Based on reporting published October 16, 2026, by The Guardian and other Nigerian news outlets.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s campaign for re-election in 2027 has received a public endorsement from a forum of governorship candidates of the Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA), with the group pledging to use its grassroots political networks to mobilize support for him.

The candidates, led by Aboki Bayonga, the DLA governorship candidate in Taraba State and chairman of the forum, announced their position at a press conference in Abuja on Friday. They said their support was specifically for Tinubu in the presidential contest and did not mean they were abandoning the DLA or defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The announcement illustrates how politicians from outside the governing party are aligning themselves with Tinubu’s re-election campaign while seeking to preserve their own party identities and ambitions in state and legislative elections.

What the DLA candidates announced

According to the reports, the forum said it had consulted among its members before deciding to support Tinubu for another four-year term. Bayonga said the candidates would work to mobilize voters for the President while continuing to pursue their individual electoral ambitions under the DLA platform.

The candidates said their support would not extend to adopting the APC as their party for other offices. They intend to continue campaigning for DLA candidates contesting governorship, Senate, House of Representatives and state House of Assembly seats.

Bayonga identified three areas of the Tinubu administration’s record that influenced the endorsement:

• Education: The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), which provides financing for eligible students pursuing higher education.
• Agriculture: Government support measures for farmers, including fertiliser distribution initiatives.
• Infrastructure: Road construction and other projects which the candidates argued could yield longer-term benefits if implementation continues.

These are the reasons given by the endorsing politicians. Their announcement does not, by itself, independently establish the overall impact of those policies or demonstrate that voters in their states share the same assessment.

Who was involved?

The forum was led by Bayonga, with several other candidates reported to have attended the Abuja briefing. Those named in the reports included:

• Adamu Idrisu Chado — Kaduna State
• Bekky Folorunso James — Osun State
• Professor Valdya Tame — Adamawa State
• Ibrahim Musa — Federal Capital Territory
• Sam Umar — Plateau State
• Sani Mohammed — Gombe State
• Nnamdi Ugwu — Enugu State
• Brent Micheal — Bauchi State

The reports described the group as comprising at least 15 governorship candidates. Bayonga said the forum intended to mobilise supporters through existing political networks, but he did not announce a specific number of votes the group expected to deliver to Tinubu.

Why the endorsement matters

1. Cross-party political cooperation

The declaration shows that political support for a presidential candidate can cross party lines. The DLA candidates are seeking to support Tinubu at the national level while retaining their own party’s identity and electoral ambitions in other contests.

Whether this arrangement translates into meaningful voter mobilization remains to be seen. An endorsement by political candidates does not automatically mean their supporters will vote as directed.

2. Tinubu’s campaign is seeking broader support

The DLA forum said it would work with Arewa for Asiwaju (A4A), a platform focused on mobilizing support for Tinubu, particularly across northern Nigeria. The Guardian also reported that the group’s wider political network includes former governors and other political figures.

This activity forms part of the political organization taking place ahead of the 2027 general elections. It is evidence of an ongoing effort to build support, rather than proof of any particular election outcome.

3. Policy continuity is central to the candidates’ argument

The candidates argued that some programs introduced or pursued under Tinubu require more time to produce their intended benefits. They pointed to student financing, agricultural support and infrastructure projects as reasons to favor continuity.

That is their political assessment. A fuller evaluation would require examining the programs’ implementation, measurable results, costs and effects on Nigerians, alongside alternative policy proposals.

An important clarification about the DLA’s presidential candidate

There is a discrepancy in the reporting that deserves attention. The Guardian and PUNCH described the DLA candidates as saying their party would not field a presidential candidate, while a separate Vanguard report stated that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had recently published Adebisi Moses Olusoji as the DLA’s presidential candidate.

These accounts are not necessarily describing the same issue in the same way: the forum’s political decision to support Tinubu is distinct from the party’s formal status and candidate records. The current reports alone do not resolve the discrepancy. INEC’s official candidate information and a statement from the DLA’s national leadership would be needed to establish the party’s formal position.

What happens next?

The main questions are whether the forum can coordinate its members across the states, whether the DLA’s national leadership formally endorses the arrangement, and whether the promised grassroots mobilisation leads to demonstrable support.

The candidates have said they intend to retain their DLA identities while backing Tinubu for president. The practical test will be whether they can sustain that arrangement throughout the campaign and persuade voters without compromising their own local contests.

Note:

The DLA governorship candidates’ declaration adds another cross-party endorsement to the political activity ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 elections. Their stated strategy is to support Tinubu for president while continuing to contest other offices under the DLA.

The endorsement is a political development, not a measure of how many votes Tinubu will receive. Its significance will depend on the group’s organizational reach, the response of its party leadership and, ultimately, the choices Nigerians make at the ballot box.

Sources

The Guardian — Tinubu re-election bid gets boost as DLA guber candidates declare support