Bola Tinubu has secured the All Progressives Congress’s presidential nomination for the 2027 general election by an overwhelming margin, pulling nearly 11 million votes in the party’s first-ever direct presidential primary — a contest that underscored both his grip on the ruling party and the scale of the electoral apparatus he will deploy to seek a second term.
The final count, announced on Sunday at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja, showed the incumbent president polling 10,999,162 votes against his sole challenger, Stanley Osifo, who managed 16,503. Pius Anyim, chairman of the presidential primary elections committee, confirmed that 11,015,665 votes were cast across 8,809 wards nationwide — a logistical exercise conducted on a single Saturday.
Tinubu, clearly moved, told a gathering of governors, lawmakers, and party grandees that he had spent much of election day watching the results pour in from his Lagos ward. “I was glued to the television after voting,” he said. “I saw the mammoth crowd in Kano and Kaduna. It was a good feeling to see there was no bloodshed, no rancour.”
The president acknowledged, with unusual candour, the toll that his government’s sweeping economic reforms — including the controversial removal of fuel subsidies — have taken on ordinary Nigerians. “If you lost sleep, I’ve lost some too. If you’ve lost weight, I’ve lost some too,” he said. “But I’ve always remembered one thing: in 2022, I asked for this job.”
As evidence of progress, Tinubu cited the disbursement of over ₦282bn in student loans to 1.5 million beneficiaries, the installation of 2.5 million electricity meters, and what he claimed was a 50% increase in peak power generation — to 6,000 megawatts — compared with the level his administration inherited.
On security, an issue that has dogged his presidency, Tinubu offered reassurances while calling on the National Assembly to move quickly on constitutional amendments permitting state-level police forces. “We will not rest until we restore peace and stability to every corner of our country,” he said.
The primary was itself a product of the Electoral Act 2026, which Tinubu signed into law in February, mandating parties hold either direct or consensus primaries — eliminating the more opaque delegate-based model that had previously prevailed. Supporters credited him with engineering a more transparent process; critics noted the result was never seriously in doubt.
Osifo, who had zero recorded votes in at least 12 states including Kogi, Borno and Kaduna, was phlegmatic in defeat. “We are one party, we are one family,” he told reporters. “I’m a very young man. I have a lot of years ahead of me.”
APC national chairman Prof Nentawe Yilwatda used the occasion to issue a sweeping challenge to the opposition. “No other party would win the election,” he said, dismissing circulating footage purportedly showing irregularities during the primaries as videos from unrelated events. “If you check all our activities, we have our flags, our banners, and people raising their membership cards. In those videos, you cannot see any APC banner anywhere.”
The party acknowledged that a reconciliation committee, headed by Yobe state governor Mai Mala Buni, was working to address grievances arising from the week-long primary process, which also encompassed House of Representatives, Senate, state assembly, and governorship contests.
