Fresh tensions have erupted across several states as the ruling All Progressives Congress commences its primaries on Friday (today) ahead of the 2027 general elections, forcing party leaders and key stakeholders loyal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intensify consultations to prevent a full-blown internal crisis.

The growing unrest, which has triggered protests, collapsed consensus negotiations, and led to accusations of candidate imposition and reconciliation efforts across multiple states, comes as the APC leadership races to preserve party cohesion before the primaries gather momentum nationwide.

Concerned by the situation, President Tinubu has appealed to members, aspirants and party leaders to conduct themselves as sportsmen and women.

He warned that rancorous behaviour would only serve the opposition, and cautioned winners against gloating, while urging losers to accept defeat with grace.

In a personal statement he released on Thursday, the eve of the commencement of House of Representatives primaries, Tinubu said the exercises were not merely platforms to produce standard bearers but a referendum on the APC’s unity, resilience and strength as a party entering its fourth election cycle.

He said, “In every contest, there will be a winner and a loser. I urge the winners not to gloat in victory and the losers to show sportsmanship by taking things in their stride and preparing for another time.

“The ultimate winners are those who don’t choose to wreck the boat but rather work to prepare for another round. Our opponents are waiting for us to be against each other; we should disappoint them.”

The President made a pointed reference to a mode of political engagement he said the party had left behind, invoking it precisely to warn against its return.

“We should not play the politics of old, the do-or-die politics that we have put behind us. Politics should never be a zero-sum game. Any candidate that wins does so for all of us as a party,” he stated.

The President said wherever consensus had already been reached among aspirants, it should be maximised to reduce friction.

“I am aware that, in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 and our party’s constitution, leaders at various levels have initiated conversations to produce consensus candidates.

“It is a commendable option that would help in reducing rancour and bad blood among party members,” said Tinubu.

But where consensus fails, he said, members must conduct themselves with discipline.

“I urge us all to go into the primaries as brothers and sisters,” the President appealed.

Tinubu directed party governors and leaders to ensure a level playing field and rise above personal sentiment.

He said, “You must rise above sentiment to offer all aspirants a level playing field that guarantees participation without let or hindrance.

“While only one person will win for every seat contested, we should give eventual losers the satisfaction of a fair contest.”

He also directed that winners and party leaders at all levels reach out to those who did not succeed with olive branches, and urged aspirants who felt aggrieved to approach the party’s redress committees rather than destabilise the process.

The President called for the inclusion of women and youth, saying, “I appeal to voters in the primaries and leaders at all levels to give special consideration to our women and youth in the contest. We cannot afford to relegate the two significant demographics of our population.”

He also issued a firm directive to security agencies deployed for the primaries, urging them to limit their role strictly to maintaining peace.

According to him, “The police and other security agencies must remain professional and avoid acting as interlopers during this exercise. Your duties strictly centre on ensuring peaceful exercise. Nothing more.”

The APC primaries, kicking off with House of Representatives aspirants, are scheduled to run through to the presidential primary on May 25, 2026.

The primaries are taking place under the Electoral Act 2026, which reduced the statutory notice period for elections from 360 to 300 days, a change Speaker Tajudeen Abbas noted could allow Presidential and National Assembly elections to be held in January 2027.

Consensus talks collapse

Investigations revealed that while some APC-controlled states successfully adopted consensus arrangements for the primaries, others descended into intense disputes as aspirants resisted pressure to step down for preferred candidates.

The crisis has become particularly pronounced in states such as Taraba, Kano, Kaduna, Oyo, Yobe and Abia, where disagreements over direct primaries, endorsements and alleged automatic tickets have sharply divided party stakeholders.

In Abia State, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, moved to calm rising tension by dismissing speculations that certain aspirants had already been handed automatic tickets ahead of the primaries.

Speaking during a pre-primary stakeholders’ meeting of the APC in Umuahia on Thursday, Kalu insisted that the party would not impose candidates on members.

According to him, every aspirant seeking elective office under the APC platform must emerge through a transparent and democratic process.

“We are not going to impose any candidate. We want to ensure that after the primaries, the party is not going to disintegrate. We have worked hard and it is now time to harvest,” Kalu declared.

He added, “There is no automatic ticket and no list by anybody. The party has given us only two democratic options — consensus or direct primaries.”

The deputy speaker stressed that the wishes of party members would ultimately determine who emerges as candidates for the 2027 elections.

Also speaking at the meeting, former Abia State governor and senator representing Abia North, Orji Uzor Kalu, said President Tinubu had specifically mandated party leaders in the state to remain united ahead of the elections.

“The President told me clearly that the only gift Abia APC can give him is to deliver the state,” Orji Kalu said.

He added, “The President also told me not to quarrel with my younger brother. I have no problems with Ben Kalu anymore. The quarrel is gone. Abia APC is now united.”

The APC disclosed during the meeting that three governorship aspirants, nine senatorial aspirants, 24 House of Representatives aspirants and 64 House of Assembly aspirants purchased nomination forms in the state.

According to the state Organising Secretary, Emeka Okoroafor, only one House of Representatives aspirant was disqualified for not being a registered party member.

Meanwhile, consensus negotiations for House of Representatives tickets remained deadlocked in Kano State as party leaders struggled to avert divisive contests across the 24 federal constituencies.

Speaking on Thursday, the Kano APC Publicity Secretary, Auwal Soja, confirmed that consultations were still ongoing late into the evening.

“Consensus among the aspirants of the APC for the 24 federal constituency seats is still ongoing, which will hopefully be concluded by 10 pm today,” he said.

He, however, admitted that direct primaries would hold wherever consensus arrangements fail.

“As you know, the APC Constitution provides only for direct primaries and consensus as legitimate pathways for selecting candidates,” Soja added.

The Electoral Act 2026 permits political parties to adopt either direct primaries, where all registered party members vote, or consensus arrangements backed by written consent from cleared aspirants.

Despite the reconciliation efforts, indications emerged that consensus talks in Kano may face resistance in some constituencies, especially Kumbotso Federal Constituency, where supporters of rival aspirants have openly demanded competitive primaries.

In Taraba State, the party’s consensus initiative suffered a major setback after several aspirants refused to withdraw from contests across strategic constituencies.

The collapse of the arrangement forced the APC to prepare for direct primaries in multiple National Assembly and state assembly constituencies ahead of today’s exercise.

In a statement issued by the APC State Publicity Secretary, Aaron Artimas, the party disclosed that the State Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Bawa, had reconstituted another committee to continue negotiations with aggrieved aspirants.

According to the statement, “The committees achieved a tremendous amount of success, as many aspirants have already agreed to step down in the interest of party unity.”

The statement added that the fresh committee would continue engaging aspirants “who may still be holding out for one reason or another.”

However, reports submitted by zonal committees showed that consensus collapsed in constituencies such as Takum, Donga, Ussa, Kurmi, Nguroje and Wukari, where aspirants insisted on testing their popularity through direct primaries.

Former lawmaker, Tukur El-Sudi, who chaired one of the reconciliation committees, disclosed that many aspirants rejected appeals to step down for incumbents.

“All aspirants in Nguroje declined to withdraw for the incumbent lawmaker because they insisted the process must remain competitive,” he said.

Similarly, Dr Philip Duwe, who chaired the Southern Zone Consensus Committee, revealed that many aspirants initially feared that the consensus arrangement was merely a strategy to impose candidates.

According to him, “Several aspirants believed the process was designed to favour certain individuals, but the consultations later became useful platforms for dialogue and reconciliation.”

He further disclosed that huge financial investments made by aspirants for mobilisation and consultations also contributed to the breakdown of consensus talks.

The APC state chairman, Bawa, however, defended the process, insisting that disagreements should not be viewed as failure.

“The inability to achieve consensus everywhere is not a failure. It simply reflects internal democracy because aspirants are expressing themselves freely,” he stated.

In Yobe State, the APC is equally preparing for the House of Representatives primaries following the failure of party stakeholders to settle disagreements through consensus.

A senior party source disclosed that Governor Mai Mala Buni had returned to the state to personally supervise reconciliation meetings aimed at salvaging consensus talks before the primaries.

“The governor has arrived in the state and is expected to meet with party stakeholders to decide whether consensus can still be achieved or whether the primaries will proceed,” the source said.

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has officially declared his intention to contest the 2027 presidential election on the platform of the Allied Peoples Movement.

The governor made this known on Thursday at the joint mega-rally of the Peoples Democratic Party and the Allied Peoples Movement held at Mapo Hall in Ibadan, the state capital.

“The time to reset Nigeria is now. Therefore, today, I, Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde, announce my candidacy for the position of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.

Makinde said the country’s situation has “continued to deteriorate, putting the majority of Nigerians on survival mode daily.

The governor added that government officials responsible for citizens’ welfare have abdicated their duties.

“This is why, for the past several months, one question has been at the top of my mind: where do we go from here? Is this how we should continue as a nation?

“We have been pushed to the wall with the belief that we will turn against ourselves or worst still, that we will become too weary to survive on a daily basis to fight back.

“They said opposition cannot unite, but I am here today to say that it is a miscalculation. The opposition in Nigeria is not just a political party. The opposition is the everyday Nigerian for whom the country does not work,” Makinde said.Makinde said the alliance between the PDP and APM would enable the former ruling party to field candidates for all positions in the 2027 general election.

“So today in Ibadan, the first grand alliance is formed. The alliance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

“This handshake will allow us to field candidates at all levels. We will field candidates from top to bottom. We will field candidates from the presidency to state assemblies, and everything in between,” Makinde said.

Makinde had earlier led the Taminu Turaki faction of the PDP in Oyo State to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the APM as part of a strategic alliance for the forthcoming elections.

The governor and the National Chairman of the APM, Yusuf Dantalle, signed the agreement on behalf of both parties.

Under the agreement, candidates of the PDP faction contesting for governorship, Senate, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly seats are expected to run on the platform of the APM rather than the PDP in the 2027 elections.

Former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi has said he would serve only one term of four years if elected president, insisting he would serve only one term in office “even with a gun to my head.”

Obi made the statement in a clip from an interview scheduled to air on News Central TV on Thursday.

“I want to be a one-term president because of stability. I would not stay a day, with a gun to my head, longer than four years,” he said in the circulating video.

The former Anambra State governor also criticised the current administration’s economic policies, including borrowing and rising cost of living, saying Nigeria had entered one of its most difficult economic periods.Obi contested the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the Labour Party, where he came third behind President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Since the election, Obi has remained a key opposition figure, frequently criticising the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms.

Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, on Wednesday, broke his silence over widespread speculations that he had defected from the All Progressives Congress to the Nigeria Democratic Congress.

The speculation came amidst the disqualification of his loyalists by the screening committee of the APC for the House of Assembly aspirants.

The governor, speaking during an inspection tour of the newly constructed general hospital and the fully remodelled Neuropsychiatric Hospital, both in Rumuigbo, Obiakpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, on Wednesday, said contrary to the erroneous reports in a section of the media in the last couple of days, he remained a member of the ruling party and would continue to work for the overall interest of the party.

“I know that there has been a lot of drama in the media, one story or another.

“I am a member of the All Progressives Congress, and nothing has changed. People should stop using whatever situation they pick up from social media or their own interpretation of any situation to present me wrongly.

“I’ve not gone anywhere; I’m still a member of the APC, and I remain a member. Whatever happens, what is important is supporting the overall interest of the party.”

While he was conducted round the facilities by the Director of Medical Services in the Rivers State Ministry of Health, Dr Vincent Wachukwu, the governor expressed delight at the completion of the two projects, which, according to him, were conceived to address critical needs in the health sector in the state.

“This very project, if you could remember, when we came in, we had an issue that required our sudden visit, and it had to do with mental health.

“So when we came here for the inspection of the rehabilitation centre that the board was trying to put together, we found out that we had more issues than even the mental health issue.

“We didn’t have a general hospital to serve the people within this area. The closest medical centre that they had here was the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, which is very far from here.

“We felt that with the space we have in this compound, it would be proper for us to also have a general hospital situated in this particular facility to take care of the neighbouring communities up to Rumuola, Rumuolumeni and all the surrounding areas.

“Today, to the glory of God, we can see that the project is already completed. It is not 95 per cent complete, it is a hundred per cent completion,” he added.

Meanwhile, Aspirants seeking a ticket of the All Progressives Congress for the Rivers State House of Assembly who submitted appeals after their screening last weekend are waiting with bated breath for the outcome of the appeal.

Meanwhile, the APC assembly screening appeal committee, headed by Dr Abdul Mahmud, concluded its two-day sitting on Wednesday evening.

Mahmud, who had promised that the committee would attend to all petitions until 5pm on Wednesday, commended the aspirants for their peaceful conduct.

The number of petitions received by the committee could not be ascertained as of the time of filing this report.

As of Tuesday, when the panel chairman briefed the media, he said 19 petitions had been received, adding that it would sit until 5pm on Friday to receive more from other aspirants.

When our correspondent visited the APC Secretariat along Aba Road at about 6pm on Wednesday, the place was still slightly busy, but it was gathered that the committee had concluded its sitting and left.

The state APC spokesman, Chibike Ikenga, who was seen driving out of the secretariat, confirmed that the panel had concluded its report, adding that it would disclose its findings in due course.

When contacted, one of the aspirants who submitted an appeal, Gogo Isaiah, said he appeared before the panel with the necessary documents requested.

“So I am waiting for the panel to make its report public,” he stated.

On Tuesday, Mahmud had warned aspirants to stop sending him congratulatory messages.

He condemned the conduct of one of the disqualified aspirants, Mr Tonye Tom-George, whom the APC screening committee accused of attempting to bribe members during the screening.

Recall that Tom-George, while reacting to the allegations by the screening committee chairman, Muraina Ajibola, called for proof.

Mahmud, however, expressed shock that the same aspirant sent him a message to congratulate him on his appointment to the state APC House of Assembly appeal panel.

Answering questions from newsmen in Port Harcourt, Mahmud, who noted that aside from Tom-George, he received similar messages from other aspirants, said such messages were not necessary as he was in the state for serious business.

Mahmud said such salutations and pleasantries had the possibility of leaving an impression on the mind of a panelist.

Mahmud stated, “I need to say this, and it has become a malaise in our country.

“You know judges are sitting over matters, litigants will go behind the judges, seek their telephone number and begin to send text messages, good morning, sir. I hope you slept well.

“Even where, in the face of it is not an attempt to influence the judge, but you’re putting yourself in the face of the judge.

“And I think we should discourage Nigerians from doing that. I have received communications from appellants who are to appear before me, congratulating me on my appointment.

“I have received a WhatsApp message from him. That is Mr Tom-George, telling me good morning, congratulations on my appointment. Those things are not necessary.

“I think we should discourage ourselves from some of these things.”