2027: Tinubu settles for Shettima as party beats INEC deadline

….We’re not afraid, Tinubu going in with 12m bloc votes – APC

By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA: National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has declared that the party is not threatened by opposition propaganda ahead of the 2027 general election, saying President Bola Tinubu is going into the race with a bloc of over 12 million votes from party members.

Yilwatda spoke on Friday while receiving the duly completed Independent National Electoral Commission INEC presidential nomination forms of President Tinubu, and Vice President Kashim Shettima, at a ceremony in Abuja.

INEC has set Saturday, July 11, 2026, as the deadline for political parties to upload the names of their candidates to its nomination portal.

The submission of both forms effectively ended months of speculation about the president’s choice of running mate, as he has now settled for Shettima.

It also paved the way for the upload of Tinubu and Shettima unto the INEC portal, an action concluded on Friday night, beating the INEC deadline.

The nomination forms were presented on behalf of President Tinubu by his Special Adviser on Political and Other Matters, Hon. Ibrahim Masari. The ceremony was attended by APC governors led by the Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum and Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, some governors, deputy governors, members of the National Working Committee, the APC Caucus in the National Assembly, members of the Federal Executive Council, senate and governorship candidates, and other party leaders and stakeholders.

Speaking at the event, Yilwatda said the occasion climaxed a process that began with primary elections across all levels of government, from the House of Assembly to the National Assembly to governorship and the presidential primary. “Today is a reflection of the wishes of over 12 million of our members of APC who overwhelmingly voted Mr President as their candidate to flag off the party candidature in the 2027 presidential election,” he said.

He added that beneficiaries of the administration’s programmes, including over 1.5 million students on the student loan scheme and their families, as well as communities benefiting from new road networks across the six geopolitical zones and fertiliser support to farmers in states such as Borno and Niger, would swell the ranks of those voting for the president.

Yilwatda urged governors and supporters to mobilise and publicise the administration’s achievements, saying his own people have fact-checked claims of government projects during a visit to his community and found them accurate.

He charged Masari to convey to President Tinubu that party members would vote massively for him in the election, expressing confidence that the APC would post its highest-ever votes across the geopolitical zones.

“We are not afraid, we are not in doubt of our success, there is no shaking at all in any way, that come 2027 our victory as a party is assured and assured,” Yilwatda said.