The All Progressives Congress (APC) has claimed that the Peoples Democratic Party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance and Accord are backing President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid, as the ruling party prepares to launch its presidential campaign ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general election.
The APC national chairman, Prof Nentawe Yilwatda, made the claim on Tuesday after briefing Tinubu at the State House in Abuja alongside Abdul’aziz Yari, the director-general of the party’s presidential campaign council.
Yilwatda said preparations had been completed for the formal launch of the campaign in Kaduna on Saturday, 24 October, describing the reported support from opposition parties as evidence of growing backing for the president.
“If you look at what the party is doing now, the opposition parties are with us,” he said. “PDP is with us, APGA is with us, Accord is with us.”
He added that the three parties were among those that had defeated the APC in previous elections, arguing that their alignment with the ruling party strengthened Tinubu’s prospects.
Yilwatda said campaign committees were ready, party members were motivated and arrangements had been completed for the Kaduna event.
Yari, a former governor of Zamfara state, said the campaign would focus on the Tinubu administration’s record rather than personal attacks against political opponents.
“We are going to do a campaign with the records – a responsible campaign, no insults, no calling of names,” he said.
The campaign council would ask Nigerians to assess the government’s performance before deciding whether to give it another term, he added.
“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,” Yari said.
He said Tinubu had approved the campaign timetable, including planned visits to states, after a meeting on 9 October.
The campaign council, inaugurated on 14 October, is chaired by Tinubu, with Vice-President Kashim Shettima and Yilwatda serving as vice-chairmen.
The APC’s claims of support from opposition parties, however, come amid divisions within the PDP over its leadership and whether it should cooperate with the ruling party.
Accord’s presidential candidate, Christopher Imumolen, withdrew from the race in a statement on 5 August and endorsed Tinubu. APGA’s national chairman, Sly Ezeokenwa, said in March that his party would not field a presidential candidate and intended to adopt the president.
The position of the PDP remains contested.
The minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, who has declared himself the party’s leader, has pledged to secure votes for the APC in the FCT and Rivers state.
But a rival PDP faction led by Tanimu Turaki, a senior advocate of Nigeria, has rejected Wike’s claim to leadership and ruled out an alliance with the APC ahead of the 2027 election.
In a statement on Tuesday, the faction’s interim national working committee, through its national publicity secretary, Ini Ememobong, accused those promoting support for Tinubu of undermining the opposition from within.
It said Wike’s appeal for PDP candidates to support the president was directed at people working for the governing party rather than genuine members of the opposition.
“The paramount duty of the opposition is to provide an alternative to the incumbent, not to massage their ego,” the statement said. “If at all opposition parties are to have an alliance, it will be amongst themselves, not with the governing party.”
The faction described the proposed coalition, promoted by its supporters as a “Rainbow Coalition”, as a threat to electoral democracy.
“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.
The dispute reflects a wider struggle over the PDP’s future as political parties position themselves for the 2027 contest. The Turaki-led faction said its appeal court case had been heard and that it was awaiting judgment, expressing hope that the judiciary would restore the party to what it described as its rightful leadership.
It also warned Nigerians against what it called elite accommodation and state capture disguised as broad-based political cooperation.
“The election next year provides a great opportunity to vote out these insensitive and irresponsible political actors,” the statement said.
The competing positions leave the extent of the PDP’s support for Tinubu uncertain, despite the APC chairman’s assertion that the opposition party has joined the president’s re-election campaign.