By Peter Dansu Anxiety is mounting among aspirants across Nigeria as several political parties, including the ruling All Progressives Congr...
By Peter Dansu
Anxiety is mounting among aspirants across Nigeria as several political parties, including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), have reportedly begun uploading the names of their candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) nomination portal without publicly releasing the final lists, fresh report according to News Week says.
The report says, INEC officially opened its candidate nomination portal last Friday, enabling political parties to submit the particulars of candidates who emerged from their primary elections ahead of the 2027 general election.
Unlike previous election cycles, where successful aspirants were publicly announced, presented with certificates of return and required to complete nomination forms before submission to INEC, many political parties have chosen to keep their final lists away from public scrutiny, leaving hundreds of aspirants uncertain about their political fate.
Among the major political parties, only the Labour Party has officially published its list of candidates. The party announced that it had cleared 1,211 candidates for the 2027 elections, comprising one presidential candidate, 28 governorship candidates, 99 senatorial candidates, 307 House of Representatives candidates and 776 candidates for state Houses of Assembly. The list was ratified by the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) on June 28.
The refusal of other leading parties to disclose their candidates has fueled speculation and unease, particularly among those who participated in legislative primaries but are yet to know whether their names were eventually submitted to INEC.
The uncertainty comes amid reports of growing dissatisfaction within the APC, where several serving senators and members of the House of Representatives are believed to have failed to secure return tickets.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio recently hinted at the growing tension while speaking during the inauguration of the APC National Campaign Council for the forthcoming Ekiti State governorship election.
Appealing to the party leadership, Akpabio urged them to ensure deserving aspirants were included in the final list.
"The party is supreme. I'm only pleading with the party to ensure that when they release their final list, they include all of us. Some of my people have hypertension," he said.
Responding to concerns over the secrecy surrounding the lists, APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka defended the party's decision, arguing that publishing the names prematurely could generate unnecessary disputes.
According to him, aspirants would eventually know their status once INEC publishes the official nominations.
Similar complaints have also emerged within the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), where some aspirants have accused party leaders of manipulating the outcome of the primaries and imposing preferred candidates.
The situation appears slightly different in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where both the Nyesom Wike and Kabiru Tanimu Turaki factions reportedly issued certificates of return to candidates who emerged from their separate primaries. However, only the Wike-led faction is currently recognised by INEC.
Political analysts believe many parties are deliberately withholding the names of successful candidates to avoid internal backlash and possible legal disputes before INEC releases the official nominations.
One aspirant, who spoke anonymously, blamed the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 for giving party leadership enormous influence over the conduct and outcome of direct primaries.
He argued that unlike indirect primaries, where accredited delegates cast verifiable votes, direct primaries often lack transparency because party officials largely control the figures eventually announced.
According to him, the process creates room for manipulation and makes it extremely difficult for aggrieved aspirants to successfully challenge the declared results.
A former minister and ex-senator from Lagos State also condemned the conduct of the APC primaries, describing the exercise as nothing more than a "charade."
He alleged that in several states, candidates were imposed by influential party leaders without any genuine voting process.
"There was no election anywhere. What you saw was a charade. I know somebody who scored 37,000 votes in the primaries, but the person eventually declared winner reportedly had just 2,000 votes," he alleged.
The former lawmaker further argued that the increasing reliance on consensus arrangements and direct primaries has weakened internal democracy within political parties and eroded members' confidence in the electoral process.
For many aspirants across the country, the waiting game continues as they look forward to INEC's publication of the final nomination lists to determine whether their political ambitions remain alive or have been quietly extinguished behind closed doors.
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