- Ekiti/Osun guber, 2027 primary elections, others to headline political activities in 2026
As the year preceding a general election, 2026 is expected to be a busy one for the various stakeholders in Nigeria’s politics, particularly the leadership of the political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). FELIX NWANERI reports on the major issues that will shape Nigeria’s political space within the year
The year 2026 promises to be an interesting one for Nigerians as it is one preceding a general election year. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to release the timetable and schedule of activities for the polls but there is no doubt that the race has started as interests are being expressed in various quarters by those who wish to contest for the various offices up for grab.
For instance, while President Bola Tinubu has secured the ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) given his endorsement by the various organs of the party, jostle for the presidential tickets of the main opposition parties –Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and African Democratic Congress (ADC) – continues to heighten by the day.
Similarly, the race for tickets of the respective parties where gubernatorial elections will hold as well as tickets for senatorial, House of Representatives and states Assembly elections, which has already started, is expected to gain momentum in the first quarter of the year.
INEC has already assured Nigerians that the 2027 general election will be free, fair and a defining moment in Nigeria’s democratic journey, as the eyes of over 200 million Nigerians and the wider African continent focus on the process.
Chairman of the election management body, Prof. Joash Amupitan, gave the assurance, while speaking at the opening ceremony of the commission’s 2026 two-day induction and strategic retreat for newly appointed national commissioners and resident electoral commissioners, held in Lagos.
Amupitan vowed to apply the 2022 Electoral Act and subsequent amendments “with surgical precision,” stressing that under his leadership, the rule of law would not be a suggestion but an operating system within INEC.
The INEC chairman, said that the retreat was aimed at addressing 17 critical thematic areas, including election security and inter-agency collaboration to ensure voters are not intimidated, as well as political party management, internal democracy and transparency in party financing. His words: “Our goal is clear; the 2027 general election must be free and fair and be a watershed moment in Nigeria’s election history. But we must aim even higher. I want us to build an institution that is recognised globally.”
He added that INEC must aspire to become the best election management body in Africa, setting continental standards in integrity, technological efficiency and democratic values. “Our success in 2027 must be more than a national victory. It must be a continental benchmark that proves INEC can conduct a world-class, technologically driven and transparent election beyond reproach,” he said.
While describing the 2027 elections as the ultimate destination, he noted that INEC must first successfully conduct the February 2026 FCT Area Council elections, followed by off-cycle governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states.
According to him, INEC’s mandate rests on five non-negotiable pillars: elections that are free from interference, fair to all contestants, credible in the eyes of the global community, transparent from polling units to collation, and inclusive of all Nigerians regardless of location or physical ability.
Amupitan also emphasised the need to build trust among young, first-time voters, describing them as tech-savvy and often sceptical. He said credible systems and reliable technology were essential to securing their long-term faith in democracy. “We are not just conducting an election; we are securing the lifelong loyalty of Nigeria’s future to the ideals of the ballot,” he said.
The INEC chairman further pledged to address perennial challenges related to logistics, ad-hoc staff and transportation, and to ensure that Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and revalidation exercises remain beyond reproach. But as the countdown to 2027 elections begins, the people of Ekiti and Osun states, will elect new governors, who will pilot affairs in their respective states this year.
This chain of elections explains why 2026 would be a busy one for INEC and other stakeholders in the electoral process, particularly political actors given that primaries to nominate candidates, who will fly the flags of the various parties would be conducted within the year. Besides the parties getting busy, the various security agencies would also be put on alert given the intrigues that usually trail major elections.
The machinations are also expected to spur the respective anticorruption agencies to action as politics is like war which almost every tactics deployed is considered fair. Equally expected to gain momentum as the year progresses is the gale of endorsements and defections that usually characterise election years.
The supremacy battle between political godfathers and their godsons each election year is also expected resurface as most outgoing governors have already started scheming on anointing their respective successors.
It also expected that the politics of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill would be part of issues that will dominate the political space in 2026, while Anambra State will witness have a new governor in the person of a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof Chukwuma Soludo.
FCT Area Council polls
The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections will hold on February 21. The FCT has six area council chairpersons and 62 councillors. INEC conducts its elections unlike those in the 36 states, which the state election commissions conduct. The electoral commission has already released the final list of candidates who will contest the polls.
According to the commission, the final list includes candidates from 17 political parties who successfully uploaded their nomination forms and met the August 11, 2025, deadline. The list contains details such as the candidates’ names, parties, ages, gender, and academic qualifications.
The publication of the final list followed the earlier display of candidates’ personal particulars on August 18, 2025, as required by law, following party primaries. The candidates are vying for 68 seats in the Area Council election. The figure, which includes six chairmanship and 62 councillorship positions across the six area councils- Abuja Municipal, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje, Kwali, and Abaji.
Anambra governorship inauguration
The swearing-in of the Governor-elect of Anambra State, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, will take place on March 17. The governor, who contested the election on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), polled a total of 422,644 votes to beat all challengers in a landslide victory with his closest challenger, Nicholas Ukachukwu, of the APC polling 99,445 votes.
The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has already promised more transformative projects in his second term. In his speech shortly after being declared the winner of the governorship election, Soludo said it was time to get back to work. He reiterated his administration’s commitment to serving the people of the state better.
Ekiti, Osun guber elections
Governorship elections will hold in Ekiti and Osun states, respectively on June 20 and August 8. In Ekiti, Governor Biodun Oyebanji, whose first tenure elapses on October 15, has already the candidate of the APC, while Governor Ademola Adeleke, who assumed office as governor of Osun State for the first term on November 28, 2022 on the platform of the PDP would be seeking for a second term on the platform on the platform of the Accord Party.
Candidates of the other parties for the Ekiti gubernatorial election have also emerged as primary elections were held between October 20 and November 10, 2025 to enable the parties to upload their nomination forms to the dedicated portal which automatically shut down by 6.00pm on December 22 in line with 180 days deadline for parties submit list of candidates for elections.
According the INEC guideline, the final list of candidates will be published on January 18, while campaign in public by political parties will commence on January 21 and end 24 hours before election day. For the Osun election, the governorship primaries were held between November 24 and December 15, while the portal for the upload of nomination forms by parties will close on February 9.
The final list of candidates will be published on March 9, while campaign in public by will commence on March 11 and end 24 hours before election day. As it stands, the stakes are high in both states ahead of both governorship elections as the contending parties see it as a signpost to the 2027 general election.
Primary elections for 2027
polls The primaries of the various political parties to elect those who will fly their respective flags in the 2027 general election are expected to hold in the first and second quarter of this year and scheming for the respective tickets of the two leading parties for the positions that would be contested for during the polls are expected to dominate the political space.
Indications to this have already emerged given that most of the gladiators nursing ambition to contest the various elections have started declaring their interest publicly. And, while there is no doubt, the campaigns for the 2027 general election are yet to commence, there is apprehension in some political quarters over the ethnic card being played by some stakeholders.
While it is undeniable that arguments for and against rotation of the presidency between the North and South have always dominated build-ups to previous general elections since 1999, when Nigeria returned to civil rule, ethnic affiliations and religious leaning rather than capacity have been the unofficial criteria for selecting candidates for presidential elections by the various political parties.
Although not constitutional, the idea behind the zoning principle or rotational presidency is that in a multi-plural, diverse country like Nigeria, with over 300 ethnic nationalities, it is important that every group is given a sense of belonging in order to promote national unity and to prevent domination.
However, like in the past, zoning has become one of the most contentious issues in Nigeria at the moment, and the politics around it, is heating up the polity ahead of the 2027 presidential election, with implications for the stability of the country. The tension that is brewing is over the ethnic card being played by some members of the political class and the possibility of 2027 presidential election putting a wedge between the country’s geopolitical divide – North and South – is not in doubt.
The present democratic dispensation (Fourth Republic) is 26 years and would be 28 by 2027, when the next general election would hold, but so far, the North has occupied the presidency for 11 years – Muhammadu Buhari (eight years, 2015- 2023) and Umaru Yar’Adua (three years, 2007-2010). The South, on its part, has been in power for 15 years through Olusegun Obasanjo (eight years, 1999-2007), Goodluck Jonathan (five years, 2010-2015) and Bola Tinubu (two years).
However, the region would have spent 17 years by the time the incumbent serves out his first term in 2027. Though the South presently has a four-year advantage over the North, which would be six years by 2027, most Nigerians believe that power should remain in southern Nigeria given that North enjoyed eight straight years under Buhari’s presidency.
According to some southern leaders, sustenance of rotational presidency at this point in history is in the interest of the country as Nigeria’s unity is presently under threat. However, some northern political leaders are clamouring for power to return to their region in 2027 on the basis of what they termed “need for the North to be at par with the South.”
Others are even calling for abandonment of the zoning arrangement. It is against these backdrops that many are of the view that while the zoning principle has helped to ensure a sense of balance, rotation and inclusion, to jettison it for purposes of expediency would be counter-productive and costly as result whichever position the leading parties finally settle on the zoning issue will determine their fortune in the 2027 presidential contest. The ruling APC have aligned with the rotational presidency arrangement and has already settled for a southern candidate in the person of President Tinubu.
The PDP, which usually experience internal strife over battle for the party’s ticket for the presidency, each election year, has equally zoned its 2027 presidential ticket to the South. This decision, a departure from 2023, when the ticket was thrown open, was arrived at the 102nd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party.
For the ADC that has main opposition leaders – Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi – in its fold, zoning of the 2027 presidential ticket is not on the cards and the reasons may not be farfetched.
Adoption of a platform was after several back-and-forth movements, including moves that initially linked them with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and application for registration of a new political party – All Democratic Alliance (ADA). However, following adoption of the ADC by the opposition leaders, the Raph Nwosu-led National Working Committee (NWC) voluntarily resigned to make way for the emergence of David Mark (a former Senate president) and Rauf Aregbesola (a former governor of Oyo State) as interim national chairman and interim national secretary, respectively.
Other opposition leaders in the coalition include former Governors Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) and Nasir ElRufai (Rivers); former Speaker of the House of Representatives and immediate past governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal and a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal. Others are former Governors Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Jubrilla Bindow (Adamawa), Emeka Ihedioha (Imo), Oserheimen Osunbor (Edo), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Idris Wada (Kogi) and Celestine Omehia (Rivers); ex-Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; ex Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung; former National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus; former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar (rtd) and General Tunde Ogbeha (rtd). Atiku, Obi and Amaechi are bent on contesting the 2027 presidential election, and it is clear that none of them is likely to step down for each other, a development that informs why many are waiting to see how leaders of the coalition will resolve the zoning issue as regards where their presidential candidate will come from.
Next move by outgoing governors
No fewer than 10 governors will bow out of office by May 29, 2027. Five are from the North-East, three from the South-West and two from the North Central. And as their second and final terms wind down, these governors are drawing increased political attention.
They are Mai Mala (Yobe), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Babagana Zulum (Borno), Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa), Inuwa Yahaya (Gombe), Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa), AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq (Kwara), Babajide SanwoOlu (Lagos), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun) and Seyi Makinde (Oyo).
Far from quietly preparing to leave, many are already preparing for life after government by courting allies, tightening grip on party structures and weighing fresh ambitions. Already, signs of what comes next are beginning to emerge. A number of these governors have hinted at Senate bids or senior party roles and presidency, while a few are being linked to higher national offices.
Others have kept their plans under wraps, leaving supporters and rivals guessing about their next steps. Each of the second term governors will prefer to remain politically relevant by clinging to power in one way or the other, but politics, being the game of the possible, analysts are not ruling out a decline in the political fortune of some them by the time they leave office.
This position is predicated on the fact that there is always a precipitous loss in stature after attainment of great heights in politics either by one’s own doing or as a result of circumstance. A justification of this assumption is the story of some former governors, who left office in 2023 after serving out the constitutional allowed two terms.
These former governors dominated the political landscape in their respective states, while they held sway and dictated who got what, when and how. But, just two years after leaving office, most of them have experienced the epic fall that usually come with attainment of great political heights, with only a handful still relevant in the polity.
Besides their next political moves, the second term governors are also burdened by succession battles in their respective domains. Ordinarily, that would not have been their yoke given that democracy grants the people, the liberty to choose their leaders through periodic elections, but because of undue advantage, which power confers on its wielders, especially in developing countries like Nigeria, most leaders do not toy with the issue of their succession.
Endorsement game
The build-up to the 2027 general election, especially that of the presidency has forced some political leaders and groups across the country to return to the game they know how to play best – politics of opportunism, following recent endorsement of the various gladiators jostling for positions and which is expected to heighten as 2026 progresses.
The rush to endorse the various gladiators is even when most of them have not publicly declared their interest for the presidential contest besides crisscrossing the length and breadth of the country, consulting with different groups and stakeholders, including former leaders as well as testing the political waters either directly or indirectly through what some analysts and observers have termed the “poster game.”
But as the campaign posters for the presidential election continue to flood major cities across the states of the federation and the social media, refutation has been the response from the camps of the various politicians linked to them.
On some of the campaign posters, the gladiators were presented as presidential aspirants, while as vice presidential aspirants in others. But lull is the word in most of the political camps for now.
However, New Telegraph gathered that the unresolved issue of zoning among the main political parties is the main reason why most of those nursing ambition to contest the 2026 presidential poll from launching their respective bids. Despite the mind game being played by most of the 2027 have been receiving endorsements from some individuals and groups.
Anti-graft war
Politics is like war to many, so whatever weapon deployed to incapacitate opponents is considered fair. It is against this backdrop that there is no doubt that the various antigraft agencies will swing to action as the year progresses and the nation inches towards the 2027 elections. Members of the opposition have before now cried foul over what they described as witch-hunt given the way the present administration is pursuing its ant-corruption war but analysts say the wailing may be far from over as there is no doubt that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) will beam their searchlights more on perceived political opponents of the party in power ahead of the polls.
More defections coming
While reasons adduced by politicians in advance democracies for defection from one political party to another include divergent views on the operations of parties’ philosophy, crisis or division, and party leaders reneging on agreements, in most defection cases in Nigeria, they have been mainly informed by personality clash, power tussle and most importantly, personal against these backdrops, more defections are expected this year across the major political parties as the next general election inches closer.
While more members of the opposition parties are expected to continue with the current trend of mass movement to the ruling party, some members of the APC are equally expected to head towards the opposition, especially by the time they lose nominations during the primaries.
