The All Progressives Congress has said its 13 million registered members, 31 governors and over 261,000 executive members give it an advantage over other political parties ahead of the 2027 general election.
The party’s National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, stated this on Saturday while receiving a pre-election fact-finding mission of the Economic Community of West African States, led by former Sierra Leone Vice-President, Victor Foh, at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
In a statement on Sunday by his media aide, Abimbola Tooki, Yilwatda said the APC’s nationwide structures and grassroots strength made it about three times bigger than its closest rival.
Yilwatda said the APC’s strength went beyond electoral victories, citing its verified membership records, grassroots network, elected officials, support groups and established internal structures.
Yilwatda said, “Our party is the largest political party in Nigeria. In terms of structure, organisation and membership, no other political party comes close to us. We are approximately three times larger than the next political party in the country.
“The APC has approximately 13 million registered members spread across all local government areas in Nigeria, with detailed records of members and membership identity cards designed to facilitate verification through their National Identification Numbers and voter identification details.”
The National Chairman said the party’s membership database and identification system provided a strong foundation for effective grassroots engagement, mobilisation, internal coordination and electoral planning.
Yilwatda also highlighted the scale of the APC’s organisational network, noting that the party maintained elected and appointed executive structures from the ward level through local governments and states to the national level.
He said the APC’s nationwide structures strengthened its grassroots engagement and campaign coordination, while its elected representatives reflected the party’s growing acceptance and political reach across the country.
Yilwatda added that the APC had more than 261,000 executive members across its organisational hierarchy, a network he described as a major source of its political strength and nationwide reach.
“The party has 31 governors out of 36, 88 senators out of the 109-member Senate and 208 members of the House of Representatives out of 360 seats,” he said.
He added that the party also enjoyed a significant presence in state Houses of Assembly across the country.
Yilwatda said the reach provided the APC with an extensive network of political leadership and elected officials capable of connecting government policies with citizens and mobilising support at the federal, state and local government levels.
He stressed, however, that the party’s strength was not limited to elected officeholders, as it also enjoyed support from a broad range of organised groups, including youth, women and persons with disabilities.
He added that the APC had inaugurated its campaign council, commenced activities and uploaded its candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s portal ahead of rival parties.
The APC chairman said the party expected INEC to maintain strict adherence to its published electoral timetable, arguing that consistent application of the rules was essential to ensuring fairness among all political parties.
“We believe INEC should stick to its timetable. The rules must apply equally to every political party. The electoral process must be fair, transparent and predictable, without adjusting deadlines in a manner that gives any party an undue advantage,” he said.
He emphasised that the APC’s preparation for 2027 was based on its organisational capacity, candidate readiness and nationwide structures rather than an assumption that electoral victory was automatic.
In a related development, Yilwatda, while inspecting the ongoing construction of the Akwanga, Jos and Gombe sections of the Trans-Sahara Superhighway on Saturday, said the infrastructural projects being executed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would win votes for the party ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Yilwatda described the projects as an “unbeatable campaign asset” for the APC, saying Nigerians would be able to assess the government through projects delivered on the ground.
The Federal Ministry of Works had earlier described the Akwanga-Jos section as a 125-kilometre stretch of the larger Akwanga-Jos-Bauchi-Gombe-Biu-Maiduguri superhighway and said the project was designed to improve connectivity, security and economic activity across the North-Central and North-East.
Speaking with journalists during the inspection, Yilwatda said the construction was living proof of “what the Renewed Hope agenda stands for, and it is precisely why Nigerians will continue to stand firmly behind President Tinubu.”
Yilwatda said the Akwanga-Jos corridor, which formed part of the larger superhighway linking major cities in the North, had suffered decades of inadequate attention before the present administration commenced its reconstruction.
“For over five decades, since the days of the late Joseph Gomwalk around 1972, this corridor witnessed only piecemeal patching,” he said.
“Communities along the Nasarawa-Plateau axis rarely saw federal capital projects running into even N10bn. Today, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has committed hundreds of billions of naira to build an infrastructure asset designed to endure for over a century.”
He said the use of rigid concrete pavement technology would provide durable infrastructure capable of serving the region for generations, rather than the short-term repairs that had characterised the corridor.
Earlier, the head of the ECOWAS mission and former Sierra Leone Vice-President, Victor Bockarie Foh, said the team was assessing Nigeria’s political environment to support the conduct of free, fair and transparent elections.
He added that its findings would be based on systematic observation, verification and credible data rather than assumptions.
Foh said the mission would rely on scientific observations, verified information and data collected through its application system to guide its findings and recommendations.
He added that the team was consulting relevant political stakeholders to gather information and perspectives for its assessment of Nigeria’s electoral environment ahead of the 2027 general elections.
INEC has fixed January 16, 2027, for the 2027 presidential election.