By Ibrahim Ishaku Yayock
Senior Legislative Aide to the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, PhD
Federal House of Representatives
Kaduna came alive yesterday, Saturday, October 24, 2026, as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu formally flagged off the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign ahead of the 2027 general election. The event, held at Ranchers Bees Stadium, drew Vice President Kashim Shettima, First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu, 31 governors, and a sea of supporters from across the North-West. Almost immediately, social media lost its mind.
*The Crowd Was Real—But So Was the Denial*
Aerial photos released by the APC campaign showed a stadium packed to capacity, with supporters spilling into surrounding streets. A close friend of mine insisted that the turnout proved Tinubu’s popularity: “Forget about all the social media news; forget about all the talk from the opposition. Asiwaju is loved by Nigerians.”
Yet the disbelief was loud. Critics quickly flagged the photos as “fake” images generated through artificial intelligence. The opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) alleged that the crowd was “rented,” claiming attendees were paid between ₦50,000 and ₦100,000 each and that the stadium was actually sparsely occupied. The APC fired back, accusing the opposition of deploying “fake news, doctored documents, artificial intelligence-generated content and deepfake videos” to discredit the rally.
*The Ground Truth: People Slept on the Streets*
Away from the online war, the physical reality in Kaduna told a different story. According to Premium Times and on-the-ground reports, APC supporters spent Friday night at the stadium and on surrounding streets to secure seats ahead of the event. By 6 a.m. Saturday, more were arriving, creating a carnival-like atmosphere outside the arena. A media aide to the Kebbi State governor claimed hotels across Kaduna were fully booked because visitors could not get rooms—and because of “the love for Asiwaju.” These were not rented crowds; they were people who chose to sleep outdoors for a candidate they believe in.
*The Point That Keeps Getting Lost*
The insistence that Northern support for Tinubu must be fabricated reveals a deeper problem: a refusal to accept that political choices can be genuine even when we disagree with them. Governor Uba Sani used the rally to urge Northern voters to back Tinubu based on performance, not regional sentiment. He cited the reopening of over 300 schools and 150 primary healthcare centres, the ₦178 billion Kaduna–Birnin Gwari road project, and the near-completion of the Abuja–Kaduna–Kano road. Whether one accepts these as achievements is a matter of political judgment. But the people who showed up—and those who slept on the streets to be there—are entitled to make that judgment for themselves.
Social media can amplify skepticism, but it cannot erase the reality of a crowd that gathered, a stadium that filled, and a political constituency that exists. You can question the crowd’s size. You can dispute the photos. But you cannot rent the kind of commitment that keeps people awake all night on a Kaduna street for a candidate they believe in.
