APC shifts primaries as anti-consensus revolt spreads across states

By Omeiza Ajayi

The All Progressives Congress APC has postponed its House of Representatives primary election by one day to Saturday, May 16, after a bruising internal revolt over the adoption of consensus mode forced the party’s National Working Committee NWC to abandon its preferred approach and dispatch materials for direct primaries across the country’s 360 federal constituencies.

Party spokesman Felix Morka announced the postponement in a statement on Wednesday night, stressing that the revised schedule affected only the Reps primary. “Previously announced primary election dates for the Senate, State Houses of Assembly, Governorship and Presidential primaries remain unchanged,” he said.

The full revised schedule now runs as follows: House of Representatives — Saturday, May 16; Senate — Monday, May 18; State House of Assembly — Wednesday, May 20; Governorship — Thursday, May 21; and Presidential — Saturday, May 23.

The postponement came against a backdrop of widening rebellion within the ruling party, as aspirants and grassroots members across multiple states pushed back hard against what they saw as a top-down imposition of consensus candidates.

The NWC had initially championed consensus as a mechanism for preserving party cohesion, but the scale of opposition made that position untenable.

The clearest sign of the reversal came when the party’s Organising Department dispatched election materials and result sheets to all states — a development insiders read as a green light for direct primaries to proceed wherever consensus proved impossible to achieve.

“Reports from many states reaching the NWC showed that our members and aspirants would rather subject their aspirations to an election than concede to consensus,” a high-ranking source within the party’s administrative organ told our correspondent. He added that, mindful of the pressure, “the NWC has directed that everybody should go to the field where aspirants and stakeholders cannot agree.”

The revolt was most visible in Oyo State, where supporters of former Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu stormed the party secretariat in Ibadan to protest the endorsement of Senator Sharafadeen Alli as consensus governorship candidate. “Imposing a candidate denies others a fair opportunity. We demand transparency and the adoption of direct primaries,” one protester declared.

Tensions ran equally high in Ondo State’s Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo and Odigbo Federal Constituency, where reports that Hon. Mathew Oyerinmade — known as MATO — was being steered toward the Reps seat following a failed senatorial bid drew sharp criticism, with opponents dismissing the move as a consolation prize dressed up as consensus.

Resistance was no less fierce in the North. Former Minister of Communications Prof. Isa Pantami publicly vowed to fight consensus arrangements in Gombe State, while former Inspectors-General of Police Abubakar Mohammed Adamu and Usman Alkali Baba — contesting in Nasarawa and Yobe states respectively — joined Benue’s Mathias Byuan in demanding a competitive process.

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