2027 tensions: APC kingmakers scramble to quell state-level uprisings

Despite holding power at the centre and across 23 states, the ruling All Progressives Congress is battling widening cracks within its ranks as bitter factional struggles, allegations of imposition, and unresolved leadership tussles threaten to undermine its cohesion ahead of the 2027 general elections.

From Lagos to Rivers, Delta to Bayelsa, Benue and Akwa Ibom, multiple state chapters of the APC are in turmoil — forcing the party’s national leadership to step in amid fears that the internal wranglings could jeopardise its political dominance.

The APC has been grappling with internal divisions that threaten its stability ahead of the 2027 general elections.

This comes despite recent high-profile defections of influential opposition figures, including governors, into the ruling party’s fold.

Fresh concerns are emerging over the possible defection of long-time APC members, particularly loyalists from the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party and Congress for Progressive Change amid mounting power tussles in key states and pressure from a reenergised opposition coalition led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

The recent resignation of Abdullahi Ganduje as national chairman has only compounded the party’s leadership crisis, especially in Kano, where political tensions continue to rise. Meanwhile, factional battles have crippled APC chapters in states like Benue, Rivers, and Lagos.

There is also increasing speculation about a brewing rift between President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, despite public attempts to present a united front, including the recent appointment of Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda as the new APC national chairman.

But APC Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, stated that the ruling party was not experiencing crisis, adding that the situations in some states are normal and not beyond the party’s capacity to resolve through internal reconciliation.

Ibrahim added that the ruling party had strong machinery of party stalwarts that resolve internal party crisis.

Multiple sources told The PUNCH that influential members in the party have been reaching out to help resolve issues across the state chapters.

“We have members who have been talking to some of these factions, these are party bigwigs, call them kingmakers if you like, who are working to ensure that the party operates under a peaceful atmosphere ahead of 2027. They’ve been brokering peace across the party,” one of our sources said.

Amid the APC’s grip on Lagos State governance structures, the party is in a war with itself.

Earlier this year, the state House of Assembly, which has 39 APC members out of the 40-member legislative house, was embroiled in a deep leadership crisis, with some faction of lawmakers in the House removing the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, who was later returned to the seat following the intervention of the national leaders of the party, including President Bola Tinubu.

The crisis that rocked the assembly between January and March was believed to have a factional undertone as the party’s highest decision-making body, the Governance Advisory Council, could not resolve the crisis on its own.

In the Lagos APC, there are two camps, namely the Justice Forum and the Mandate.

Last week, some members of the APC in the state moved to sack the state party chairman, Cornelius Ojelabi, over unresolved issues since the party’s primaries in May – the period leading to the July 12 local government elections.

The members took to the state House of Assembly last Monday to protest against Ojelabi over alleged imposition and bias, and attempt to filter them out from the local council administration slots.

However, the chairman described the aggrieved members’ allegations as baseless.

He told The PUNCH “I am not bothered” by the protest of the aggrieved members, whom he said had no grassroots relevance.

A member of Governor’s Advisory Council, the powerful political machinery created by Tinubu, Chief Muraina Taiwo, backed the call for the chairman’s sacking saying Ojelabi was only loyal to a faction of the party in the state – the Justice Forum – sidelining the Mandate group and other factions.

“What I know is that party stalwarts are not happy with the party chairman, most especially. The opinion is that they believe he is a Justice Forum member, and he is not trying to balance things. It is obvious in his dealings that he belongs to a faction,” Taiwo stated.

“Out of all the 57 local governments, check, the whole council, all Justice Forum’s members, through the state chairman’s directive, took all the slots for councillors. If they don’t change before the 2027 elections, things will be worse.

“He does not have experience. It was with a fight that we (the Mandate group) took 20 slots for the chairman from them. So, if they want us to win the 2027 elections, they should remove that chairman.”

After the party’s LG primary in May, there were protests in several councils by aggrieved APC members who alleged the imposition of candidates for the LG poll.

One of the protesting groups in Agege, believed to be another faction known as the Presidential Campaign Council, locked horns with Speaker Obasa and his group over the results of the party’s primaries.

The spokesperson for the PCC, Adetunji Akinyemi, flanked by the group’s chairman, Sabitu Kamorudeen, alleged that “The political climate in Agege and Orile-Agege is uniquely troubling. For over a decade, a carefully orchestrated structure dominated by the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, has monopolised power.”

The crisis in the Lagos APC doesn’t seem to be ending soon, as the call for the sacking of the party’s chairman became loud just a day after local government chairmen, vice chairmen and councillors were sworn in by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the Lagos House in Ikeja.