By Alabi Williams
Vice President Kashim Shettima is, perhaps, the only sober politician in the All Progressives Congress (APC), at the moment. Everyone else appears too busy, plotting survival strategies.
Operating on the sidelines, the office of the Vice President might offer a clearer radar to put things into perspective, while others are jostling. If the officer is given to reading, as Shettima is advertised, he could hide behind the muse to make sensitive declarations and not be liable.
That seemed to be his preoccupation as the APC went into primaries. Shettima wrote partisans not to destroy their party, in an essay he titled: 2027: Don’t pull down the roof. The essay didn’t read rebellious, yet the metaphor is not lost. The VP appealed to members to ensure that the house remains habitable after the elections, even though some rooms would be warmer than the others. For the VP, who is himself not too certain about what 2027 holds, his appeal conveyed nuanced feelings.
The signs were clear from the onset that the APC primaries would be anything but free and fair. President Bola Tinubu had rewarded state governors with the responsibility to manage primaries in their states. Many governors preferred to impose candidates rather than allow party members to choose their representatives. Some governors from day one, hijacked the expression of interest and nomination forms, which they administered only to their loyalists.
Shettima himself was reported to have lost the horse-trading over who should take over from Governor Babagana Zulum in Borno. The VP’s choice, as reported, was turned down for Zulum’s preferred choice, Mustapha Gubio, who got the ticket last week. The VP had stoically retraced his steps, knowing that it was the governors’ game. After all, when he was governor, he enjoyed the privilege to single-handedly nominate Zulum as his successor.
So, in a sense, letting governors take charge has been a tradition, if only governors understand and apply the meaning of free and fair. There is however a contradiction, which is that the opportunity given to governors to manage primaries in their states is denied the governor of Lagos State. Since 2007, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the sole manager of elections in Lagos State. He also selects the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly. He equally oversees local government elections in the state, through proxies.
Shettima said that the season of party primaries is a delicate one, declaring that members should handle themselves with candour and restraint. He stated that: “We must remind ourselves that a political party is not a battlefield. It is a family. And even in the most spirited family, the roof must never be pulled down because one room appears warmer than another.”
The VP knows that party primaries and elections in the country are a matter of do or die. If members are not well guarded, the primaries could become avenues to tear the party into factions. He gave assurance to members that there is room for all if the game is played freely and fairly. Looking at what has transpired, it appears that not many party members read the VP’s message.
The imposition of candidates and disruption of procedures for primaries have left members contemplating how to escape from the electoral trap. Working in cahoots with the National Assembly and INEC, the APC delivered electoral laws that have got everybody trapped. The opposition is split and unable to put their acts together. The APC primaries are turning out to be the worst since 1999. They have set a poor standard for 2027, very disorganised and chaotic.
In Lagos, apart from broken skulls and bloodied noses at different locations, the most revealing democratic disaster occurred in Surulere Constituency 1, where the Chief of Staff to President Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila presides. He told a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Desmond Elliot, that his services would no longer be needed after May 29, 2027.
Gbajabiamila did not lament that Eliott performed poorly as a lawmaker. The constituents of Surulere 1 did not send a petition to recall their representative. The Chief of Staff only said President Tinubu had not forgiven Elliot for participating in the coup that briefly ousted Speaker Mudashiru Obasa on January 13, 2025, by an overwhelming majority of members.
On that occasion, the House elected a new Speaker, Mojisola Meranda, but 49 days later, President Tinubu reversed the decision of the House. Obasa returned valiantly, waving a court judgment that claimed the Legislature was on recess at the time the coup was staged. As if to declare that the House cannot summon an emergency meeting anytime there are weighty matters to decide.
If between 32 and 36 members voted to oust Obasa, how did that become the headache of one man, Desmond Eliot, for which the Chief of Staff nearly lost his job? Why should a President with so much on his table, still have time to worry about Elliot? Why should President Tinubu carry a grudge of more than one year after he nullified the action of the Lagos lawmakers?
Whereas, VP Shettima, in his essay counseled that “power is something to be negotiated, contested, persuaded, and earned,” in the President’s backyard, power is handed from the top, not negotiated by constituents. Whatever primary that took place in Surulere Constituency 1, was just an academic exercise. Elliot was intimidated out of the race and substituted with another candidate. If there are concerns, they are not about Elliot. That’s how they roll. The concerns are for democracy. It is instructive that Governor Sanwo-Olu is more of a spectator in Lagos APC primaries. He doesn’t operate the levers.
In Delta State, popular Senator Ned Nwoko is frantically explaining how he was displaced in the Delta North primaries. Nwoko was originally elected to the Senate on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He later abandoned the PDP for APC. Now, those who later left PDP to join him in APC, including Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and former governor, Ifeanyin Okowa, have gained upper hand in the primaries. Nwoko is praying that President Tinubu will look into his case.
When it becomes the responsibility of Mr. President to intervene in primaries across the country, that’s no longer democracy. It is Baba so pe. A Lagos slang, meaning, the leader has spoken.
Former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantanmi, said he had to quit to contest for APC governorship primary in Gombe State, citing irregularities in the party’s selection processes and violation of sections of the Electoral Act 2026.
In a statement issued on behalf of Pantamiyya Movement, by Barrister Ibrahim Attahir, the former minister said he bowed out due to concerns over the credibility of the process, and against blatant failure of the party to implement the framework outlined for a credible direct primary.
He lamented that details of venue, procedure, agents and observer accreditation were not made available to his team. Despite protests, the party ignored him and went on with the primary. Pantami has told his group, made up of youths who reportedly contributed money to purchase the expression of interest and nomination forms for him to remain peaceful. The Pantamiyya Movement would communicate its next political steps to supporters, it noted.
In Ogun East Senatorial District, serving Senator Gbenga Daniel, also had to quit the race. The former governor said he had to abandon the contest due to what his group referred to as credible threats of violence directed at his political base. The explicit security concerns were allegedly linked to agents of the state government. At the end of the day, Governor Dapo Abiodun snatched the ticket to represent Ogun East and APC in next year’s NASS election.
The case with Rivers State is always pathetic for Governor Siminalayi Fubara, who said he withdrew from the governorship primary, not out of weakness, fear, surrender, but for the sake of peace. Whereas governors are declared by President Tinubu as the kingmakers in their states, here is Fubara, surrendering his constitutional right for a second term to procure peace.
Clearly, Fubara was sidelined for the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike’s preferred candidates. This amounts to handing over the next set of leaders in Rivers to Wike. This is also not democracy but the rule of two men, Wike and President Tinubu.
In Oyo State, former Power Minister, Adebayo Adelabu, is leaking his wounds, after he was trounced in the governorship primary by Senator Sarafadeen Ali, by a very intimidating and suspicious margin. Alli polled 578,143 votes to Adelabu’s 19,193 votes. Adelabu has alleged irregularities and manipulation against him.
Apart from the shambolic primaries, the APC carried out screening exercises across states to weed out certain aspirants in disputed disqualifications.
Some aspirants are threatening to seek legal redress. They are demanding explanations for the actions of the screening committees that whimsically decided those who were fit to participate in the primaries.
A certain APC Forum in the North-Central has disputed the conduct of the screening committee, claiming the process was commercialised by APC national officers. The Forum Chairman, Saleh Zazzaga, alleged that most of those disqualified were aspirants who did not dance to the tune of the party’s national officers and the cronies they selected to carry out the screening exercise.
President Tinubu said he is satisfied with the governors’ handling of the primaries. The national Chairman of the APC, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, said the President is very happy with the outcome, which shows their party’s broad penetration and acceptance within the country. It is hoped that VP Shettima will review the process and write another essay.
What cannot be denied is that the primaries were designed to keep some members outside the roof. Governors and some privileged national officers, including lawmakers benefited. But APC may not have the last laugh.
Last Thursday, Justice M.G. Umar of the FCT High Court ruled that INEC was wrong to set dates for primaries, submission of candidates and parties’ membership register, outside the timelines provided in the Electoral Act. If the ruling stands, APC could unravel.