Barring any unforeseen circumstances, former Zamfara State Governor and Senator representing Zamfara West, Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari, will be appointed Director-General of President Bola Tinubu’s re-election campaign council, two reliable sources familiar with the president’s decision told THEWILL exclusively, weekend.

As a precursor to his formal appointment as head of the presidential campaign council, the President has adopted the Renewed Hope Network, RHN, spearheaded by Yari, as the formal structure to press for his re-election ahead of other notable groups including the Renewed Hope Ambassadors headed by Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma and City Boys Movement led by Seyi Tinubu, the president’s son. “The President in his wisdom has chosen Senator Abdul’aziz Yari to lead his re-election campaign. We will be successful in sha allah,” one of the sources told THEWILL.

The RHA currently facilitates communication of federal government policy reforms and achievements at the grassroots across the country ahead of the 2027 general election.

As exclusively reported in the Sunday, May 10, 2026, edition of THEWILL, Governors of the Progressives Governors Forum, PGF will provide key funding for campaign having allegedly collectively contributed over N800 billion naira to guarantee a robust financial war chest.

The Progressives Governors Forum, PGF, had been in crisis following allegations of misappropriation of the funds levelled against Uzodinma, the custodian of the contributions, who became evasive when he was asked to account for the funds. It took the President’s personal intervention to quell the rebellion within the ruling party’s governors forum with some of the monies now retrieved from the embattled governor, who has promised to refund whatever is outstanding.

According to THEWILL sources, the Forum’s governors had agreed to make their own contributions to the presidential campaign through monthly deductions from their Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, share into an account controlled by Uzodinma under the Renewed Hope Ambassador, RHA, platform. The donations were then expected to be transferred to the accounts of the Renewed Hope Network. That was when trouble started. Uzodimma, according to our sources, told his colleagues that the money had been expended.

THEWILL reports that Senator Yari, who unsuccessfully lobbied to be Senate President ahead of the current Senator Godswill Akpabio, the current Senate President, who get Tinubu’s endorsement, is believed to be one of the richest politicians in the country. His firm, MA’AM Energy Limited shelled $750m to takeover billionaire Femi Otedola controlling state in Geregu Power last year. The bulk of Yari’s wealth is allegedly tied to commissions he earns from revenue collections on behalf of the federal government and some state governments.

THEWILL gathered that his considerable influence in the North, particularly in the Northwest zone and his staunch loyalty to the president despite his botched Senate President bid, earned him the top presidential campaign role.

As a two-term governor of Zamfara State, a former House of Representatives member and currently a Senator on the platform of the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, Yari has built a network of alliances that was put to test during the election for the President of the Senate seat on June 13, 2023. The APC had zoned the seat to the South-south and prevailed on members to close ranks for a workover for the anointed candidate, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

Yari rejected the arrangement and insisted on contesting, having argued that his aspiration was supported by the Constitutional provision which allows senators to choose their leaders, regardless of the party’s zoning formula. Nobody gave him a chance. And when the votes were counted, current President of the Senate, Akpabio had scored 63 votes, while Yari got 46. After the election, he immediately pledged his loyalty to the winner and has remained a team player since.

In the course of time, he has endeared himself to the President Tinubu, following his support for the reform policies of the government which he seizes every forum in North to sell. According to the Yari, Nigeria has been burdened with serious social and economic challenges and deep structural deficit that requires bold, even though painful measures, in the interim, to tackle for long term benefit to the citizenry.

The President and the governing party intend to improve on their 2023 electoral performance in the Northwest geo-political zone, which has the highest number of registered voters in the north.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, five states in the country have the highest registered voters. They are Lagos with 7, 075,192 voters (Southwest) Rivers, 3,532, 990 (Southsouth) Kano, 5,927,565; Kaduna, 4345, 469; Katsina, 3519, 360 (Northwest). Three of the states reside in the Northwest zone. However, when it comes to actual voting, the difference is clear. During the 2023 election, the Northwest zone gave the President 2.6 million votes, the highest bulk vote in the country and about 30 percent of the total 8,794,726 polled by Tinubu.

With the recent defection of Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State from the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP to the APC, all the states in the zone are now under APC control. This development has significantly reduced the influence of Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, strongman of Kano politics and leader of the grassroots movement Kwankwasiyya, who scored the highest number of Kano votes in 2023 as presidential candidate of the NNPP.

Kwankwaso recently defected to the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC.