The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, has claimed that the Peoples Democratic Party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance and the Accord Party are supporting President Bola Tinubu’s bid for a second term ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Yilwatda made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja after meeting with Tinubu alongside the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Abdul’aziz Yari.
The meeting was convened to update the president on the party’s preparations for its forthcoming presidential campaign.
Speaking after the meeting, the APC chairman portrayed the alleged support from opposition parties as a significant boost to Tinubu’s re-election prospects. He maintained that parties that had previously defeated the ruling party in elections were now aligning with its campaign ahead of the 2027 presidential contest.
“If you look at what the party is doing now, the opposition parties are with us. All political parties that have defeated us in any election are with us; PDP is with us, APGA is with us, Accord is with us,” Yilwatda said.
He further argued that the only party to have defeated the APC in an election but not joined the alleged alliance was the Allied People’s Movement.
“These are the only political parties that have defeated us, except Allied People’s Movement, and they are all with us in this campaign,” he added.
The APC chairman’s remarks come amid an ongoing leadership dispute within the PDP, where opposing factions have expressed conflicting positions on whether the party should support Tinubu’s second-term ambition.
A faction led by Tanimu Turaki has maintained that genuine PDP members would not endorse the president’s re-election. The group, which challenges the leadership position claimed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, on Tuesday dismissed suggestions that PDP candidates should abandon their political structures in favour of Tinubu.
In a statement signed by Ini Ememobong, the faction’s National Publicity Secretary of the Interim National Working Committee, the group accused those promoting support for the president of disguising their allegiance to the ruling APC while claiming to belong to the opposition.
“The news credited to Minister Nyesom Wike that PDP candidates should collapse their structures and support the re-election of President Bola Tinubu is nothing new, except for the fact that his message is not directed at real PDP members,” the statement said.
“The message is meant for persons who, like him, are pretenders in the opposition but are working for the governing party.”
The faction insisted that the PDP should maintain its position as an opposition party and continue to challenge the APC-led government rather than support the re-election of the president it is expected to oppose.
“The true and principled members of the Peoples Democratic Party are not part of the shameless, self-serving support for the APC-led Federal Government and its destructive policies,” it stated.
It argued that opposition parties had a responsibility to present Nigerians with a credible alternative to the incumbent administration, rather than help consolidate the political influence of the ruling party.
“The paramount duty of the opposition is to provide an alternative to the incumbent, not to massage their ego. If at all opposition parties are to have an alliance, it will be amongst themselves, not with the governing party,” the statement added.
The group also condemned the political arrangement being promoted under the banner of a “Rainbow Coalition”, warning that cooperation between opposition figures and the governing party could threaten democratic competition and weaken accountability.
“This political anomaly, styled and championed as a Rainbow Coalition, is the greatest threat to electoral democracy and the fastest way of railroading the country into an electoral monarchy,” it said.
Meanwhile, Yilwatda disclosed that the APC had concluded arrangements for the official commencement of its presidential campaign, scheduled to take place in Kaduna on Saturday, October 24.
He expressed confidence in the preparedness of the Presidential Campaign Council, noting that its members, state-level structures and various committees had completed the tasks required ahead of the launch.
“For now, everything is set; the preparation is on, the members are motivated, the states, the committees are ready, and everything that is supposed to be done has been done,” he said.
Yari, a former governor of Zamfara State who heads the APC Presidential Campaign Council, said the party would focus its campaign on the administration’s performance and achievements rather than resort to personal attacks against political opponents.
According to him, the APC intends to present its record in government to voters and allow Nigerians to assess the administration on the basis of its performance.
“We are going to do a campaign with the records – a responsible campaign, no insults, no calling of names, because there’s no name before us, but we have a record before us to show to Nigerians,” Yari said.
He urged Nigerians to consider the administration’s record before making a decision on whether Tinubu should remain in office for another four years, describing a second term as an opportunity to sustain the government’s existing programmes and policies.
“This is what our party did, this is what our government did, so because of that, we are asking, pleading with Nigerians to look at this record carefully so that they give us a second chance for continuity,” he stated.
Yari also revealed that Tinubu had approved the campaign schedule, including planned visits to states across the country. The disclosure followed a meeting with the president on October 9.
The APC Presidential Campaign Council was inaugurated on October 14, with Tinubu appointed as its chairman. Vice President Kashim Shettima and Yilwatda serve as vice chairmen of the council.
The APC chairman’s assertion that opposition parties are backing Tinubu’s re-election also follows earlier public declarations by some political figures associated with the parties mentioned.
Christopher Imumolen, the Accord Party’s presidential candidate, announced his withdrawal from the 2027 presidential race in a statement issued on August 5 and endorsed Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Similarly, APGA National Chairman Sly Ezeokenwa said in March that the party would not present a presidential candidate in the election and planned to adopt Tinubu.
However, the claim of broader opposition support remains contested, with the Turaki-led PDP faction explicitly rejecting calls for the party’s candidates to support the president and insisting that the opposition should maintain its independence from the governing APC.
