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MINNA – As Nigerian voters prepare to go into the 2027 general elections, the scenarios unfolding in Niger State appear to lend credence to claims by observers, including some members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), that Governor Mohammed Umar Bago is crafting a strange political ideology that is unknown in political science and which, basically, runs contrary to the principles of democracy. This is evident in the outcome of the recent primaries of the APC in the state. The primaries were characterized by protests, outright rejection and/or resignation of some founding members due to the results or outcome across the state. However, Governor Bago is set to install his candidates in strategic positions ahead of next year’s polls.
The political alignments and realignment which started barely two years into his first tenure saw some of his friends and other power brokers in the opposition moving into the APC and getting positioned to edge out perceived enemies and disloyal members of the party at in the state and national levels just as it is at the local government level.
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Electoral Committee and Returning Officer of the primaries, Danlamin Abubakar, declared the winners as he announced the outcome of the primaries said to have been conducted across the 10 federal constituencies and three senatorial districts in the state. No journalist could attest to witnessing the exercise except, maybe, the Press Crew of the Governor.
The results announced by Danlami indicated that a serving member for the Agaie/Lapai Federal Constituency, Abdullahi Mahmud, scored 12,806 votes to defeat his closest rival, Sadiq Mustapha, who got 438 votes, while a member of the Suleja/Gurara/Tafa Federal Constituency, Adamu Tanko, got 13, 976 votes against his closest rival, Arafat Haruna, who secured 1, 331 votes.
Also, Ismaila Modibo, another incumbent won the Shiroro/Rafi/Munya Federal Constituency against his closest rival, Saidu Umar, with 16, 044 votes against 1, 712, while for the Chanchaga Federal Constituency (Minna metropolis), same seat he had occupied before emerging as governor, the younger brother to the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, Abubakar Adamu was declared winner with 3, 650 votes against his closest contender, Nma Ahmed, said to have got 1,271 votes.
The Returning Officer also announced that serving House of Representatives members, the Kontagora/Wushishi/Mariga/Mashegu Federal Constituency, Abdullahi Idris-Garba, his Bida/Gbako/Katcha counterpart, Saidu Musa Abdullahi, and that of Agwara/Borgu Federal Constituency, Jafaru Mohammed, got return tickets through consensus.
Adamu Usman and Mohammed Yakubu were also announced as consensus candidates for the Lavun/Mokwa/Edati and the Magama/Rijau Federal Constituencies seats respectively. The representative of the Bosso/ Paikoro Federal Constituency, according to the Returning Officer, is the chairman of Niger Tornadoes Football Club of Minna, Engineer Ibrahim Dada.
For the three Senatorial seats, Danlami declared the incumbent senator for Niger-East (Zone B) Senatorial District, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, and his Niger-North (Zone C) counterpart and immediate past governor, Senator Abubakar Sani Bello, as both unopposed. But for Niger-South (zone A), the Returning Officer told the gathering, the day Governor Bago received the party’s second term endorsement at the APC state secretariat, besides Zarumai Primary School, Minna, that the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defector, Mohammed Sani Idris, won the primaries with 68, 116 votes against his closest contender, Rabiu Sadiq, whom, he said, got 4, 589 votes. Danlami, while appreciating Governor Bago for supporting the electoral committee sent from Abuja to ensure a hitch-free exercise, attributed delays in announcing the complete results at the same time to late collation because of the large size of the state and attendant difficult terrains.
Governor Bago had, in response, congratulated all the APC candidates and urged them to be magnanimous in victory by extending a hand of fellowship to those that contested against them or stepped down for them.
Hours after the declaration by Danlami, Governor Bago himself announced the results of the purported presidential election primaries held in parts of the state. But, curiously, only Governor Bago himself and few allies who gathered in his office to celebrate knows when, where and who presided over the voting or collated results showing that members of the party in Niger State voted for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to continue beyond 2027.
Voices of dissent within the ruling APC and other political groups however began to echo shortly after the two declarations from the party’s Returning Officer and his team from Abuja, and that of Governor Bago himself, drawing the governor’s attention to the implications of changing known democratic norms to the strange political calculations of trying to force his own personal political ideals down the throats of voters and expecting them to swallow them hook, line and sinker. While some who cared to voice out their frustrations pointed out the inherent dangers of the Governor’s stance and betrayal of their trust, others simply quietly walked away without making public their next line of action or political bus stop, but not without expressing deep regrets that their votes had been mortgaged.
To show his inability to ignore what he believed to be betrayal of the highest order and deviation from party rules, one of the founding members of the APC in the state, Arch. Mohammed Rabiu Sadiq, tendered his resignation to his Dabban Ward in Lavun Local Government Area.
The resignation letter dated May 19, 2026, partly read: “Recent event whose nature is well known to the party leadership have made it impossible for me to continue in good conscience as a member of this party. I take no pleasure in this departure. I owe a highly loyalty than any political platform. My loyalty is to the people of Niger-South.”
Sadiq further emphasized that “They did not stand with me because of a party logo, and no party logo will determine how I continue to stand with them.”
Also, the former Publicity Secretary of APC in Niger State who played a pivotal role in the party’s growth and existence, Jonathan Tsado Vatsa, recalled how the party started, what it used to be and described the party as it stands today as heading to self-destruction.
Vatsa, who did not hide his belief in respecting people by allowing them to choose their leaders to avoid complications, expressed disappointment in the just concluded Senatorial, House of Representatives and, of course, the acclaimed presidential primaries of the ruling party in the state.
“The entire exercise was a facade and a mockery of democracy. APC has failed to learn a lesson from previous administrations – the party is on a mission to self-destruction,” Vatsa said in a statement made available to journalists.
What transpired during the just concluded National Assembly primaries could be likened to what Nigeria’s late popular afrobeat singer, Fela Anikulapo would describe as “demonstration of craze”.
According to Vatsa, “The charade was further deepened by rumours that some aspirants allegedly committed as much as ₦150 million in pursuit of tickets through the political manipulations of the century only for the process to end up in disappointments, with complaints in some quarters that the whole exercise itself left participants feeling scammed.”
What the APC has right now as flag bearers for the Senate, House of Representatives, and Houses of Assembly, Vatsa said, are far from being the people’s choices and the emotional damage done by the electoral process is beyond what mere apologies can soothe. That is why commentators have argued that the party must go back to the grassroots to engage the people before the general elections.
“The real losers in the primaries may not be those who failed to emerge but those who traded collective interests for personal gains only to discover that political submission rarely guarantees inheritance,” Vatsa added.
He recalled the days of late former President Umaru Yar’Adua, who in humility admitted that the system that brought him to power was faulty and publicly declared thus, “We must admit that the current system is fraudulent and must be corrected to earn us public trust”.
He therefore wants the APC and those that are championing the cause to muzzle democratic norms by planning to forcefully impose candidates on the masses to retrace their steps by learning from past leaders like late Yar’Adua.
If the party’s current slogan, “APC for Justice, Peace, and Unity”, is anything to go by, the level of manipulations witnessed in the recent primaries call for censure. Just as Vatsa has pointed out, the exercise goes a long way in telling Nigerians, including Nigerlites, the stuff the APC is made of, and it may well indicate if indeed it is possible, given the path the party has taken, to live up to what they are promising Nigerians as they prepare for the general elections taking place next year.
