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APC North Central rejected Wednesday calls for sitting governors seeking second terms to face primary elections ahead of 2027 polls, arguing that subjecting incumbents to nomination contests would disrespect the office, destabilize the party, and hand advantages to opposition rivals.
The North-Central All Progressives Congress Forum described governors as the party’s “biggest assets” and insisted they should receive automatic nomination for re-election—upholding what it characterized as established precedent since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999. The position directly contradicts APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda, who recently declared there would be no automatic tickets for governors or other officeholders seeking another term, signaling plans to open nominations even in states with incumbent executives.
In a statement signed by Chairman Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga and released Thursday, the forum warned that compelling governors to undergo primaries could create “disunity and crisis” by emboldening challengers motivated more by disruption than genuine electoral ambition. “It will amount to serious disrespect to the Office of the Governor,” the statement said. “The biggest assets the party has are the President and the state governors. Allowing anyone to contest against them in primaries is not only disrespectful but also undermines the well-being of the party.”
The forum cited President Muhammadu Buhari’s unopposed 2019 renomination and the absence of challenges against returning APC governors that cycle as proof that automatic tickets represent normal practice rather than exception. “We recall that in 2019, nobody contested the APC primary with the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, and returning APC governors also went unopposed,” Zazzaga’s statement said. “Why should that change now?”
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Yilwatda’s recent declaration that sitting governors must face primaries marks a departure from informal norms that have governed Nigerian party politics for decades, during which incumbents at presidential and gubernatorial levels rarely faced serious nomination fights when seeking constitutionally permitted second terms. While parties technically require primaries for all elective positions under Electoral Act provisions, enforcement has been lax and state executives wielding control over party machinery typically engineered unanimous or near-unanimous delegate support that discouraged challengers from contesting.
The North-Central forum argued that abandoning that accommodation would invite opportunistic candidates who enter primaries not to win nomination but to weaken incumbents before general elections or position themselves for future patronage by demonstrating nuisance value. “We are calling on the National Executive Committee of the APC to urgently reconsider this idea,” the statement said. “It will create disunity and crisis in the party because some people will come out just to cause confusion.”
More ominously, the forum suggested opposition parties could plant candidates in APC primaries specifically to campaign against incumbents and damage their standing with voters even if the challengers had no realistic path to defeating sitting governors who control state resources, security forces, and administrative apparatus. “Even the opposition parties can plant people who will come into the primaries just to campaign against the incumbent governors in a bid to weaken APC’s chances of victory,” the forum warned. “Allowing party members to challenge a sitting governor in a primary election could destabilise the party, create bad blood and division, and present opportunities for the opposition in the main election. So we are totally against such a plan.”
The position reflects anxiety among party factions aligned with current governors that Yilwatda—who himself plans to contest Plateau State’s 2027 gubernatorial election after losing the 2023 race to incumbent Governor Caleb Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party, may use his national chairmanship to weaken rivals or settle scores with governors who did not support his appointment. The North-Central forum has repeatedly clashed with Yilwatda since he assumed the chairmanship in July 2025, accusing him of pursuing personal political ambitions at the expense of party unity and regional interests.
In November, the same forum demanded Yilwatda’s resignation, alleging he was blocking efforts to convince Mutfwang to defect from the PDP to the APC because such a move would complicate Yilwatda’s 2027 rematch bid. “The national chairman wants to contest Plateau State governorship election again in 2027, that’s why he is blocking Governor Caleb Mutfwang from joining the party,” the forum said at the time, urging APC leaders to review his appointment.
The forum clarified Thursday that primaries should occur in states where governors have completed their constitutionally limited two terms and new administrations will take office regardless of party preferences. “In situations where a governor has rounded off his term and a new administration is coming in, a primary election is necessary, but not when a governor is going for a second term,” the statement said—a distinction that preserves competitive processes for open seats while insulating incumbents from internal challenges.
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The group also rejected calls from former APC Deputy National Chairman Yekini Nabena and other party figures for the National Working Committee to avoid ceding state party structures to incumbent governors ahead of nationwide congresses scheduled for later this year. Nabena warned Wednesday that allowing governors to control structures from ward to state levels would alienate grassroots members and weaken local engagement by concentrating power in executive hands at the expense of legislators, traditional rulers, business leaders, and other stakeholders whose support parties require beyond government officeholders.
But the North-Central forum insisted governors already function as de facto party leaders in their states regardless of formal organizational charts, and attempting to alter that reality would trigger resistance that produces crisis rather than democratization. “The governors are the leaders of the party in every state, and the structure of the party rests with them,” Thursday’s statement said. “Any decision that alters the status quo will only lead to anarchy because the governors will resist it, and the result will be crisis.”
The warning carried implicit threat that governors who control state budgets, award contracts, distribute patronage appointments, and influence security deployments possess sufficient leverage to sabotage national leadership that challenges their prerogatives—making confrontation counterproductive even if democratic principles favor more open processes. Nigerian governors wield enormous power within their states, operating as near-absolute authorities who face limited checks from weak legislatures, pliant judiciaries, and federal governments that depend on state executives to deliver votes and maintain stability in regions beyond direct Abuja control.
Whether Yilwatda will retreat from his position on mandatory primaries or proceed despite regional opposition remains uncertain. The APC faces delicate balancing ahead of 2027 as it seeks to retain states currently under party control while expanding into opposition strongholds—objectives that require both incumbent governor strength and credible reform messaging to voters frustrated by poor governance and economic hardship under APC rule at federal and state levels.
