The All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party, is seeing internal strife as it attempts to woo prominent defectors back into its fold in preparation for the general elections in 2027.
Concerns about displacement have prompted pushback in some states, including Kano, Plateau, Delta, Enugu, and Osun. According to Saturday Vanguard, long-serving APC supporters have warned that newcomers may take over party institutions if given access without explicit power-sharing agreements.
Ovie Omo-Agege’s erstwhile supporters in Delta frequently use their personal story as an example to others. According to them, Omo-Agege’s side has taken a back seat ever since Governor Sheriff Oborevwori switched parties from the PDP to the APC.
Kano: The specter of Kwankwaso, Ganduje’s evasions
Moves to court former Kano governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso have agitated party heavyweights, making an already unstable situation even worse. The current leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Kwankwaso, has made it clear that he will only return to the APC if his influential Kwankwasiyya movement is completely integrated into it.
According to an anonymous NNPP source in Kano, “the truth is that he doesn’t want to repeat the mistake of the past where he moved back to the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and even the position of vice chairman was not conceded to his group.” Unfortunately, Kwankwaso is now heading straight into conflict with Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje’s (immediate-past APC National Chairman) adherents, who are adamant about maintaining the party’s structure. There is concern among Ganduje’s supporters that his protégé, Governor Abba Yusuf, would assume leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano upon Kwankwaso’s return.
In Abuja, Ganduje called a strategy meeting on September 25 with a number of prominent figures, including Senator Barau Jibrin, who is the Deputy President of the Senate; Senator Abdulrahman Kawu Ismaila, who had just defected from the NNPP to the APC; Senator Basheer Lado; and Abdullahi Abbas, the Chairman of the APC in Kano. Former Governor Kabiru Gaya was also present.
After the meeting, Ganduje spoke on how important it was for APC stakeholders in Kano State to get together, assess the party’s health, and reassure the president that the party’s support in Kano is unwavering. We have kept our party together and even recruited prominent members from other parties as a result of the president’s actions. If we want to win the next governor’s race in Kano State, we’re going to have to keep working really hard.
Assiwaju Bola Tinubu, the president, has performed admirably, Senator Jibrin reaffirmed. We carefully recorded all of the president’s appointments. Because we have never once asked him to do anything that he did not already do for us, we are completely behind him. As interested parties, we have decided to return home and urge our people to keep supporting Mr. President.
According to party insiders, Ganduje’s camp is extremely concerned that only Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau may keep his Senate ticket if the Kwankwasiyya movement joined the APC. Not everyone in the Ganduje group stands to gain. Someone close to the APC explained that the many objections stem from this particular permutation.
The romance of Mbah and the downfall of a minister in Enugu
Even if Geoffrey Nnaji’s camp was shaken by overtures from national APC officials to Governor Peter Mbah in Enugu, President Tinubu’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation recently calmed the storm.
According to sources, Nnaji’s academic records became a contentious issue, and he resigned on October 7, all stemming from internal strife that began with concerns about displacement. In the wake of Nnaji’s departure from the president’s cabinet, the governor eventually joined the APC.
Osun is
Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun was met with strong opposition from the camp of his predecessor, Adegboyega Oyetola, who is now Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, due to speculation that Adeleke could switch to the APC following his meeting with President Tinubu. The APC structure in Osun is held by Oyetola’s followers, who are still against Adeleke’s potential entrance because they fear it will make them lose power.
High point
A new storm is forming within the State chapter of the APC in Plateau state, where Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda resides as national chairman. The reason behind this is that there are reports of certain “traditional” party members banding together to oppose what is being portrayed as an attempt by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governor Caleb Mutfwang to switch allegiances to the ruling party in the run-up to the 2027 elections.
The resistance, spearheaded by powerful members of the grassroots and some who are seen as loyal to Prof. Yilwatda, is already causing divisions inside the party. Some worry that this internal strife would derail President Tinubu’s plan to win the North Central region back in 2027.
The Plateau faction seems to be going in a different direction, stating that the APC should not “reward those who fought against it” in the last election, while President Tinubu and the APC national leadership have been subtly working toward a wide-ranging reconciliation with opposition governors across the country as part of the president’s “Renewed Hope” political outreach.
Governor Mutfwang is at the center of the debate. He is now involved in legal battles and has strained connections with certain PDP heavyweights. However, there are reports that strategists from the ruling APC in Abuja have been courting him to switch parties.
If he were to switch, insiders say it would do wonders for Tinubu’s North Central political base, which has been struggling since the APC’s 2023 loss in the state.
Nevertheless, there has been strong resistance within the Plateau APC. Allegedly, a motion was made and approved to prohibit the governor from becoming a member of the APC at a stakeholders’ meeting that took place last Friday in Jos and was led by Prof. Nentawe, according to sources close to the state leadership.
Those who support Tinubu’s administration have been vocal in their disapproval of the resolution, which they regard as an attack on his inclusive national approach.
Pro-Tinubu political group Renewed Hope Advocates of Nigeria (RHAN) issued a sharply worded statement accusing Prof. Nentawe of letting his personal concerns from his 2023 electoral setback determine the party’s policy. The group’s National Coordinator, Comrade Prince Miaphen, criticized the decision to block Mutfwang as “reckless, self-serving and politically suicidal,” and he warned that the APC could lose votes in 2027 because to political divisions in Plateau.
How is it that Plateau APC is closing doors while the president is bridging party lines? It demonstrates a worrying detachment from national realities to prevent a sitting governor with more than two million registered voters from becoming an APC member, he argued.
Accusing the party chairman of “jealously guarding the 2027 ticket” and “still nursing bitterness from his 2023 loss,” Miaphen implied that Yilwatda’s stance could be driven by his desire to become governor. In addition to intra-party politics, the issue has brought to light a more fundamental ideological divide within the Plateau APC, which exists between the party’s original, grassroots-affiliated “traditional” members and a younger, Abuja-aligned faction that advocates for a more inclusive and pragmatic strategy.
Veteran group
People who support Tinubu think that politics is all about timing and numbers, while the old guard says that adopting Mutfwang would be betraying those who struggled for the party. “Sentiment or revenge politics cannot guarantee Tinubu’s victory in 2027,” voiced a party chieftain.
“Expansion is necessary, even if it implies reuniting with old enemies.”
The Plateau drama, according to observers, reflects a perennial problem inside the APC: how to appease both the president’s national coalition plan and party loyalists who are committed to the party’s original structures.
Reportedly, other states are also experiencing similar issues as they court opposition figures in preparation for 2027.
The APC national secretariat is under increasing pressure to step in as the matter continues to heat up.
To prevent Yilwatda’s supporters from “playing local politics with national stakes,” RHAN has already requested that President Tinubu intervene directly.
It would be irresponsible to let pride and animosity dictate how the Plateau problem is handled. According to Miaphen, the president’s re-election strategy is based on inclusivity rather than exclusion.
Political observers in Jos claim that the rumor has highlighted the fracture lines within the Plateau APC, a party still fighting to restore unity following its 2023 loss. While Governor Mutfwang has not openly confirmed any defection plans, the speculation has done so. Prof. Yilwatda has not yet addressed the media’s questions as of the report’s filing date.
In states where foundation members are resisting defectors, “power sharing is at the core of the crisis,” according to party officials.
All the way from Delta to Kano, Enugu to Osun, the dread of being politically displaced by new arrivals with incumbency advantages is a prevalent thread.
The situation is widespread, affecting more than simply Kano state, according to an APC insider.
Not only in the ruling APC party, but also in the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC), where members of the party’s foundation are actively working to undermine the party at all levels, from the national to the ward.
Managing internal disputes that could establish who actually controls the APC’s structures until 2027, rather than beating the opposition, may prove to be the party’s greatest problem with only two years to go until the next general election.
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