Onyekachi Eze writes on the avalanche of endorsements by governors and leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that have continued to boost President Bola Tinubu’s second term bid

Perhaps, given the avalanche of endorsements and the gale of defections from opposition political parties to his party – the All Progressives Congress (APC) – President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027 is done deal. At the APC summit in Abuja on May 22, governors of the party endorsed the President as a sole presidential candidate of the party in the next election.

Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) and governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, had declared at the summit: “That for Nigeria to get to her destination faster in prosperity, that the president should be used and adopted as our flag bearer for 2027 presidential election, for a second term in office.”

He called on the governors produced by the APC to market the Federal Government’s policies, “occupy the political space in their domains, and take responsibility for winning all elections in their states come 2027.” APC is in control of 23 states at the moment, and there is the possibility that the party will extend this number with the defection of more state governors from the opposition parties.

President Tinubu said this much at the APC summit, when he declared “I am glad of what we have and I am expecting more. That is the game. We are in a constitutional democracy.” To many political watchers, the endorsement is not strange. As a matter of fact, it has become a trend since the First Republic, and has reached its crescendo in recent time.

In 2015, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) adopted Goodluck Jonathan as its sole presidential candidate, and went ahead to print only one presidential nomination form. Like in the case of the APC, Babangida Aliyu who was then governor of Niger State, told the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting that governors elected on the platform of the party had decided to adopt Jonathan as the party’s sole candidate for the election.

The motion was formally moved and adopted by the party leaders. Senator David Mark, who was then the President of the Senate described the adoption as “a legacy we have decided to lay for the party.

He is a sitting and performing President; we should allow him to go ahead. We unanimously adopt him as our sole presidential candidate for the 2015 election.” PDP was then in control of 23 states. Unfortunately, most of these states could not deliver Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election, and he lost to Muhammadu Buhari, then candidate of the opposition APC.

The same scenario played out in the 2019 when the APC, in a bid to ensure that Buhari wins its ticket, jacked up its presidential nomination fees to N45 million, from the N22 million it was in 2014. The party went further to adopt direct primary as mode for electing its presidential candidate.

Buhari was elected with unimaginable 14,842,072 votes at the APC’s convention in October 2018. But at the main election in February 2019, he got only 15,191,847 votes, to Atiku Abubakar’s 11,262,978 votes. The margin of difference of the votes Buhari scored at the APC primary and the main election was 349,775.

Between endorsement and sycophancy

Cambridge Dictionary defines sycophancy as a “behaviour in which someone praises powerful or rich people in a way that is not sincere, usually in order to get some advantage from them.” In order words sycophants know that the situation on ground is different from the picture they are painting for their rich and powerful benefactors.

This aptly described what happened in 2015 and 2019. Even Jonathan admitted that he was deceived by PDP governors to believe that he was popular and could win the 2015 presidential election despite the challenges in his party and the problem the country was facing at that time.

The former president in his autobiography, “My Transition Hours,” blamed his re-election loss on second term governors with presidential ambition, and on fake news against his government. He said in the memoir that “… there were governors who were rounding off their eight years tenure and were blinded by ambition. “Some governors wanted to be Vice President whilst others strived to be the President. If I contested none could realise his ambition.

“This muffled implosion would fully manifest in the buildup to the 2015, which each ship-jumper calculating how much he or she would take from the PDP or the most opportune moment to cause maximum damage and based on that, plot their exit. “As they jumped ship in preparation for the 2015 elections, only very few of this lots, if any at all, bothered about what the PDP did or did not do in terms of delivering our campaign promises.

For Nigeria to get to her destination faster in prosperity, the President should be adopted as our flag bearer for the 2027 presidential election for a second term in office

“Their opposition to my re-election was principally driven by personal ambition. They therefore played up the issue of where I come from and the faith I professed to fuel their burning ambition.

My performance mattered quite little, if it mattered at all.” Of course, the sycophants knew all these but preferred to give him false hope to win his favour.

What they also did not tell him was that the situation Nigeria found itself in 2015 meant that the country was tired the way he was handling it and needed a new idea to manage its affairs.

For instance, there was Boko Haram insurgency, which had killed 20,000 lives and displaced some three million others from their homes. The 2015 election had to be delayed for six weeks to allow for military campaign to reclaim the ungoverned spaces.

It was only when the security situation improved that the elections were held. Therefore, the nation, at that time, needed someone else with experience to defeat the insurgents, and the APC candidate, Buhari, who was a general in the Nigerian Army, was the preferred candidate.

Also, Nigerians were tired of the PDP, which had ruled the country for 16 years, and demanded a change, which APC promised. Sycophants in the PDP were aware that the fortunes of the party have nosedived but told Jonathan otherwise.

APC travels a familiar path

Like in 2015, the Now the APC chieftains are also giving Tinubu the same false hope. Uzodinma and Godswill Akpabio, the President of the Senate, were among those who told Jonathan that he was the best president had and therefore, deserved to be re-elected in 2015. They are now the ones driving Tinubu’s 2027 endorsement, when it is obvious to them that the president is foundering.

In 2015, Uzodinma was a PDP senator, while Akpabio was a second term governor, also on the party’s platform. Nigeria was far better in 2015 than it is presently. Even Tinubu himself knows that, though he believes he is “laying the foundation for a better Nigeria.” Some statistics can suffice.

In 2015, Nigeria’s inflation rate was nine percent (a single digit), but it is around 23.71 percent, as at April this year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The exchange rate averaged N186 a dollar in 2015, but is about N1,700 at the moment.

The rate of insecurity in the country at the moment is troubling. The Jonathan administration contended only with Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East but in the last two years, there is not only resurgence of Boko Haram attacks in the region, but the entire country is under siege.

There is banditry in the North-West, unrelentless herders attack in the North Central, and kidnappings in the South-West and South-East.

The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), in its May 3, 2025 report, said despite promises to combat terrorism banditry, and violent crimes, when Tinubu was campaigning for office in 2022, the country continues to witness killings, kidnappings for ransom, and attacks on rural communities, in the last two years.

It added that “instead of improving, “recent months have seen a surge in violence across regions, raising concerns about the governments’ – state and federal – capacity or willingness to protect its citizens. “From Benue to Borno, Plateau to Niger, and Ondo to Sokoto, state governors are struggling to contain the menace, as armed groups unleash chaos, displace communities, and cripple local economies, particularly agriculture.”

The report quoted Global Rights Nigeria, which said a total 555 Nigerians were killed within the first six weeks of Tinubu’s administration, with 267 abductions. This number has more than doubled now. Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, whose state has been the theatre of war, advised Tinubu “to listen to the people who can tell him the right thing. The president should listen to the army.

We should not politicised insecurity.” But the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, is of the view the Tinubu administration has decimated mass killings, abductions, and terrorist attacks inherited from previous (APC) governments. He said that over 13,543 Boko Haram elements were neutralised in the past two years, while over 11,000 arms were recovered from the terrorists.

This is besides the 124,408 Boko Haram fighters and their families whom, he said, surrendered to troops since the coming of the current administration. His words: “For us to appreciate where we are today, it is important to reflect on where we were before the coming of this administration on May 29, 2023.”

The security situation in Nigeria before Tinubu (who incidentally succeeded an APC government in 2023) assumed office, according to Ribadu, included Boko Haram in the North-East, armed banditry in the North-West, secessionist agitation by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South-East, Niger Delta unrest in the South-South and communal conflicts/herder-farmer conflict, especially in the North Central.

There were also attacks on the Abuja-Kaduna train, Kuje Prison, a Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State and an army battalion in Bwari, Abuja., and one wonders, except the Abuja train attack, whether anything has changed since then.