Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
A youth group within the All Progressives Congress, the Renewed Hope for Youth Development and Empowerment Initiative, has pledged to mobilise 20 million votes for President Bola Tinubu across the country’s 774 local government areas ahead of the 2027 presidential election, unveiling a nationwide mobilisation plan that includes the deployment of 10,000 trained youth ambassadors.
The pledge was made on Sunday in Abuja during the launch of the initiative and the inauguration of its national structure, sworn-in officials and state coordinators, according to a statement by the group’s President, Abayomi Odediran. The event, themed “Consolidating Renewed Hope: Youths Standing for Tinubu 2027,” also featured awards and a fundraising session. Odediran said the group was fully prepared to work for the President’s return and expressed confidence that the party had nothing to fear. “The party has nothing to worry about. RHYDEI is ready and fully prepared to work for the return of the President. We will work to ensure the President gets 20 million votes across the country,” he said. “We shall take Renewed Hope to every ward in the 774 LGAs. From Sokoto to Bayelsa, from Borno to Lagos. This is how we are going to achieve it.”
At the heart of the group’s strategy is the establishment of a “20 Million Youth Votes Project,” designed to mobilise young Nigerians across all states. Odediran said RHYDEI would deploy 10,000 youth ambassadors to engage with Nigerians on the streets, on social media platforms and in markets, with a mandate to promote and explain the achievements of the Tinubu administration. “We are mobilising 10,000 youths across all states to defend the President’s achievements on the streets, social media and in the markets,” he said. The group also announced plans to partner with Federal Government agencies to ensure that at least one million youths benefit from skills acquisition programmes, grants and loans before the 2027 election. “We will show them that Renewed Hope is working,” Odediran said.
The initiative will also embark on what it described as “Protection of Our Father’s Mandate” and “Operation Show Love to Daddy” campaigns, designed to demonstrate youth support for the President and communicate what the organisation described as the achievements of his administration. Odediran urged members to take the initiative’s message to communities, markets and social media platforms, and called on Nigerian youths to participate actively in programmes aimed at improving their skills and economic opportunities. The ceremony included the swearing-in of RHYDEI officials and coordinators, the presentation of awards and a fundraising session, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
The pledge comes amid a broader wave of pro-Tinubu youth mobilisation across the country. In September 2026, Lagos students announced plans for a one-million-man march in support of the President’s re-election under the Renewed Hope Project 2027, while a pro-Tinubu group, Twenty Million Thumbs for Tinubu, intensified grassroots mobilisation across the South-South geopolitical zone in June 2026. In August 2026, APC youths announced plans for a mega rally in November to mobilise 10 million votes, with organisers saying “ten million organised youths are ten million votes.” Transport operators have also targeted at least 20 million votes for the President, and a northern APC youth leader, Hamisu Abubakar, pledged 20 million youth votes at a poverty summit in Lagos in October 2025.
The mobilisation effort, however, is unfolding against a backdrop of internal tension within the ruling party’s youth wing. In August 2026, northern APC youth groups threatened to withdraw support for Tinubu’s re-election over what they described as the marginalisation of northern youths in party affairs and political appointments. The North-West APC Youth Stakeholders Forum and the Arewa Democratic Youth Stakeholders Forum called on the President to ensure that appointments and political opportunities reflected Nigeria’s diversity, warning that unequal treatment could cost him votes in the North. A political strategist subsequently warned the APC of electoral consequences arising from the “Tinubu Must Go” campaign across Northern Nigeria, describing the movement as a manifestation of accumulated frustration among northern youths who feel systematically sidelined.
The 2027 presidential election is scheduled for January 16, with the governorship and state assembly elections following on February 6. President Tinubu is seeking a second term on the APC platform, while former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is contesting on the African Democratic Congress ticket with former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi as his running mate. Former Anambra Governor Peter Obi is flying the flag of the Nigeria Democratic Congress with Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso. Atiku has also unveiled a 20-million-vote target and established zonal and state campaign coordination committees, while urging young Nigerians to reject vote-buying and defend the integrity of the election.
For RHYDEI, the 20 million vote target represents an ambitious organisational goal that will test the group’s capacity to translate pledges made at a launch event into sustained grassroots mobilisation across 774 local government areas. The group’s plan to deploy 10,000 ambassadors and partner with federal agencies on youth empowerment programmes reflects a dual strategy of political mobilisation and material incentive, a model that has become increasingly common in Nigerian campaign organising. Whether the initiative can deliver the votes it has promised will be determined at the polls, but for now, the group has placed its pledge on the record and positioned itself as a significant player in the APC’s re-election machinery.
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