The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has stated that the ruling party is increasingly becoming the preferred political platform for Nigerians ahead of the 2027 general election. Speaking to journalists at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja, just before the collation of results from the party's nationwide presidential primary election, he explained that the massive turnout recorded across states clearly indicates that the APC remains the dominant political force in the country.
According to Yilwatda, thousands of party members participated in the congresses held to nominate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He described the exercise as a “mock demonstration” of what Nigerians should anticipate during the 2027 elections. “The APC is becoming the rallying point for all political parties. Everybody wants to be in the 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.”
He further emphasized the significance of the turnout: “If you see the mass turnout yesterday 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.”
Internal Mechanisms for Conflict Resolution
Responding to concerns about rancour arising from the party’s governorship, Senate, and House of Representatives primaries in some states, the APC chairman admitted that contests for political offices are naturally intense. However, he insisted that the party has established mechanisms to resolve disputes. “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,” he stated. “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.”
Allegations of Unfair Primaries Dismissed
Yilwatda also dismissed allegations that some aspirants were denied fair opportunities during the primaries, arguing that complaints are inevitable in any competitive democratic process. “There is no way you can have a political contest anywhere in the world of this nature and nobody complains,” he said. “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.”
Addressing Online Irregularity Allegations
The APC chairman further rejected videos circulating online alleging irregularities in the party’s congresses, particularly clips showing questionable counting processes. According to him, most of the videos being shared on social media are unrelated to APC activities. “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 explained. “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.”
