National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has commended the national leadership of the party for the conduct of the ongoing primaries to elect candidates for various positions ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The party, in the last few days, conducted primaries for National and State Assembly seats, while governorship and presidential primaries are scheduled to hold on Thursday and next Monday respectively across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Speaking with journalists on Wednesday after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at his Ikoyi residence in Lagos, Yilwatda described the party primaries as near perfect and almost rancour-free.

While thanking party supporters for their disciplined conduct throughout the process, the APC chairman said the exercise had been orderly and largely devoid of major disputes.

“The exercise is near rancour-free, very organised, with little complaints. It is usual for people to complain in election processes, but it is near perfect,” he said.

Yilwatda explained that both consensus and direct primaries were adopted where necessary, stressing that consensus was never imposed on aspirants.

“Our guidelines are very clear. Our guidelines on consensus are clear. Our guidelines on direct primaries are also clear. Where consensus doesn’t work, you go for direct primaries. That’s what people are doing across the states.

“There’s no state where people have complained that they wanted direct primaries and they were given compulsory consensus. Because it’s a consensus form that we gave. You must sign off those consensus forms that you’ve stepped down. You agreed on a consensus candidate before the process takes place. That’s what we’re following in the guidelines,” he stated.

Yilwatda also disclosed that the party had activated internal conflict resolution mechanisms to address grievances among aspirants and position the APC for victory in the 2027 elections.

“We have an internal conflict resolution mechanism that has prevailed over a period. We have the Presidential Conflict Resolution Committee. We have the Party Conflict Resolution Committee. The party itself has been working to ensure that we reduce crisis as much as we can.

“Everywhere, if you lose an election, it’s not a rare thing. The emotions, the sentiments, the fact that you feel you’re the best and then suddenly it’s gone, you’re not the one. The sentiments and feelings, the ill feelings, sometimes they are there. We ensure that we have the early healing process so that we can work on the campaign process and emerge victorious across the country in 2027,” he added.

The APC national chairman further disclosed that President Tinubu expressed satisfaction with the logistics deployed by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) for the primaries.

“The President was very impressed with the logistics we deployed across the country and the tactics we used. He has also been impressed with the reduced number of incidents across the country.

“We’ve not had so many conflicts and crises across communities and at the ward level during the election processes. He’s happy with what we’re doing. I also want to thank Mr. President for the backing he has given the National Working Committee to succeed.

“The moral backing, he has supported everything we’ve done to ensure that we enforce the party’s regulations to the letter,” Yilwatda said.

Deji Elumoye