The All Progressives Congress (APC) has officially endorsed President Bola Tinubu as its sole candidate for the 2027 presidential election, following what party leaders described as a comprehensive midterm assessment of his administration’s performance.
The endorsement came during the APC National Summit held in Abuja on Thursday, where both the party’s National Assembly Caucus and governors’ forum threw their weight behind Tinubu’s bid for a second term. Senate President Godswill Akpabio announced the party’s decision at the summit, declaring that the APC has adopted Tinubu as its presidential candidate based on his achievements since taking office.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today program, Daniel Bwala, Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Policy Communication, explained that the endorsement followed a thorough evaluation of the president’s performance against the party’s campaign promises and manifesto commitments. “What happened is a thing of beauty to behold, it’s a tapestry of organization and it goes to show that APC as a progressive party is living up to its creed,” Bwala said.
He emphasized that the assessment process represents a departure from past political practices, noting that previous administrations often failed to conduct systematic performance reviews. “The problem that we used to have before now is that political parties come, win elections and they don’t sit down to assess and re-assess their performance,” Bwala explained. “This midterm is a performance assessment on the president himself.”
Bwala pointed to several economic indicators as evidence of Tinubu’s successful leadership, particularly in addressing the challenging economic situation the administration inherited. “When the president took the oath of office, the situation and economy around Nigeria was very tight, people were buying naira with naira,” he recalled. “States that could not pay salaries then, most of them are meeting up to the minimum wage, they are doing projects and most of them are even paying their debts.”
He attributed these improvements to increased government revenue generated under Tinubu’s policies, enabling states to meet their financial obligations and undertake development projects. The special adviser described the endorsement as the result of a comprehensive internal review process where party members evaluated the administration’s progress across key areas including education funding through NELFUND, infrastructure development, and security improvements.
“We have manifestos and things we wanted to do ranging from NELFUND to infrastructure to security and we know what the president has done so far,” Bwala said. “We looked at the two and arrived at the conclusion that given what we saw and he has done in two years, he deserves another time.”
Bwala emphasized that the endorsement represents internal party organization and unity, describing it as a necessary step before presenting the party’s position to Nigerian voters. “What happened is not in any way suggesting to Nigerians that the party has done everything, but what happened is our own internal examination before we bring our own external examiners who are the Nigerians,” he clarified.
The endorsement positions Tinubu as the APC’s standard-bearer for the 2027 election, setting the stage for what promises to be a competitive race as other political parties prepare their own candidates for the upcoming electoral cycle. The decision reflects the party’s confidence in Tinubu’s leadership and its assessment that his first-term achievements warrant continuation of his administration’s policies and programs.
