Newscenter Media News 
The North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Forum, has rejected calls that governors should go through primary elections before getting the party’s ticket in the 2027 elections.
National Chairman of the APC, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, was recently reported as saying there will be no automatic tickets for governors and others seeking elective office in the coming elections.
However, since Nigeria’s return to democratic governance in 1999, Presidents and governors seeking reelection usually secure their parties’ tickets unopposed.
Besides Yilwatda’s comments, some stakeholders in the APC have also proposed that the party’s governorship tickets should be thrown open, even in situations where incumbent governors are seeking a second term in office.
Reacting to the calls in a statement made available to journalists on Thursday, the North-Central APC Forum, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, said it was wrong to ask governors, who it described as the party’s biggest assets, to face primary elections.
The Forum, while countering national chairman Yilwatda’s position, warned that asking governors to undergo primaries could lead to problems that would destabilize the APC, and provide opportunities for the opposition in the main election.
Insisting that it would be disrespectful to ask governors to go through primary election, the North-Central APC Forum warned against going ahead with the plan.
The Forum, however, clarified that primaries should be held in states where a governor has completed his tenure in office, for the selection of a new candidate for the party.
The statement said, “The North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Forum rejects suggestions that our party’s governors who are seeking a second term should face primary election. The National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, recently said sitting governors will have to go through primaries. We believe that such a move will amount to a serious disrespect to the Office of the Governor.
“The biggest assets the party has are the President and the state governors. So allowing anybody to go into primaries with them is disrespecting the governors, and indirectly undermining the well-being of the party.
“The governors should get the party’s ticket unopposed for the 2027 election. That has been the tradition since the APC came into power in 2015. We recall that in 2019 nobody contested primary election with late former President Muhammadu Buhari, and the returning APC governors went non-opposed. So why is that supposed to change now?”
The APC Forum warned of the consequences of asking retuning governors to go through primary election.
“We are calling on the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the APC to quickly change the idea that governors are going to face primary election. It will create disunity and crisis in the party because some people will come out just to cause confusion.
“Even the opposition parties can plant people who will come into the primaries just to campaign against the incumbent governors in a bid to weaken APC’s chances of victory.
“Allowing party members to challenge a sitting governor in a primary election could destabilise the party, create bad blood and division, and present opportunities for the opposition in the main election. So we are totally against such a plan.
“Throwing the governorship ticket open for contest, where there is an incumbent governor that is going for a second term, is certainly not a wise move. It is unprofessional and in the end it will be counter productive.
“But in situations where a governor has rounded off his term and a new administration is coming in, a primary election is necessary, but not when a governor is going for a second term,” the statement added.
The North-Central APC Forum equally faulted calls that the National Working Committee, NWC, should not hand over party structures in the states to incumbent governors ahead of the nationwide congresses.
A former Deputy National Chairman of the APC, Yekini Nabena, had on Wednesday warned that ceding structures from the ward to the state levels to governors would alienate party members and weaken grassroots support.
But the North-Central APC Forum disagreed with Nabena, noting that governors are already the leaders of the party in the states.
Warning against any moves that could sow discord and crisis in the party ahead of the coming election, the APC Forum said, “The governors are the leaders of the party in every state and the structure of the party rests with them. So there should be no doubt that governors are the leaders of the APC in their states.
“Taking any decision that will alter the status quo will only lead to anarchy because the governors will resist such, and if that is the case, the only result will be crisis.”
The Forum advised the leadership of the APC to avoid any moves that could destabilise the party ahead of the 2027 elections.
2027: Govs should not face primaries – APC Forum counters National Chairman Yilwatda