Scores of aspirants across the 36 states have hit a cul-de-sac and are shunning the purchase of the All Progressives Congress (APC) nomination forms over widespread fears that governors elected on the platform of the ruling party have hijacked the process and pre-selected preferred candidates ahead of the primaries.

The growing apathy, which is cutting across governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly aspirants, has become alarming. The development has also forced the APC National Working Committee (NWC) to extend its earlier May 2 deadline for the sale and submission of forms on Thursday. Sources told Daily Sun that the extension is necessitated by the embarrassingly poor uptake of forms in several states.

The festering crisis first boiled over publicly when an uneasy calm descended on the APC national secretariat in Abuja on Monday, April 25, the official day the party was scheduled to commence sales, as no forms were made available and no payment accounts were provided to waiting aspirants.

It was reliably gathered that nomination forms were to be sent directly to state governors who would then make the documents available to their preferred candidates, leveraging on the consensus arrangement.

“The Presidency is fully in charge here, and there is nothing we can do,” a party official who asked not to be named told Daily Sun.

APC Presidential aspirant, Osifo Stanley was among the first to go public with the frustration. He declared in Abuja that he had been unable to obtain the party’s nomination form after making repeated efforts.

According to him, attempts to reach party officials and secure the necessary payment details proved abortive.

“I made several calls, but the account details required for payment were not made available to me,” he said. Sources within the party reveal that Stanley’s experience is not unique, with multiple aspirants eyeing governorship, National and State Assembly tickets reportedly are encountering similar obstacles.

The most candid admission of what is happening on the ground, however, came from Ebonyi State. The APC chairman in the state, Chief Stanley Okoro Emegha, recently advised party members seeking elective positions to obtain the governor’s permission before purchasing nomination forms, warning bluntly that “any money you pay to the party is non-refundable. Don’t buy any form without the governor’s directive.”

Critics describe the directive as a declaration that primaries have been replaced with permissions, adding that when one individual’s directive determines who is even allowed to participate, the contest has effectively been abolished. That is not internal democracy, it is a monarchy with party letterhead.

The governors’ grip on the process has the direct blessing of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Following a closed-door meeting at the Presidential Villa, it emerged that Tinubu had empowered all APC governors to decide the fate of aspirants in their states. He had also said that it was necessary to preserve party unity and cohesion ahead of the 2027 polls.

Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, who addressed journalists after the meeting, said deliberations focused on measures to forge a stronger and more cohesive party, adding: “We have discussed the process moving forward so that there will be free and fair elections without rancour.”

Top members of the National Assembly had met with the president at the Villa, pleading for automatic tickets for their colleagues.

Tinubu, however, insisted that the governors of each state have the ultimate influence over aspirants, a position that has created deep unease among federal lawmakers, particularly those not in the good books of their state executives.

It was gathered that some lawmakers have privately admitted that they would not have defected to the APC had they known automatic tickets would not be guaranteed, and that they backed executive proposals in the National Assembly with the expectation of party tickets, but are now facing a very different reality.

A National Assembly source was equally blunt: “The governors have taken charge of the structures in their states, leaving many senators stranded.”

The fallout is already taking concrete form across many states. In Adamawa State, elders of the Gongola Peoples warned at a press conference in Abuja that any attempt to impose a governorship candidate would be firmly resisted, declaring: “We will not accept, tolerate, or allow any form of imposition on our people. Imposition only breeds resentment, weakens the party, and ultimately guarantees defeat at the general elections.”

In Niger State, stakeholders in Agwara/Borgu Federal Constituency defied Governor Umar Bago’s directive to adopt zoning and consensus, passing a communiqué resolving that all elective offices remain open to all qualified aspirants.

In Ogun State, APC members in Ijebu East Local Government Area, staged a protest at the governor’s office in Abeokuta, rejecting what they described as an attempt to impose candidates for both the House of Representatives and the State Assembly.

In Lagos, even with President Tinubu personally endorsing Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat as the party’s governorship candidate, governorship aspirant, Dr Samuel Ajose, insisted that the endorsement process was “being enforced on the party rather than emerging organically from the membership.”

A governorship aspirant, Maurice Vunobolki, has already dumped his ambition, citing plans to impose a candidate as the reason for his exit.

Party insiders told Daily Sun that a significant driver of the current crisis is the mass defection of PDP governors to the APC in 2024 and 2025.

Part of the agreement reached with defecting governors, according to insider sources, was an assurance of an automatic second term ticket, the promise of re-election serving as the inducement for crossing the aisle.

This assurance, Daily Sun gathered, has now created a power struggle as old APC members, who feel they are being shut out despite years of building the party, push back.

It was gathered that many of the defecting governors, apart from seeking a post-2027 soft landing, also demanded and secured approval to control party structures in their respective states.

Aligning with the position of President Tinubu, APC National Chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda, has publicly rejected demands for automatic tickets, stating that “there is no automatic ticket in the party’s constitution,” a position that has put defected governors and long-serving party loyalists on a direct collision course.

The APC national leadership has attempted to douse the fire. Senior voices within the party are now warning openly that the candidates’ imposition culture could exact a heavy electoral cost in 2027.

In some states where governors have already signalled their preferred candidates, many aspirants say they are still waiting for a clear sign that their money and their ambitions will not be wasted. (The Sun)