Ahead of its May 23 Presidential Convention, attempts by the All Progressives Congress APC to carefully manage a consensus around President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid appeared threatened on Monday, as an Edo-born politician, Osifo Stanley, stepped forward as the first aspirant to publicly declare his intention to contest the party’s presidential primary against the incumbent.
Stanley’s emergence comes weeks after the APC’s earlier national convention in March, where governors, National Assembly members and other party stakeholders adopted Tinubu as the sole candidate for the 2027 presidential election. State chapters, including Bauchi, Borno, Kebbi, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ekiti and Lagos, had subsequently endorsed the President in quick succession, presenting what appeared to be a closed field.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja, the aspirant said he had already requested the party’s account details for the payment of the requisite fees, making clear that his declaration was not rhetorical but operational.
He anchored his defiance squarely on the law. “I believe strongly that we all have the right to enjoy our constitutionally-guaranteed rights to run,” he said, invoking both the APC constitution and the Electoral Act 2026 as amended.
He argued that no endorsement, however sweeping, could substitute for the formal process of a primary election. “There is no part of our party’s constitution that says when people have endorsed you, or when anyone has been endorsed, you automatically become the candidate of the party.
“There is no such law in our party’s Constitution. There is no such law in Nigeria that endorsement is a pathway to becoming the candidate. The party Constitution recognises that you can come out to run. INEC law also recognises that you can come out to run,” he said.
On what he would offer Nigerians if given the ticket, Stanley pointed to the economy and security as the twin pillars of his agenda. “Our plan is to see how Nigeria can get out of lingering economic tension, metamorphose and set our priorities,” he said.
According to him, his priority areas will be the economy and security, which he said are the foundation upon which other developments are built.
