•APC members participating in the party’s presidential primary election in Kano (right) and Lagos (left)
The All Progressives Congress (APC) is gearing up for the 2027 general elections as the ruling party yesterday held its presidential primary polls across the country.
According to the party, the elections were conducted simultaneously across 8,809 wards nationwide.
While two persons (Stanley Osifo and President Bola Tinubu) contested in the exercise, it was Tinubu who unexpectedly won a landslide, pushing him a step closer to his goal of returning as Nigeria’s president by next year, reports Channels TV.
The president and his wife, Oluremi Tinubu, cast their votes at his ward in Ikoyi, Lagos State, joining millions of party members to exercise their civil rights.
Democracy Not Sustained By Noise
After the election, Tinubu said democracy is sustained by citizens and not noise or borrowed platforms.
“Today, I participated in the APC Presidential Direct Primary at my ward in Ikoyi, Lagos, alongside my dear wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, CON,” he said in a post on his X handle.
“Democracy is not sustained by noise, speculation, or borrowed platforms. It is sustained by citizens who show up, party members who believe, institutions that endure, the grassroots, and a political family rooted in the people.”
The APC National Chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda, also voted in his hometown of Dungung, Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Governors, members of the National Assembly, government officials, and other chieftains of the APC also joined in the exercise in various states of the federation.
Landslide In Rivers, Kaduna
In Rivers State, the president scored 280,468 votes, while his opponent, Stanley Osifo, recorded zero votes in all the councils announced.
The results showed that Obio/Akpor Local Government Area recorded the highest number of votes for Tinubu with 28,680 votes, followed by Port Harcourt City with 17,522 votes and Khana with 17,085 votes.
It was a similar situation in Kaduna, where APC members unanimously endorsed him as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2027 elections.
The affirmation exercise, conducted across all 255 political wards in the 23 local government areas of the state, witnessed a large turnout of party members and stakeholders who rallied behind Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), alongside designated party officials, monitored the exercise to ensure compliance with laid-down electoral guidelines.
Declared Winner in Akwa Ibom, Kogi
In Akwa Ibom, Tinubu had 389,197 votes in the exercise conducted across the 329 wards of the state, while his opponent recorded zero votes.
Akwa Ibom State Governor Umo Eno, who served as the State Collation Officer for the presidential primary election, announced the results on Saturday.
Speaking with journalists shortly after the exercise, Governor Eno commended APC members for what he described as the peaceful and orderly conduct of the primaries across the state.
The governor noted that the turnout by party faithful reflected continued support for the president and confidence in the APC in Akwa Ibom State.
President Tinubu scored a total of 197,370 votes to defeat Osifo, who scored zero votes in Kogi State.
Announcing the results at the party secretariat in Lokoja, the State Collation Officer and Governor of Kogi State, Ahmed Ododo, said a total of 197,370 party members were accredited.
Ododo said the same number of votes were cast during the exercise.
Tinubu was also declared the winner in Ogun State. According to the figure announced by the Governor of Dapo Abiodun, who also doubled as the chairman of the election committee in the state, the president polled 322,485 votes to beat Osifo, who scored zero votes.
The election was held across the 236 wards of the twenty local government areas of the state.
He scored over 277,000 votes in Bayelsa.
Mass Turnout, Uzodimma’s Counsel to Opposition
When the exercise took place in Kebbi State, card-carrying members of the APC came out en masse to participate in the direct presidential primaries.
Governor Nasir Idris, who was at his Nassarawa II polling unit alongside Minister of Budget and National Planning Atiku Bagudu, joined the queue to be counted through a voice vote.
After the counting, the governor’s polling unit recorded a total of 5,652 votes in favour of Tinubu.
At Nassarawa Polling Unit II in the state capital, President Tinubu secured 2,825 votes.
For Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, opposition political parties should “work hard” and emulate the grassroots mobilisation strategy of the APC ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Uzodimma spoke after participating in the APC presidential primary at his Omuma ward in Oru East Local Government Area of Imo State, saying Tinubu had performed well enough to merit a second term in office.
The governor says APC’s electronic membership registration and validation process has strengthened grassroots participation and positioned the party strongly ahead of future elections.
“Well, it is no longer a democracy if there is no opposition. I also encourage opposition parties to work hard and do what the ruling party has done. And when, by the grace of God, it becomes their turn, they will elect their own president,” he said.
The Imo leader described the turnout of party members as evidence that Nigerians remained committed to democratic governance.
He said over 35,000 party members were registered in a single ward in Oru East, a development he attributed to the APC’s growing acceptance and the leadership of Tinubu.
“If you look at what is happening at the grassroots and how the grassroots has been stimulated, starting from the membership registration, which was done electronically, to the validation of members, you can see 35,000 human beings in just one ward in Oru East Local Government Area.
“It means that if only our party members vote for President Bola Tinubu, he has already won the election,” he said.
Certificate of Return
Meanwhile, Tinubu will today receive the APC’s Certificate of Return and the party’s flag as its presidential candidate for the 2027 elections.
In a statement yesterday, presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, said the APC Presidential Primary Elections Committee will present the certificate and flag to Tinubu at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja after the collation of the primary election results.
“APC governors, members of the National Executive Committee, the National Working Committee, and the National Assembly, along with party stalwarts, will attend the event,” the statement read in part.
The APC presidential primaries are coming days after the party conducted its elections to pick candidates to run for its governorship, National Assembly, and state houses of assembly.
APC swept to power in 2015, becoming the first party to defeat a ruling party (Peoples Democratic Party) since the return of democracy in 1999.
But the opposition has accused the APC of misruling Nigeria since taking over the country’s affairs, a claim the ruling party has repeatedly refuted.
