ABUJA – Nigeria’s ruling party rallied around its leadership early on Saturday at its first major get-together ahead of next year’s national elections as the country battles a resurgence of jihadist violence.
More than 8 000 All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders and delegates endorsed the return of the party chairman and other office-holders by consensus in an overnight election in the capital, Abuja, ahead of primaries later this year.
Africa’s most populous country is due to hold national elections on January 16, 2027, in which President Bola Tinubu, 73, is expected to seek a second term.
The APC national convention — held under tight security in Abuja until the early hours of Saturday — took place in the wake of a rise in jihadist assaults on military bases and civilian targets since last year, which has caused international alarm and prompted the United States of President Donald Trump to wade in.
In some of the latest major attacks, 11 soldiers were killed in an ambush last week in the northwestern Kebbi state, while the previous week, triple suicide bomb attacks killed 23 and wounded more than 100 in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
Deteriorating security in the Sahel, the vast region bordering the southern Sahara desert, has enabled jihadist groups to expand their activities in northwestern Nigeria, which has already battled an insurgency for 17 years.
The northwest region is also buckling under a wave of attacks and kidnappings by criminal gangs.
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, whose central Kwara state is one of the hardest hit by recent terror attacks, called for a moment of silence in honour of the “victims of insecurity”.
In a late-night address to the convention, Tinubu did not mention the security crisis the country is facing, but expressed optimism about the “bright future for our nation despite the challenges we face”.
“We will overcome all difficulties,” he added. When he came into office in 2023, Tinubu introduced reforms that included an end to fuel subsidies and currency controls, leading to the worst economic crisis in a generation.
– Nampa/AFP