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A recent report indicated that Bola Ahmed Tinubu has empowered 31 governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress to determine the fate of aspirants in their respective states ahead of the 2027 general election.

Tinubu explained that the move is aimed at maintaining unity and cohesion within the party as preparations for the election intensify.

The development followed a closed-door meeting between the president and APC governors.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, alongside the Governor of Niger State, Mohammed Bago, addressed journalists after the meeting, stating that discussions focused on strengthening party unity after the primaries.

They noted that Tinubu reaffirmed his support for allowing states to adopt either consensus or direct primaries in line with the Electoral Act.

“We came to thank the president for his magnanimity and his support to the governors and for our party, the APC.

“He gave us a matching order on what to do for him,” AbdulRazak said.

The governor further stated that the president “ceded his executive power to the governors to go ahead and conduct primaries based on the Electoral Act, either through consensus or direct primaries”.

ZINGTIE gathered that senior members of the National Assembly had earlier met with the president at the Villa, requesting automatic tickets for their colleagues.

However, Tinubu maintained that state governors would retain significant influence over aspirants.

The development has reportedly created unease within the APC, with growing anxiety among some federal lawmakers, particularly those not aligned with their governors.

A member of the House of Representatives from the South-East, who spoke anonymously to ZINGTIE, stated that there is still room to address concerns regarding lawmakers’ political futures.

According to the lawmaker, party mechanisms remain in place to resolve grievances before the primaries are concluded.

He added that it is too early to conclude that lawmakers have been sidelined, noting that a clearer picture will emerge after the primaries.

He said: “Our party just released a revised timetable for the primaries. There’s still time to sought out all issues.

“Yes, the issue of automatic tickets influenced a lot of actions in the National Assembly. We had this thinking that cooperation with the executive would naturally translate into political security.

“Although the reality on ground is seemingly different, and some are beginning to question those assumptions, just like I said, we still have time to get all issues thrashed.

“As it stands, I can’t say for now that we have been sidelined or unfairly treated until the primaries are over.”

Meanwhile, Sumner Sambo, Political Editor at Arise News, revealed that some lawmakers are expressing regret over their political decisions ahead of the elections.

Speaking on The Morning Show on Arise Television, Sambo noted that many politicians had relied on expectations of automatic tickets rather than contesting through primaries.

According to him, this expectation was influenced by perceived political obligations linked to President Tinubu, with some lawmakers believing their support for government policies would secure nominations.

He added that some lawmakers have privately admitted they would not have defected had they known automatic tickets were not guaranteed.

Sambo explained that lawmakers supported executive proposals in anticipation of automatic tickets but are now facing a different reality.

Sambo said: “This is the sort of politics that we are seeing, including the government, that people are fighting for automatic ticket instead of going to go and face their party member through direct primaries to get tickets.

“Everybody is counting on the president and because of that President Tinubu have a whole lot of ‘I Owe You’ (IOUs) to politicians, but he himself is beginning to discover that he cannot do it alone, the forces of the governors will pull him down.

“The federal lawmakers counting on President Tinubu to get the automatic tickets have now come to the reality that until they serve the Nigerian people whatever they’ve done in the past three years has been in vain.

“The thinking was that every bill that President Tinubu brings to the National Assembly they will push it in its favour because he was going to grant them automatic ticket.

“Now, if you look at what has happened, they are all living in regret.

“Many of them I have been speaking with, they keep telling me that if they had known that they were not going to be given this, they wouldn’t even have defected into the APC, because that’s what they were promised.”

A communication expert at Peaceland University, Nduka Odo, criticised the directive, describing it as a threat to democratic principles.

He argued that the move raises concerns about the erosion of the people’s will in the candidate selection process.

Odo questioned whether a system where governors determine candidates can still be regarded as democratic.

He warned that the arrangement could also tie the political future of governors to the president’s approval.

According to him, any governor who deviates from the president’s position risks losing the party’s ticket.

He added that such a structure could further centralise power within the party hierarchy.

The analyst also noted that provisions of the Electoral Act restricting party defection at this stage make the situation more difficult for affected politicians.

He said: “The directive from Mr. President to political aspirants in his party seems like an orderly procedure, but that clearly shows you how low democracy has fallen in this country.

“If he hands the fate of aspirants to the governors, where will the will of people be? If he tells aspirants that it’s only whoever the governors designate to contest that the party will recognise, tell me, is that democracy?

“The darker side of it is that he is indirectly announcing that the fate of the governors also rests with him, the president. It means that any governor who deviates from his directives will lose APC ticket.

“As you know, the new Electoral Act prohibits a change of party at this point. If you fall out of favour, you fall out of the election.

“Engineering tight situations like this is the reason I’ve said before that Tinubu is masterfully crafty in politics, even though that has not shown in his recent governance itself.

“I once opined before he contested for presidency that almost all former governors would like to possess that level of control Tinubu had over Lagos.

“The power to “jagaban in and jagaban out” anyone on any political office. This power would have spelt good if it engineered people-oriented policies.

“At this point, when individuals are powered to determine who contests or not, our political institutions will deteriorate further.

“Hopefully, some day, our political system will see the lights.”

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