The All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed confidence that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will secure a second term in 2027, regardless of who emerges as the next chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
APC National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, made the bold statement in an interview with The Sun, stressing that the ruling party is focused on mobilising support rather than influencing the appointment of the nation’s electoral umpire.
Responding to speculations about the government’s role in choosing a successor to the outgoing INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, whose tenure ends this year, Basiru said:
“How can you be asking a player to recommend a referee? We are players and don’t care about which referee is brought to officiate the match.”
He added that the duty of recommending an electoral commission head rests with civil society groups and lawmakers, not the ruling party.
Basiru insisted that Tinubu’s re-election is inevitable, regardless of INEC leadership:
“By the time we mobilise, even if the new chairman of INEC is the father of the presidential candidate of another party, Asiwaju will still win the election.”
