President Bola Tinubu has overwhelmingly secured the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket for the 2027 general election, following a landslide victory in the party's nationwide direct primary elections. The exercise, conducted on Saturday, May 23, saw registered APC members cast their votes across the country's 8,809 wards in all 774 local government areas, reinforcing Mr. Tinubu's strong hold on the ruling party.

Mr. Tinubu's only challenger in the race was APC chieftain and businessman Stanley Osifo from Edo State. The collation of results, announced on Sunday by Pius Anyim, the returning officer of the APC Presidential Primary Election at the Bola Tinubu International Conference Centre, Abuja, revealed a decisive win for the incumbent president. Out of 12,643,306 registered voters in the party, 11,069,756 members were accredited, with 11,015,665 eventually casting their votes. President Tinubu polled a staggering 10,999,162 votes, while Mr. Osifo managed to secure only 16,503 votes nationwide.

The results underscored Mr. Tinubu's dominance, with Mr. Osifo failing to secure a single vote in numerous states and recording negligible tallies elsewhere. States such as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Delta, Kogi, Ebonyi, Kwara, Borno, Kebbi, Enugu, Kaduna, Ondo, Yobe, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Ekiti, Ogun, Sokoto, Taraba, Cross River, Gombe, and Osun delivered unanimous support for the president, with Osifo scoring zero votes. In other states, his vote count was minimal; for instance, he received one vote in Edo and five in Bayelsa.

Specific state results further illustrate the scale of Mr. Tinubu's victory. In Sokoto State, he secured all 301,000 votes cast, while in Ebonyi, he received all 207,579 valid votes. Rivers State returned 280,082 votes for Mr. Tinubu with none for Mr. Osifo. Cross River and Kogi also showed similarly strong margins. States with exceptionally high vote totals for the president included Imo (582,960 votes), Kano (503,527 votes), Gombe (450,517 votes), Delta (407,646 votes), Akwa Ibom (389,197 votes), and Benue (374,787 votes). Mr. Osifo's highest tally of 5,248 votes was recorded in Niger State. In Mr. Tinubu's political stronghold of Lagos State, he garnered 814,988 votes against Mr. Osifo’s 1,186 votes.

Party officials and governors consistently described the direct primary exercise as peaceful, transparent, and credible, highlighting it as a demonstration of the party's grassroots strength and internal democracy. Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori noted that the exercise was a test of the party’s strength, while Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma stated that the turnout reflected growing grassroots support for the APC and Mr. Tinubu’s leadership. President Tinubu, speaking after casting his vote in Lagos, emphasized that the process represented