Senator Yari’s Director-General Role Enters New Stage as APC Campaign Council Is Inaugurated

Senator Abdulaziz Yari’s assignment as Director-General of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council entered a further formal stage when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inaugurated the council in Abuja on Wednesday, 14 October 2026. His appointment had been announced in August, and he had already been involved in preparations ahead of the ceremony.

In his public statement following the inauguration, Senator Yari described the ceremony as an important milestone. He acknowledged the responsibility of the Director-General’s role and expressed appreciation for the confidence placed in him by the President and the party.

The event took place at the State House Conference Centre, also known as the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja. It brought together the council’s national leadership, governors, legislators and other political figures as preparations continued for the 2027 presidential election.

An appointment made before the inauguration

The Presidency announced the council’s initial composition on 22 August 2026. That announcement identified Senator Yari as Director-General and Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma as secretary. President Tinubu was named chairman, with Vice President Kashim Shettima and APC National Chairman Professor Nentawe Yilwatda holding vice-chairmanship positions.

Senator Yari was consequently already serving in the role before Wednesday’s ceremony. Between the August announcement and the October inauguration, he held preparatory engagements and briefed the President on the council’s work, including arrangements for the proposed campaign visits.

The initial announcement also described workstreams covering election planning, legal affairs and media. James Abiodun Faleke was assigned election planning, coordination and monitoring, while Muiz Banire was named to lead the legal directorate. These appointments placed the Director-General within an organisation with separate specialist responsibilities and a secretariat.

The party subsequently published an updated membership list for the inauguration. Senator Yari remained Director-General. The revised list retained Uzodimma as secretary, alongside deputy secretary Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru and assistant secretary Hadiza Bala Usman. It also identified regional deputies and national officers responsible for several areas of campaign administration.

A background in party and legislative work

Senator Yari’s earlier career includes party administration at state and national levels. He served as secretary of the All Nigeria Peoples Party in Zamfara from 1999 to 2003, became its state chairman in 2003 and later held the party’s national financial secretary position.

He moved into the House of Representatives in 2007, representing the Anka/Talata Mafara Federal Constituency until 2011. That period preceded his election as governor and forms part of his experience in the federal legislature. The sequence connects his early party responsibilities with elected office at both federal and state levels.

He was elected governor of Zamfara in April 2011 on the ANPP platform and re-elected in 2015 under the APC. These were separate elections under different party banners, spanning the period in which the APC emerged from the merger of several opposition parties.

His two terms as governor ran from 2011 to 2019. During that period, he also became chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, adding an intergovernmental role to his responsibilities in Zamfara. Both appointments preceded his current service in the Senate.

His public-service profile and record traces the progression from party administration to constituency representation, state executive office, the governors’ forum and the Senate, alongside the national campaign assignment announced this year.

His period at the Nigeria Governors’ Forum

Senator Yari chaired the Nigeria Governors’ Forum from 2015 to 2019. His fellow governors elected him chairman in May 2015, succeeding Rotimi Amaechi in the leadership of the intergovernmental body. He held that position during his second term as governor of Zamfara.

The forum provides a platform through which states discuss common concerns and develop positions on national policy. Its work covers issues such as revenue allocation, security and constitutional questions, supported by a secretariat and working committees. The organisation brings together governors across party lines.

One example of Senator Yari’s work as chairman was his opening address to the National Economic Council retreat on 21 March 2016. Speaking during a period of pressure on federal and state finances, he discussed economic diversification, employment and the relationship between economic growth and household welfare. He called for measures addressing immediate hardship alongside longer-term development planning.

In the same address, he identified agriculture and solid minerals as areas for diversifying state revenues and called for financing for agricultural and manufacturing activity. He also described the forum’s work on internally generated revenue, tax coordination and collection systems, including a summit organised with the World Bank and the United Kingdom’s then Department for International Development.

Those remarks concerned the fiscal and development responsibilities of state governments at that time. They provide a specific example of the policy discussions associated with his former chairmanship. Kayode Fayemi subsequently succeeded him as chairman after his four-year tenure, following selection by the governors.

His current Senate representation

Senator Yari currently represents Zamfara West in the Senate as a member of the All Progressives Congress. The constituency designation is important: his current parliamentary representation is for that senatorial district, while the campaign council appointment is a national party assignment.

He entered the Senate in 2023, beginning a new period of service in the federal legislature. Zamfara West comprises six local government areas: Anka, Bakura, Bukkuyum, Gummi, Maradun and Talata Mafara. That constituency is the geographical basis of his present legislative representation, following his earlier service in the House of Representatives and as governor of the state.

The campaign council appointment gives him a separate responsibility within the APC’s presidential election organisation. The two roles sit alongside each other in his current public-service record, connecting an elected constituency office with a party assignment involving officials from across the federation.

Preparations before the ceremony

On 9 October, Senator Yari met President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa and afterwards briefed State House correspondents. He discussed preparations and the proposed schedule of campaign visits around the country. He said the President had approved the programme submitted to him.

At that briefing, Senator Yari identified 14 October for the council’s inaugural meeting and 24 October for a planned public campaign launch in Kaduna. He also named Port Harcourt and Maiduguri among the destinations to follow, while saying that a detailed itinerary would be released after the inauguration.

The briefing documents work undertaken before the formal ceremony: discussing arrangements with the President and communicating the proposed timetable publicly. The announced visits remain planned activities until they take place; the inauguration is the completed event in that sequence.

His earlier Lagos briefing with President Tinubu also formed part of the preparatory engagements before the Abuja ceremony. Together, those briefings and the August appointment provide the context for his role at the time the council was inaugurated, following his involvement in preparations over the intervening weeks.

The assignment within the wider council

At the Abuja ceremony, President Tinubu said government responsibilities would remain a priority while council members led campaign activity in states and local government areas. He also said he would make time to speak directly to Nigerians. Those remarks outlined the intended relationship between the President’s participation and the work of the wider campaign organisation.

The council includes specialist appointments beyond its principal officers. Yusuf Buba Yakub, Director-General of the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps, was appointed to the Directorate of General Logistics and Operations, led by Ibrahim Kabir Masari. That provides a concrete illustration of the organisational divisions supporting the national leadership.

Senator Yari’s Director-General role now sits within that formally inaugurated structure. Its immediate context is the move from appointments and preparatory briefings to the publicly announced programme of engagements. His acknowledgment of the assignment, the published council membership and the earlier timetable briefing provide the established record as that work continues.