APC Passes Vote of Confidence in Tinubu, Shettima After Three-Day Maiduguri Retreat
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has passed a vote of confidence in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima ahead of the 2027 general elections, alongside all party candidates who emerged from its primary elections, following a three-day National Strategic Retreat that concluded in Maiduguri, Borno State, on Saturday, September 26.
The resolution was reached at the party’s 195th National Working Committee (NWC) meeting, held under the theme “Strengthening Party Organization, Unity and Electoral Readiness Towards 2027.” Presenting the retreat’s communiqué, APC National Chairman Professor Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda said a review of the party’s internal structures, from the national level down to individual polling units, had shown the party to be united and prepared for next year’s polls. “We get a clean bill of health with the APC as a party. I trust strongly that the party is strong, the party is healthy, the party is prepared, and the party is oiled for the 2027 General Elections,” Yilwatda said, describing the resulting endorsement in explicit terms. “We pass a vote of confidence on our presidential candidate, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, GCON, and all the other candidates of our party that were elected in the primary elections for the 2027 general election,” he stated.
Yilwatda went on to argue that Nigerians directly benefiting from Tinubu’s policies would turn out to support his bid for a second term, specifically citing labourers, market women, food sellers, vendors and drivers using roads constructed under the administration, alongside beneficiaries of the government’s social intervention and human capital programmes. He also defended the administration’s removal of petrol subsidy, acknowledging the hardship it had caused while maintaining that the associated economic reforms needed to be sustained. The NWC further resolved to lead the 2027 campaign from the front, directing party structures at the state and local government levels to constitute reconciliation committees aimed at resolving internal disagreements ahead of the elections.
The retreat’s vote of confidence comes against the backdrop of ongoing friction within APC ranks, including a public standoff between party governors and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Nyesom Wike over his Rainbow Coalition, which has continued to back candidates from other political parties in some states even while professing support for Tinubu’s re-election. It also follows earlier questions raised over Shettima’s position on the 2027 ticket, after some party figures speculated Tinubu might not retain him as running mate, a debate that had previously produced friction during a North-East APC endorsement meeting in Gombe, where one senior party official declined to publicly endorse Shettima alongside the president.
Saturday’s national-level endorsement builds on a string of earlier regional vote-of-confidence declarations passed by APC stakeholders across the country in recent months, including from the party’s North-West zone in Kaduna, North-East chapter in Gombe, and Kano State stakeholders, each pledging support for the Tinubu-Shettima ticket ahead of the presidential contest.
The National Working Committee also used the Maiduguri retreat to extend condolences to the government and people of Niger State over the deaths of 37 suspected illegal miners in NSCDC custody earlier this month. With the vote of confidence now formally passed at the national level, APC leadership has signalled its intention to move into full campaign mode, calling on Nigerians, party supporters and members to turn out in large numbers to back Tinubu’s re-election and the party’s full slate of candidates in the 2027 general elections.
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