APC Reveals Major Opposition Parties Backing Tinubu’s Re-election

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, has claimed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Accord Party are backing President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Yilwatda disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja after meeting with Tinubu alongside the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Abdul’aziz Yari, to brief the president on preparations for the party’s presidential campaign.

According to the APC chairman, the ruling party has secured the support of major opposition parties that have defeated it in previous elections, describing the development as evidence of growing political backing for Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

“If you look at what the party is doing now, the opposition parties are with us. All political parties that have defeated us in any election are with us; PDP is with us, APGA is with us, Accord is with us,” Yilwatda said.

“These are the only political parties that have defeated us, except Allied People’s Movement, and they are all with us in this campaign,” he added.

His comments came amid divisions within the PDP.

We reported earlier that a faction led by Tanimu Turaki insisted that genuine party members would not back the president.

The Turaki-led faction, which disputes the leadership position claimed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, on Tuesday rejected calls for PDP candidates to abandon their political structures and support Tinubu’s re-election.

In a statement signed by the faction’s National Publicity Secretary of the Interim National Working Committee, Ini Ememobong, the group described those advocating support for the president as individuals who were pretending to belong to the opposition while working for the ruling party.

“The news credited to Minister Nyesom Wike that PDP candidates should collapse their structures and support the re-election of President Bola Tinubu is nothing new, except for the fact that his message is not directed at real PDP members,” the statement said.

“The message is meant for persons who, like him, are pretenders in the opposition but are working for the governing party.”

The faction maintained that the PDP should remain committed to challenging the APC rather than supporting the re-election of the president it is expected to oppose.

“The true and principled members of the Peoples Democratic Party are not part of the shameless, self-serving support for the APC-led Federal Government and its destructive policies,” it stated.

It added that the responsibility of an opposition party was to provide Nigerians with an alternative to the incumbent government, rather than strengthen its political position.

“The paramount duty of the opposition is to provide an alternative to the incumbent, not to massage their ego. If at all opposition parties are to have an alliance, it will be amongst themselves, not with the governing party,” the statement added.

The faction also criticised the political arrangement described as a “Rainbow Coalition”, warning that cooperation between opposition politicians and the ruling party could weaken electoral competition and undermine democratic accountability.

“This political anomaly, styled and championed as a Rainbow Coalition, is the greatest threat to electoral democracy and the fastest way of railroading the country into an electoral monarchy,” it said.

Meanwhile, Yilwatda said the APC had completed preparations for the formal launch of its presidential campaign in Kaduna on Saturday, October 24.

The party chairman expressed confidence in the readiness of the campaign council, saying its members, state structures and committees had completed the necessary arrangements for the exercise.

“For now, everything is set; the preparation is on, the members are motivated, the states, the committees are ready, and everything that is supposed to be done has been done,” he said.

Yari, a former governor of Zamfara State and Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, said the party intended to run an issue-based campaign focused on the Tinubu administration’s record rather than personal attacks against political opponents.

“We are going to do a campaign with the records – a responsible campaign, no insults, no calling of names, because there’s no name before us, but we have a record before us to show to Nigerians,” Yari said.

He added that the APC would ask Nigerians to assess the administration’s performance before deciding whether to give Tinubu another term in office.

“This is what our party did, this is what our government did, so because of that, we are asking, pleading with Nigerians to look at this record carefully so that they give us a second chance for continuity,” he stated.

Yari also disclosed that Tinubu had approved the campaign timetable, including planned visits to states, following a meeting with the president on October 9. The APC Presidential Campaign Council was inaugurated on October 14, with Tinubu serving as chairman and Vice President Kashim Shettima and Yilwatda as vice chairmen.

The APC chairman’s claim about support from opposition parties comes against the background of earlier public positions taken by some of the parties.

Accord’s presidential candidate, Christopher Imumolen, withdrew from the 2027 race in a statement issued on August 5 and endorsed Tinubu. APGA National Chairman Sly Ezeokenwa also said in March that the party would not field a presidential candidate and intended to adopt the president.