The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has narrowed its search for the Director-General of Atiku Abubakar’s 2027 presidential campaign to Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and Senator Augustine Akobundu, party sources said.
The National Working Committee, led by David Mark, is now working to constitute the campaign council for the presidential ticket featuring Atiku and Rotimi Amaechi as the January 16, 2027 election approaches.
Tambuwal has held major federal and state offices since entering elective politics. He represented Tambuwal/Kebbe Federal Constituency from 2003 to 2015, became Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2011 and governed Sokoto State for two terms from 2015 to 2023.
He returned to the Senate as Sokoto South senator after leaving the Sokoto Government House and contested the PDP presidential primary in 2022. He moved to the APC in 2014, returned to the PDP in 2018 and moved to the ADC in 2026.
Akobundu entered the Senate in 2023 as the representative of Abia Central after a career in the Nigerian Army. The retired Colonel also served as Minister of State for Defence and held PDP leadership positions as National Organising Secretary and National Vice Chairman, South-East.
He left the PDP in March 2026, citing “intractable crises” within the party, before moving to the ADC. His departure came during a period of internal disputes within the opposition party.
The two men also come from different parts of the country, with Tambuwal representing Sokoto in the North-West and Akobundu representing Abia Central in the South-East. Their records give the selection process two different political profiles as the party builds its national election machinery.
Presidential and National Assembly campaigns began on August 19, 2026, under the Independent National Electoral Commission’s timetable. The electoral process has therefore moved into the campaign period less than five months before polling day.
Atiku has also stepped up his criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies, using FAAC allocations to challenge the government’s account of economic gains. He cited distributions of about N7.85 trillion in 2019 and N21.9 trillion in 2025, while putting their dollar values at about $25.6 billion and $14.6 billion respectively.
Atiku said naira depreciation, inflation and weaker purchasing power had reduced the real value of the higher allocations. “That is not an economic miracle. That is money illusion,” he said, while Tinubu has cited increased FAAC allocations as a benefit of petrol subsidy removal.
