The All Progressives Congress (APC) has released its template for the rigging of the 2027 presidential elections. It is contained in the pattern of results it claimed emanated from its just concluded presidential primary. When a political party in power that has alienated millions of the voting population with its anti-people policies claims to have recorded over 11 million votes during its presidential primary, there is every reason to watch that party closely. The claim sounds a note of alarm. It could be a rigging strategy on a test run.
The figures being brandished by the APC from its presidential primary, in the first place, do not exist. The numbers exist only in the imagination of those who see Nigeria as a testing ground for all manner of voodoo. To underline the fact that the APC wants to weave a veneer of believability around the figures, its National Chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda, has been gloating over it. He has declared, unabashedly, that President Bola Tinubu, based on the figures in question, would garner over 10 million votes in the 2027 presidential elections. Some other overzealous elements actively involved in the APC rigging plan have spoken in like manner.
These are not idle statements coming from APC stalwarts. They are indicative of the way the minds of the president and his foot soldiers are working on matters of 2027. But the APC, from all indications, is not working alone. I strongly suspect that it is in cahoots with the Independent National Electoral Commission. Together, they may have written the results of the 2027 presidential elections based on these fictitious figures. However, if we strip the figures of the magic being woven around it, we will be confronted with pertinent questions that cannot easily be glossed over. We will, for instance, ask: How can the teeming population of Nigerians who are resentful of Tinubu and his APC willingly and gladly be registered members of the APC? Even if they are members of the APC for whatever reason, what is the guarantee that they will vote in favour of Tinubu’s return? Besides, the greater majority of Nigerian voters are not registered members of any political party. So, why is APC flaunting party membership as the basis for its 2027 calculations?
Even at that, the figures in themselves raise fundamental questions about APC’s membership register. It is suspected to be a padded document. Long before now, the grapevine was saturated with underhand dealings around the APC membership drive. There were stories of unsuspecting Nigerians who were cajoled to surrender their personal data for the registration exercise in exchange for money or other material gratifications. In other words, there are very many cases of people who may have been registered as members of APC without their knowledge. In fact, there is so much haziness around the membership register of the party. It is on the strength of this opaque register that the APC declared that roughly 11 million Nigerians of its extraction alone filed out to declare through their votes that Tinubu should continue as their president. Anybody who imagines the possibility of this deserves a place in a lunatic asylum. The claim is not just hogwash, it is vexatious. The mere thought of it is an assault on the sensibility of Nigerians. It inflicts violence on our collective intelligence as a people. In fact, the claim suggests that Nigerians can be led by the nose. Will Nigerians lend themselves to the bland manipulation in the works? The time to find the right answers to these questions is now. But are Nigerians paying attention to the grand machinations of the APC? What about the opposition political parties, particularly the Nigeria Democratic Congress and the African Democratic Congress? Are they taking note? The unfolding scenario is a wake-up call to all concerned to rise to the occasion now and stop Tinubu and his rigging machine in their tracks.
Let us, for purposes of argument, interrogate APC’s claims further. One very discernible feature of the APC presidential primary result is the claim that the north is at home with the Tinubu presidency and therefore wants him back. That is what the results from the north suggest. A breakdown of the results across the states shows that all northern states returned Tinubu as the APC candidate in a resounding manner. So, where is the anger of the north against Tinubu? We do not see it in the results. It should therefore be clear that the figures being paraded do not reflect the current mood of the north. It is make-belief.
The figures are also designed to create the impression that the 31 Governors that Tinubu cornered to his side are truly working for him. As a matter of fact, the results of the presidential primary is about the first test the defector-governors are facing in their avowed support for Tinubu. The time for justification of their defection has come, and those who are writing the rigging script would want Nigerians to believe that the governors, Tinubu cajoled to his side, are working for him. That is the surface structure. The deep structure is yet to come, and when it comes, it will be clear to one and all that more than half of the defector-governors will desert Tinubu when he needs them most. They will not be able to sell him to the electorate because he is unsellable. It should be noted as well that Tinubu had no real challenger in the primary election. The real elections coming up in January 2027 will not be a one-way traffic for APC. What will occupy the centre stage then will be the hardship that the Tinubu administration has inflicted on the people. How can a starving populace be sold the dummy called Renewed Hope? In any case, you can meaningfully talk about renewal of hope where one exists in the first place. Where none exists as in our present situation, any talk about renewal of hope will hang in the air. It can only sound hollow.
Nobody should even take the issue of the defector-governors seriously. The entire scheme was a playbook. The governors in question, strictly speaking, are decoys for the APC rigging machinery. The governors will be used as objects for justification. But we know, in truth, that state governors hardly influence the way the people vote in presidential elections. Let us not forget so soon that Ifeanyi Okowa as sitting Governor of Delta State and vice presidential candidate of PDP was there when Peter Obi and his Labour Party swept through Delta State with sweet victory. Okowa could not help the situation. This Delta scenario of 2023 will play out in 2027/ in most of the States that APC controls at moment. The defections to APC anchored around the governors will, in the long run, be an exercise in futility. The governors cannot save Tinubu from imminent defeat.
The good thing about the unfolding scenario is that the APC has, wittingly or unwittingly, let the cat out of the bag. It has put Nigerians on red alert without knowing it. And this is coming early enough. The Freudian slip is a wake-up call on distraught Nigerians. It is a call to action. The people should cash in on this internal train of thought by the APC rigging machine and ground it decisively.
Nigerians who want a quick end to the bad governance that has crippled them are being reminded by this unconscious, subdued wish of election riggers to wake up from slumber and take their destiny in their own hands.
