Nigeria’s ruling party has formally exempted President Bola Tinubu from the standard vetting process ahead of the 2027 presidential primaries, a decision that bypasses a procedural step that every other aspirant would ordinarily be required to clear.
The All Progressives Congress National Working Committee made the move at its 188th meeting on Wednesday, May 6, declaring Tinubu “duly screened” without him ever appearing before a screening committee — the body empowered to question candidates, review their credentials, and, where it deems fit, disqualify them entirely.
Party spokesperson Felix Morka announced the resolution in a statement posted to X on Wednesday evening.
What Was Waived — and Why It Matters
Under normal party procedure, screening is not a formality. A candidate appears in person, faces questions from a committee, and submits credentials for review. The committee holds real authority: it can approve or disqualify. It is, in theory, one of the few institutional checkpoints between a prospective candidate and the party’s primary ballot.
That process has now been bypassed entirely for the sitting president.
The NWC anchored its decision in Articles 13.4(xiii) and (xiv) of the APC constitution, provisions that grant the committee authority to organise and supervise primaries and — critically — to “grant waivers, in the best interest of the Party” under special circumstances.
Morka’s statement argued that requiring Tinubu’s physical appearance before a screening panel at this stage would be “redundant and unnecessary,” given that he was already screened and cleared ahead of the 2022 presidential primaries that produced his first-term candidacy.
The Case the Party is Making
The APC’s justification rests on two pillars: precedent and consensus.
On precedent, the party contends that Tinubu’s 2022 screening established a baseline that need not be repeated. On consensus, the NWC pointed to what it described as overwhelming endorsement from the party’s most powerful institutional voices — the Progressive Governors Forum, the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly, and other major party organs — all of whom threw their support behind the President at the APC National Summit of May 22, 2025.
In the party’s framing, the question of Tinubu’s candidacy is already settled within its own ranks. The screening waiver, then, is presented not as an exception to due process but as an administrative recognition of an outcome that internal party consensus has already determined.
The Questions the Decision Raises
That framing, however, is unlikely to satisfy critics — and the decision is already positioned to become a flashpoint in what promises to be a deeply contested political season.
Screening committees exist precisely because incumbency does not automatically confer fitness for continued candidacy. Circumstances change. New questions emerge. The credentials and conduct that were reviewed in 2022 may not exhaust what a thorough vetting in 2026 might surface.
By granting a waiver, the NWC has foreclosed that possibility — at least within the party’s own structures. Whether opposition forces, civil society organisations, or the courts will view the waiver as constitutionally sound or as a procedural convenience dressed in legal language is a question that may well outlast the primaries themselves.
What is not in dispute is the signal the decision sends: within the APC, the 2027 presidential ticket is, for all practical purposes, already decided. The primaries, when they come, will ratify rather than determine.
The Statement on Record
Morka’s full resolution, signed in his capacity as National Publicity Secretary, reads in part:
“The National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress, at its 188th Meeting, held today May 6, 2026, resolved to waive, and has waived, screening requirements for His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and deemed him as duly screened in accordance with the Constitution of the Party for the purpose of participation in the upcoming primary elections.”
The machinery of the APC’s 2027 campaign is now, officially, in motion. The incumbent has cleared the first gate — without having to open it.
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