KADUNA, Nigeria – More than 600 senior academics drawn from public universities across the 19 northern states have formally endorsed the 2027 re-election bid of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, following a closed-door consultative assembly convened at the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Kaduna, political correspondents confirmed on Monday, September 14, 2026.
The high-level political engagement, convened by the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Alhaji Ibrahim Kabir Masari, brought together university vice chancellors, chief librarians, deans, and senior faculty members to assess national governance under the theme: “Consolidating the Renewed Hope Agenda: Three Years of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Achievements and the Road to 2027.”
Okay News reports that the gathering was attended by prominent northern political leaders, including Kaduna State Governor Senator Uba Sani, Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal, Yobe State Governor Mai Mala Buni, Borno State Governor Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, Gombe State Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, Minister of Defence Mohammed Bello Matawalle, and former Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari.
Presenting the communiqué at the conclusion of the deliberations, the Vice Chancellor of Kaduna State University, Professor Abdullahi Ibrahim Musa, explained that the scholars critically evaluated the fiscal, structural, and security inheritances confronting the administration since May 2023, noting that ongoing macroeconomic reforms have altered public finances despite imposing short-term living and transportation burdens.
Professor Musa noted that progress in education financing, tertiary support programs, student loans, agricultural expansion, and compressed natural gas initiatives justified the scholars’ collective resolution to support President Tinubu’s candidacy ahead of the presidential election scheduled for January 16, 2027.
The academics stressed, however, that their backing does not constitute an unconditional endorsement, urging the Federal Government to address elevated food inflation, youth unemployment, and regional banditry through a synchronized security strategy combining military operations, community policing, and targeted economic investments across northern agrarian corridors.
The political endorsement triggered an immediate and sharp rebuke from the national leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which completely distanced the union from the political gathering, reaffirming that the union remains fundamentally non-partisan.
Reacting to the development, ASUU National President Professor Chris Piwuna described the endorsement as misleading, cautioning that while individual academics possess constitutional rights to exercise partisan preferences, no entity is authorized to invoke the union’s name or institutional identity to advance partisan interests.
“We will never take such positions, going by our constitution; nobody can mention ASUU in that context because we are apolitical,” Professor Piwuna maintained, noting that university administrators who frequently oppose the union on campuses cannot purport to speak on behalf of university teachers in political gatherings.
Meanwhile, presidential consultations expanded further in Kaduna over the weekend as Masari met with delegations of female Islamic scholars (Women Ulama) drawn from across the 19 northern states alongside Governor Sani, where the presidential aide mounted a defense against regional and ethnic biases while defending the All Progressives Congress’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket as an arrangement rooted in religious solidarity rather than political opportunism.
Governor Sani affirmed that the women scholars endorsed President Tinubu’s second-term mandate based on tangible developmental achievements across the northern region, pledging that state governors aligned with the administration will coordinate grassroots mobilization across all wards and local councils ahead of the 2027 general elections.
