The All-Progressive Congress (APC) goes into the forthcoming presidential elections as Nigeria’s ruling party having defeated its major opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to claim the presidential seat in 2015 and gained re-election in 2019.
Currently, the ruling party holds 63 of the 109 seats in the Senate, 209 out of the 360 seats in the House of Representatives, 22 governors out of the country’s 36 and 598 seats out of the 991 available in the state Houses of Assembly. These figures show the dominance of the party across the country.
Regardless of the party’s dominance, here are some challenges that might pose a threat to APC and its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu:
APC’s score card
During the almost eight years in which Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has ruled the country, the country has recorded a heightened level of insecurity, an increase in debt, continuous strike action by university lecturers, an increase in inflation rates and many more. These issues have, according to many, tainted the scorecard of the country’s ruling party. As such, the party may face difficulty in convincing voters to trust them in 2023.
Allegations against Tinubu
Tinubu, famously praised by his supporters for laying the foundation for which Lagos State stands (Nigeria’s largest commercial city) is facing public scrutiny for drug allegations, falsifying his age, choosing a Muslim running mate, altering educational credentials, having a health crisis, etc. all of which pose a major threat to the former state governor’s political ambition.