President Bola Tinubu secured the All Progressives Congress presidential ticket for the 2027 election on Saturday, May 23, winning an overwhelming mandate at the party's nationwide direct primary that saw over 10.9 million votes cast in his favour across Nigeria's 8,809 wards.
The scale of victory left little room for doubt. Tinubu polled 10,999,162 votes out of 12,643,306 registered party voters who participated in the exercise. His sole challenger, Stanley Osifo, received 16,503 votes. Pius Anyim, chairman of the APC Presidential Primaries Election Committee, announced the results at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja and formally declared Tinubu the party's standard bearer for the 2027 general election.
National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda handed Tinubu the APC flag and certificate of return, setting the stage for another presidential contest less than a year away. The ceremony brought together party faithful from across the country, from Lagos to the remote corners of the North-East, in what party officials described as a show of coordinated support.
Tinubu used the moment to acknowledge the pain Nigerians have endured under his administration's reforms, particularly the removal of fuel subsidy and the foreign exchange adjustments introduced in 2023. "Sometimes it is difficult, and I share the pain with you," he told supporters. "I know what it is to reform an economy that was in tatters. If you lost sleep, I lost some too. If you have lost weight, I think I have lost some too."
The President framed his second-term bid as a referendum on his administration's reform agenda. He said winning the APC ticket gave him fresh encouragement to continue the work he started. "You have given me the encouragement," he said, reminding party members that he had asked for the job in 2022 and they had supported him. "I got it, so I must do it," he added.
Looking ahead, Tinubu painted a picture of what another four years under his leadership would deliver. He promised to use discipline, focus, and national cooperation to place Nigeria on an "irreversible path of economic expansion, industrialisation, energy security, infrastructural development, food sovereignty and democratic consolidation." Security featured prominently in his remarks, with Tinubu acknowledging the challenges posed by attacks and banditry in parts of the country and pledging to take seriously his responsibility of safeguarding lives.
The primary election marks the formal beginning of the APC's campaign push toward 2027. With Tinubu's candidacy now settled, the party will shift focus to mobilizing voters and defending his first-term record as Nigeria heads toward what promises to be a keenly contested presidential race.
