2027: South-East Has Agreed to Back Tinubu, Shettima – Kalu
By Pan Afric Reporters
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Okezie Kalu, has declared that the South-East is prepared to support the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima in 2027, claiming that the region has unanimously agreed to return the APC-led administration.
Kalu made the declaration in a press statement issued on Saturday, October 31, 2026, by his Chief Press Secretary, Levinus Nwabughiogu, following his remarks at the flag-off of the APC Women’s Mobilisation Campaign and South-East Women Empowerment Programme in Enugu, organised by the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.
The Deputy Speaker, who is also Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council 11 (South), said the region’s immediate political priority should be to support a President he described as having demonstrated commitment to the Igbo people.
“For now, our mandate is to support the man that has been supporting us. This man has not hidden his love for Ndi Igbo,” Kalu said.
He recalled that during Tinubu’s tenure as governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, the President appointed people of Igbo extraction into his administration, citing former Lagos State Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Ben Akabueze, as an example.
Kalu said Tinubu’s political record in Lagos demonstrated his goodwill towards the Igbo community, urging the South-East to reciprocate what he described as the President’s gestures of support.
“This man has not hidden his love for Ndi Igbo. During his time as the governor of Lagos State, no Igbo property was taken. Nobody who was a businessman in Lagos was arrested. Mr. Ben Akabueze was an Igbo man that he brought into his cabinet as Governor. It has never happened before. I hope we will reciprocate his kind gestures to Ndi Igbo,” he said.
The Deputy Speaker also cited the establishment of the South-East Development Commission as evidence of Tinubu’s commitment to the region, arguing that successive administrations had failed to fulfil the post-civil war promises of reconciliation, reconstruction and reintegration.
He recalled that the three Rs had remained largely unfulfilled for decades, but said Tinubu signed the South-East Development Commission Bill into law, giving the region a dedicated development institution.
“South East Development Commission Bill has been in the Parliament from year to year, Assembly to Assembly, they refused to sign it into law. But when President Tinubu came, South East Development Commission became a commission under the law. Tinubu is a warrior, a great President,” Kalu said.
He further listed road construction, bridge projects, scholarships, loans and women’s empowerment programmes among the administration’s interventions which, according to him, were benefiting the region.
Calling on residents of the South-East to support the APC in the 2027 presidential election, Kalu declared that the region had no alternative candidate and urged voters to turn out on January 16, 2027, to return Tinubu and Shettima.
“To this end, I am appealing to Ndi Igbo, come January 16, 2027, we don’t have any other candidate. The Igbo are complete. The governors are complete. Abia is here. Enugu is here. Imo is here. Anambra is here. South East is complete,” he said.
Kalu further argued that the South-East should be entitled to an eight-year presidential tenure when it eventually produces Nigeria’s President, insisting that the region should not be limited to a single four-year term after waiting for decades.
“Others have had it for 8 years and we have waited for too long, almost 60 years. Is it fair for us to do 4 years? Those who want Ndi Igbo to do only 4 years, it will not work. Just like others who did 8 years, when it is our turn, we will also do 8 years because what is good for the goose is also good for the gander,” he said.
He maintained, however, that the region’s immediate responsibility was to support the Tinubu administration, which he said had demonstrated goodwill towards the Igbo people.
