2027: Despite Endorsing Tinubu, APC Throws Presidential Ticket Open

Despite adopting President Bola Tinubu as its sole presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has disclosed plans to throw open the contest for its ticket to members of the party.

The National Working Committee (NWC) of APC had declared Tinubu as the party’s sole candidate for the 2027 general election during the party’s National Summit held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on May 22, 2025.

Also at the summit, the Progressive Governors Forum and the party’s lawmakers in the National Assembly formally endorsed Tinubu as their sole candidate ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

The then APC chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje who spoke on behalf of the NWC had declared, “As the only body which has the power to field any candidate, I hereby affirmed the various endorsements and declared President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the sole presidential candidate of APC.”

However, speaking with journalists at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday, APC National Organising Secretary, Sulaiman Argungu said the party will not shut its doors on members who want to buy presidential forms.

Argungu stated this while responding to the question on if the APC would emulate the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which printed only one form and reserved it for the then President Goodluck Jonathan to contest as its sole presidential aspirant in October 2014.

“It will be the wish of the party, and we, the NWC of the party, have already endorsed President Tinubu as the next presidential candidate of the party. And by extension, other organs have equally done the same thing.

“Governors in the states have done the same too. It has also been replicated in all six geographical zones of the country. But it does not mean that the door is closed.

“We will definitely not close our doors. When the time comes, our timetable will be made known. Anybody who wants to aspire for the presidency under APC will not be denied the opportunity to purchase the Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms to exercise their franchise.

“We never said we had locked the door. We are only telling people that we appreciate what the President is doing for the people of the country and that he deserves a second term in office when we roundly endorsed him recently,” he noted.