The All Progressives Congress has passed a vote of confidence in President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima. The party’s National Working Committee reached the decision at its 195th meeting and National Strategic Retreat in Maiduguri.
The three-day retreat ran from 24 to 26 September 2026. Its theme was “Strengthening Party Organisation, Unity and Electoral Readiness Towards 2027.”
National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda read the communique. “I trust strongly that the party is strong, the party is healthy, the party is prepared, and the party is oiled for the 2027 General Elections,” he said.
This mirrors the pattern of incumbent party endorsements ahead of every Nigerian election cycle since 1999. The vote of confidence is routine. The timing is not.
The APC has now formally designated Tinubu and Shettima as its candidates for 2027. The party also endorsed all candidates who emerged from its primary elections. Yilwatda said the NWC would lead the campaign from the front.
The retreat produced a second resolution. The party will deepen peacebuilding mechanisms to address internal disputes. Reconciliation committees will be constituted at state, local government and ward levels. “We resolved that we must continue to make reconciliation where we need to make reconciliation at all levels,” Yilwatda said.
That reconciliation language matters. The APC enters the 2027 cycle with unresolved grievances in several states. The party’s internal primaries produced losers who have not all accepted defeat. The vote of confidence is a statement of unity. The reconciliation committees are an admission that unity remains incomplete.
Winners and Losers
Winners: Tinubu and Shettima, who gain the party’s formal endorsement. Yilwatda, who consolidates his position as national chairman. Party loyalists who will serve on the reconciliation committees.
Losers: Opposition parties, who must now run against an incumbent with a unified party structure on paper. APC members who lost primaries and see reconciliation as a demand to accept defeat. States with unresolved internal disputes, where committee work will be measured by results, not announcements.
Bottom Line: A vote of confidence is not a campaign. The APC has declared its readiness. The reconciliation committees will test whether that readiness is real.