The All Progressives Congress has moved its House of Representatives primary election for the 2027 general elections to Saturday, May 16, 2026, after widespread resistance from aspirants and grassroots members forced the party to ease its push for a consensus route. The change affects only the House primaries, while the timetable for other contests remains unchanged.
President Bola Tinubu, in a statement released ahead of the party’s nationwide primaries, urged members to protect unity, fairness and sportsmanship. He said the party could not afford rancorous conduct or the debasement of democracy and party discipline, and told leaders across the federation to hold primaries wherever consensus breaks down. Tinubu said the presidential primary was scheduled for May 23.
The shift lands as the APC opens a crowded internal season that runs toward the 2027 general elections, with the party’s national working committee now said to be less insistent on consensus in the House races than it was earlier. That retreat follows pressure from aspirants and grassroots members in all 360 federal constituencies, where many have resisted a process they feared would shut them out before voting even began.
The tensions are not abstract. Protests in Oyo were over alleged imposition, while APC aspirants accused Aiyedatiwa of deploying thugs ahead of primaries. Ondo, Kwara and Zamfara were flagged as volatile states, a warning that the internal contests are already carrying the kind of friction Tinubu said the party must avoid.
For the APC, the new date answers one immediate problem: how to keep the House of Representatives primaries from becoming a fight over process before the general election battle has even started. The harder question now is whether the party can turn a season of resistance, protest and suspicion into a contest that leaves losers willing to stay inside the tent.
