renewed Hope Ambassadors, which Mr Uzodimma chairs. He is also the group’s director-general for party outreach, engagement and mobilisation, as well as chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum.

Shehu Usman, the organisation’s director of logistics, disclosed the formation of the team while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday. He said it had developed plans for campaigns in communities across the country, including weekly media outreach and television appearances. Mr Usman said the team would explain the benefits of the administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda and communicate what he described as President Tinubu’s achievements and reform gains since he took office in May 2023.

It would also use digital and new media platforms to counter misinformation about government policies. He said the campaign network would reach communities, markets, campuses, wards and polling units. The initiative, he added, was intended to function not only as an information campaign but also as a grassroots communication structure for the 2027 election and beyond.

The mobilisation effort comes amid a dispute over a separate campaign structure associated with Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and a Peoples Democratic Party chieftain serving in the APC-led federal government. Mr Wike has promoted a Rainbow Coalition, which he says is intended to support Mr Tinubu’s re-election. The Uzodimma-led governors’ forum has opposed the coalition, saying it could weaken the APC and its candidates.

Mr Wike has accused the governors of resisting the initiative for political reasons. The APC’s national leadership has not publicly clarified its position on the coalition.