The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, has flagged off its national campaign for the 2027 general elections, while also officially adopting President Bola Tinubu as its candidate for the January 16, 2027 presidential polls.
The party also, at the rally, handed its flags to 44 candidates for Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly elections in Anambra State.
Candidates of the party from other states of the country who also attended the rally were handed flags and charged to go into the field and start wooing voters for themselves and for President Tinubu.
The National Leader of the party and Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, who performed the function, told party members that they must take the reelection of President Bola Tinubu seriously, insisting that securing victory for him amounts to earning the right to make demands during his second term.
Soludo said, "44 candidates of the party from Anambra State and those of other states have been given their flags. We urge you to go house to house, door to door, market to market to ensure that on 16 January, the presidential election, the people will come out and vote for President Bola Tinubu, then for our candidates in the National Assembly and also for our House of Assembly candidates on February 6.
"Our lawmakers from APGA are working in partnership with those of APC at the National Assembly. They belong to the same caucus. Those of you running for National Assembly seats, we urge you to win, go to Abuja, belong to the caucus and continue the progressive agenda.
"We are APGA, we are progressives, and we collaborate. We will work with any party that believes in the unity, security and prosperity of Nigeria. We will work with you all to achieve victory, and we will win.
"We are today officially adopting President Bola Tinubu as our candidate for the presidential election. In 2011, APGA adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as our candidate. In 2015, we also adopted Jonathan again, and we are doing it again in 2027 because progressives are working together."
Soludo insisted that APGA was not only supporting APC as a party, but specifically supporting the president, who he said loved Ndigbo dearly.
He said: "We are not just supporting the party at the centre, but we are supporting a president who loves Ndigbo. His Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, when he was governor, was from Anambra. Today, one Joe Igbokwe is still working with the Lagos State government; he is an Anambra man.
"Our people who are importing drugs and other things are doing so freely today, with access to foreign exchange, which has remained very stable.
"This is a president that has given us infrastructure. Enugu-Onitsha Expressway is now motorable after 20 years. Sooner or later, work will start on the Anambra, Kogi to Abuja road. There are also the Uga, Okigwe roads, and the Ogbaru to Rivers State road.
"Come January 16, we will go to the polls and show that Igbo people are intelligent; we will no longer battle between emotion and reason. Our people have to join the moving train. Our people's vote must be part of the vote that will make the president win in a landslide. We gave just a little over 5,000 votes to the president in 2023, but this time we will do better, and Anambra votes must count, and after the election we will be at the table to tell the president, this was what we were able to do, and this is what we want you to do for us.
"In politics, your vote is your bargaining chip. We are doing it for the interest of Anambra and for the interest of Ndigbo."
Speaking about the performance of President Tinubu, Soludo said: "I and my sister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who managed the economy of Nigeria in 2003 have stated independently and without equivocation that the economy under Tinubu is doing well. This is to show you that he is truly doing well. Let us vote for him to solidify the economy's growth," the governor said.
The rally, which was held at the Dr Alex Ekwueme Square in Awka, was attended by supporters and members of the party, all in their APGA regalia. Attendees came from all over the state and other parts of the country.
APGA flags off national campaign, officially adopts Tinubu as party's candidate for 2027