That is an additional 1,912 members, representing an increase of approximately 76.5 percent.
For a government that has repeatedly presented itself as a working government under the banner of People First, the numbers raise an important question about the relationship between performance in office and the effort required to secure another mandate.
The comparison is straightforward. In 2023, the APC needed a 2,500-member state campaign council to sell its candidates and promises to Cross Riverians. In 2027, after almost four years in government, the reported number has climbed to 4,412. The party is preparing to take its message to the people with a much bigger campaign structure than the one it used when it was still seeking power.
The increase is significant, but the real story is not simply the number of names on a list. It is what the expansion says about the scale of the political work the party considers necessary before asking the people for another four years.
When a party is in opposition, it has every reason to assemble a large campaign team. It must challenge the government in power, convince voters that another option exists and persuade the electorate to take a chance on its promises. Its members must travel from community to community, hold meetings, organise rallies and explain why the people should reject the existing arrangement.
But when a party has occupied the Government House for almost four years, the situation is different. It has had the opportunity to demonstrate its promises through roads, schools, hospitals, employment opportunities, security and other services that touch ordinary people's lives.
The government has had the microphone, the platform and the opportunity to turn promises into visible results. It has had time to show what its People First message means to the farmer struggling to transport produce to the market, the young person searching for work, the parent worried about the condition of a public school and the community waiting for a road that can make life easier.
By the time another election approaches, the expectation is that the government's record should have become one of its strongest campaign tools.
This is where the reported increase in the APC campaign council becomes a subject worth discussing.
If the work has spoken loudly enough, should the campaign machinery also have to grow this much louder?
After almost four years in office, what is driving the need for a campaign council that is 76.5 per cent larger than the one assembled before the current administration first took power?
Is the party expanding because it wants to bring more people into its political structure, because the coming election requires a wider organisation, or because it believes it must work harder to convince Cross Riverians to renew its mandate? Those are questions the party's leadership and supporters can help answer.
The Otu administration has operated during a period of increased federal allocations and other revenue changes affecting states across Nigeria.
Nevertheless, the larger point is access to public resources brings expectations. The people do not judge a government only by how many projects it announces, how many events it attends or how strongly its supporters defend it. They also judge it by what has changed in their daily lives.
Cross Riverians have a right to ask what the state has gained from the resources available to the government. They have a right to compare promises with completed projects, budget allocations with actual delivery, and official claims with conditions on the ground.
If the administration believes it has performed well, the coming election offers an opportunity to present the real evidence. Completed roads can be shown. Schools can be inspected. Health facilities can be assessed. Employment and empowerment programmes can be examined. Communities can speak about the difference, or lack of difference, that government policies have made to their lives.
That kind of evidence can give voters something concrete to consider beyond campaign speeches and political endorsements.
The 2023 campaign was about convincing Cross Riverians to give the APC, and Governor Bassey Otu an opportunity. The 2027 campaign is about convincing them that the opportunity has been worth it.
One requires promises about what a party hopes to do. The other requires evidence of what it has already done, an honest account of what remains unfinished and a convincing explanation of what it intends to achieve with another term.
And that is why the increase from 2,500 to 4,412 campaign council members deserves public attention. The difference is 1,912 people, but the bigger issue is the difference between seeking power and defending a record in office.
As the campaign season approaches, Cross Riverians should not be distracted by numbers alone. They should ask what those numbers are meant to achieve, what the government has achieved so far and what the next four years would deliver that the first four have not.
A campaign council can carry a message from one community to another. It can organise meetings, mobilise supporters and fill the streets with political excitement. But it cannot, by its size alone, establish whether a government has fulfilled its promises.
In the end, the ballot will not ask how many people stood on a campaign platform, how many banners were raised or how many voices praised the government. It will ask every voter to make a decision based on the evidence, the promises and the future they believe the state deserves.
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