APC chairman says party’s nationwide primary turnout shows opposition cannot match its growing political strength ahead of 2027.
APC chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda has described the turnout at the congresses held on Saturday to nominate the 2027 presidential candidate of the party as a mock demonstration of what the general election would look like.
He stressed that APC was becoming the rallying point for all political parties, saying everybody wants to be in APC.
He said, “The competition to be in the APC is quite high, and we see thousands of people buying our forms. It shows how our party is accepted by Nigerians and by the people.
“If you see the mass turnout on Sunday in all the congresses held to nominate the president, the numbers were in their thousands, and this is just a mock demonstration of what the general election will look like.
“It shows clearly that no other party would win the election because the numbers turning out are in the thousands. Believe me, no political party can showcase one-tenth of what we presented in their own congresses. It shows that we are on the path, and the winning path.”
On the rancour witnessed during the House of Representatives, Senate, and governorship primaries, the chairman said the party would activate its internal mechanisms for conflict resolution.
He stated, “Of course, you should know that when it comes to power, it is a game of power, and everybody wants to be the one elected. Everyone wants to find reasons why he should be elected. But we, as a party, have internal mechanisms for conflict resolution.
“We have the presidential conflict resolution team and the party reconciliation team. So we activate them to go down to the state level and the national level to ensure quicker reconciliation, a fast healing process, and they will merge it with campaigns to ensure that we win the 2027 election.”
Baring his mind on the issue of aggrieved aspirants, who alleged unfair treatment during the primaries, Yilwatda stated that such political contests were naturally followed by complaints.
According to him, “There is no situation where, for example, in a state, we are looking for one candidate and we have 16 people vying for that position of governorship. Sixteen out of 16, and you need to pick only one.
“All of them are eminently qualified—former senators, former DAs, PhD holders, medical doctors, bankers, oil magnates. Everybody is qualified, and everyone has spread and capacity.
“So among them, we must pick one of the very best, and for sure people will have one or two complaints. But that is usual in our politics. There is no way you can have a political contest anywhere in the world of this nature and nobody complains.
“In fact, if you see any political party where nobody complains about congresses or internal elections, that party is actually weak. Strong parties have strong opposition from within, all vying for positions.
“It is just like a football league—imagine a league where nobody is complaining; it means the league is not competitive. The competition here is quite high, and every Nigerian looks up to the APC as a vehicle that will bring them to power in 2027.”
On certain circulating videos featuring fraudulent counting manipulations by alleged APC officials, like “1, 2, 3, 7,000”, and so on, Yilwatda stated, “Sometimes you see videos online. I even received a video that was sent to me, which I later found out was from an event that happened three or four years ago.”
He added, “These are unverified videos and were not even meant for our party activities. They were from activities somewhere else, even union or leadership elections in different settings, but are being circulated as if they are APC activities.
“If you check all our activities, we have our flags, our banners, and people raising their membership cards. In those videos, you cannot see any APC banner anywhere. So it shows clearly that those were not APC activities.”
Chairman of APC Presidential Primary Election Committee, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, said the primary elections were conducted in 8,809 wards across the federation and were subsequently collated at the local government and state levels.
Anyim stated that the direct primary model adopted by APC was not only an effort to select candidates for the 2027 elections, but more importantly an attempt to give effect to the long-standing call for electoral reforms, which culminated in fundamental amendments to the Electoral Act.
The former senate president stated, “By this ground-breaking model, the APC has become the first political party to adopt the direct primary election model for its presidential primary election.
“I am minded to say, therefore, that the central intent of the APC in adopting the direct primary model includes: one, to deepen democratic participation; two, to ensure inclusivity; and three, to expand the political space.
“I wish to briefly state that the essentials of the direct primary model include: it provides opportunity for all members of the party to participate in the process; it forecloses the vote associated with delegate elections.
“It offers transparency, as against secret ballot; and it enhances the confidence of each voter that his or her vote counts. These are the core values the APC not only seeks to promote but also to inculcate in our electoral system.”
Niger State Governor Umar Bago said the Electoral Act had provided for either direct primaries or consensus, and where they were unable to build consensus, they had to do direct primaries.
Bago said, “For the president, the Electoral Act has proven itself, that no matter your status, you would have to be in compliance with the Electoral Act.
“There were direct primaries across my state and across the country to select our party flag bearer, which is our president. And that happened smoothly, rancour-free, and we are excited.
“That’s why everybody is here, from different states of this country, to submit results that were collated across all our electoral wards across Nigeria.”
Statistics made available by APC showed that Tinubu won the party’s presidential primary with a total of 10.9 million votes to beat his lone challenger, Osifo, who got 16, 504 votes.
According to the party, a total of 12,643,316 members were registered; 11,069, 756 were accredited; while the total votes cast was 11,015,665.
Surprisingly, there were no void votes.
Official results declared by the party indicated that Tinubu polled 227, 192 votes in Bayelsa, as against Osifo’s five votes; in Osun the president scored Tinubu 100,888 votes, while Osifo recorded no vote.
The story was the same in Oyo, where Tinubu polled 142,754 votes as against Osifo’s 929 votes; while in Anambra, Tinubu polled 43, 034 votes, whereas Osifo scored 384 votes. The president scored 36,103 votes in FCT and Osifo recorded zero vote.
In Kano, Tinubu scored 500,852, votes against Osfio’s 2,675 votes; while in Katsina, Tinubu polled 467, 003 votes, whereas Osifo scored 229 votes.
The president scored 161, 005 votes in Abia, while Osifo scored 1,007 votes. In Kogi, Tinubu polled 197, 370 votes and Osifo scored zero.
Similarly, in Delta, Tinubu polled 407,646 votes, while Osifo scored zero. The president also defeated Osifo in Ebonyi with 207, 579 votes; and in Jigawa, Tinubu scored 206, 520 and Osifo scored zero.
Other results were, Plateau: Tinubu 241, 720, Osifo 303; Kwara: Tinubu 310, 990, Osifo zero; Edo: Tinubu 121, 098, Osifo one; Nasarawa: Tinubu 285,436, Osifo 768; Niger: Tinubu 175,487, Osifo 5,248; Borno: Tinubu 414,988, Osifo zero; Enugu: Tinubu 383, 382, Osifo zero; and Kebbi: Tinubu 292,972, Osifo zero.
Tinubu won Kaduna with 618,914 votes, while Osifo scored zero; and in Bauchi Tinubu polled 156,541 votes, while Osifo scored 2,650 votes.
The president maintained his winning streak in Ondo with 181,996 votes, while Osifo got zero; and in Yobe, Tinubu polled 253, 804 and Osifo got zero.
In Rivers, it was Tinubu 280 082 votes, Osifo zero; Akwa Ibom: Tinubu 389, 197, Osifo zero; Benue: Tinubu 374, 787, Osifo 779; Imo: Tinubu 582, 960, Osifo 103; Ekiti: Tinubu 85,340, Osifo zero; Lagos: Tinubu 814, 988, Osifo 1,186; Zamfara: Tinubu 321,579, Osifo 42; Ogun: Tinubu 322, 485, Osifo zero; and Sokoto: Tinubu 301,000, Osifo zero.
Others were Cross River: Tinubu 113,911, Osifo zero; Taraba: Tinubu 183,698, Osifo zero; Gombe: Tinubu 450,517, Osifo zero; Adamawa: Tinubu 644, 149, Osifo 195.