Last week, a report emerged that President Bola Tinubu has empowered 31 governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to decide the fate of aspirants in their states ahead of the 2027 general election.
Tinubu said this was necessary to preserve the party’s unity and cohesion ahead of the poll next year.
The development followed Tinubu’s closed-door meeting with governors under the platform of the ruling APC.
DAILY POST reported that Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, and Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, along Niger State governor, Mohammed Bago, addressed newsmen after the meeting with the president, saying deliberations focused on measures to forge a stronger and more cohesive party after the party primaries.
The governors stated that Tinubu reaffirmed his support for the APC decision to allow states adopt either consensus or direct primaries in line with the Electoral Act.
“We came to thank the president for his magnanimity and his support to the governors and for our party, the APC.
“He gave us a matching order on what to do for him,” AbdulRazak said.
The governor also added that the president “ceded his executive power to the governors to go ahead and conduct primaries based on the Electoral Act, either through consensus or direct primaries”.
DAILY POST gathered that top members of the National Assembly had met with the president at the Villa, pleading for automatic tickets for their colleagues.
However, Tinubu insisted that the governor of each state has the influence over aspirants.
DAILY POST reports that the development is now causing unease in the APC, with deepening anxiety among some federal lawmakers, especially those not in the good books of their governors.
However, a member of the House of Representatives from the South-East, who spoke to DAILY POST in confidence, said there is still time to resolve any concerns regarding the fate of lawmakers.
According to the lawmaker, internal party mechanisms still provide room to address grievances before the primaries are concluded.
He added that it would be premature to conclude that lawmakers have been sidelined or treated unfairly, stressing that a clearer assessment can only be made after the primary process is completed.
He said: “Our party just released a revised timetable for the primaries. There’s still time to sought out all issues.
“Yes, the issue of automatic tickets influenced a lot of actions in the National Assembly. We had this thinking that cooperation with the executive would naturally translate into political security.
“Although the reality on ground is seemingly different, and some are beginning to question those assumptions, just like I said, we still have time to get all issues thrashed.
“As it stands, I can’t say for now that we have been sidelined or unfairly treated until the primaries are over.”
Lawmakers living in regret – Sumner Sambo
Meanwhile, Sumner Sambo, Political Editor at Arise News, disclosed recently that some federal lawmakers are expressing regret over their political decisions ahead of the elections.
Speaking on The Morning Show on Arise Television on Monday, Sambo stated that many politicians had relied on expectations of automatic tickets rather than participating in party primaries.
According to him, the situation has been influenced by perceived political obligations surrounding President Bola Tinubu, with some lawmakers believing their support for government policies would secure them party nominations.
He noted that some of the affected lawmakers have privately admitted that they would not have defected if they had known automatic tickets would not be guaranteed.
Sambo said the lawmakers had backed executive proposals in the National Assembly with the expectation of receiving automatic tickets, but are now facing a different reality.
Sambo said: “This is the sort of politics that we are seeing, including the government, that people are fighting for automatic ticket instead of going to go and face their party member through direct primaries to get tickets.
“Everybody is counting on the president and because of that President Tinubu have a whole lot of ‘I Owe You’ (IOUs) to politicians, but he himself is beginning to discover that he cannot do it alone, the forces of the governors will pull him down.
“The federal lawmakers counting on President Tinubu to get the automatic tickets have now come to the reality that until they serve the Nigerian people whatever they’ve done in the past three years has been in vain.
“The thinking was that every bill that President Tinubu brings to the National Assembly they will push it in its favour because he was going to grant them automatic ticket.
“Now, if you look at what has happened, they are all living in regret.
“Many of them I have been speaking with, they keep telling me that if they had known that they were not going to be given this, they wouldn’t even have defected into the APC, because that’s what they were promised.”
Tinubu’s directive undermines democracy — Analyst
In a chat with DAILY POST, a communication expert at Peaceland University, Enugu, Nduka Odo, criticised the directive by President Tinubu empowering governors to determine aspirants in the APC, describing it as a threat to democratic principles.
He said the move, though appearing orderly, raises concerns about the erosion of the people’s will in the candidate selection process.
Odo questioned whether a system where governors decide who contests can still be regarded as democratic.
He warned that the development also suggests that governors’ political futures may be tied to the president’s approval.
According to him, any governor who deviates from the president’s position risks losing the party’s ticket.
He added that such an arrangement could further tighten control within the party hierarchy.
The analyst noted that provisions of the Electoral Act limiting party defection at this stage make the situation more restrictive for affected politicians.
He said: “The directive from Mr. President to political aspirants in his party seems like an orderly procedure, but that clearly shows you how low democracy has fallen in this country.
“If he hands the fate of aspirants to the governors, where will the will of people be? If he tells aspirants that it’s only whoever the governors designate to contest that the party will recognise, tell me, is that democracy?
“The darker side of it is that he is indirectly announcing that the fate of the governors also rests with him, the president. It means that any governor who deviates from his directives will lose APC ticket.
“As you know, the new Electoral Act prohibits a change of party at this point. If you fall out of favour, you fall out of the election.
“Engineering tight situations like this is the reason I’ve said before that Tinubu is masterfully crafty in politics, even though that has not shown in his recent governance itself.
“I once opined before he contested for presidency that almost all former governors would like to possess that level of control Tinubu had over Lagos.
“The power to “jagaban in and jagaban out” anyone on any political office. This power would have spelt good if it engineered people-oriented policies.
“At this point, when individuals are powered to determine who contests or not, our political institutions will deteriorate further.
“Hopefully, some day, our political system will see the lights.”
2027: APC NASS members walk tightrope as Tinubu backs govs on primaries
