Shettima Called Northern Artistes to Abuja, and Somehow It's Already a Whole Political Rally

This particular story is giving, "we gathered to talk about music, but somehow ended up pledging a whole presidency." VP Shettima met with a delegation of Northern artistes in Abuja this week, under the group "Triple-R For Renewed Hope," and what started as "let's discuss the creative industry" very quickly became "please go and mobilise your region for 2027." Smooth transition, no be small thing.

To be fair, there was an actual creative-economy conversation in there somewhere, infrastructure, training for upcoming artistes, growing the entertainment industry in the North, genuinely useful things artistes should be asking for regardless of election season. But the moment Shettima said the quiet part, "support Tinubu's re-election for fairness and unity," everybody in the room understood the real assignment.

And then, like clockwork, the response delegation showed up with the receipts already prepared: "our support is organic," they said, "based on performance," they said, "we are united," they said. Rarara himself stood up and basically confirmed Northern creatives are fully aligned behind the ticket. Organic, they call it. The way "organic" keeps getting used for things that clearly had a WhatsApp group, a meeting agenda, and official APC campaign office branding attached.

Because let's not forget, this isn't happening in isolation. APC just set up a whole Creative Sector Mobilisation directorate under its 2027 Campaign Council, and there's a new platform called Arewa for Asiwaju running around the North doing exactly this kind of groundwork. So "artistes meet VP to discuss culture" is actually "political machine adds entertainment wing," and everybody in the room knew the assignment before they even entered the building.

None of this is new, by the way. Every election cycle, somebody remembers artistes have influence, invites them to Abuja, promises infrastructure, and collects loyalty in advance. The only variable is which artistes, which administration, and how convincingly "organic" it gets said with a straight face.

So congrats to the creative industry, you've officially been recruited again. Infrastructure dey come. Allegedly. We go see.