Ondo APC elders reject seat concessions

Bola Tinubu in Abuja in November 2024. File photograph. Russell Watkins / Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped, CC BY 2.0.

Elders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State have opposed any agreement that would require the party’s candidates to surrender their electoral ambitions in exchange for support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election.

The elders, operating under the PBAT Mandate Elders Forum, said they welcomed support for Tinubu from other political parties but considered arrangements that would displace APC candidates unnecessary in Ondo.

Their chairman, Demola Ijabiyi, outlined the position during a meeting in Akure on Wednesday, 4 November. He argued that the APC’s organisation and support across the state gave it sufficient strength to contest the 2027 elections without conceding constituencies to rival parties.

The disagreement concerns the Rainbow Coalition, a cross-party arrangement promoted by Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike. The platform supports Tinubu’s presidential bid while allowing participants to back candidates from different parties in other elections.

Ijabiyi said the circumstances of individual states should determine whether such cooperation offered an electoral advantage. In his assessment, an alliance could help where the APC needed another party’s support, but Ondo presented no justification for a “political alliance” that displaced its candidates.

He said, “We, the elders of APC, are saying that we don’t need it (Rainbow Coalition) in Ondo State. That is the bottom line. That’s the elders’ position. We don’t need it. We can win without a coalition. In other states, we cannot win without a coalition. Go ahead with it. That’s our own.

“We have no reason to be trading away our candidates for the Rainbow coalition. It is to bridge the weaknesses of every party. We say that it does not apply to us. Now, I watched our governor some time ago. He said, as long as the coalition is there for support, nothing is spoiled.

“There is no constituency that we cannot win. We are going to win all. That’s the bottom line. Why do we have to trade anybody who is going to submit his own candidate to whichever party is strong enough for us to support, at the expense of our candidate, in all those states? I don’t know.”

The forum also warned APC members against campaigning for rival candidates while retaining their membership of the ruling party.

Ijabiyi said dissatisfaction with primary election results did not excuse support for another party’s nominees. He maintained that members should pursue the success of the APC ticket despite disagreements arising from candidate selection.

“Any APC member, whether aggrieved or not aggrieved, engaging in support for another party other than our party and our candidate has committed an anti-party activity. There is no other way of seeing it,” he said.

He discouraged members from using rival campaigns to settle grievances and expressed confidence that efforts to undermine the party would fail.

Alongside its position on alliances, the forum outlined a mobilisation programme intended to secure at least one million votes for Tinubu.

Ijabiyi identified participation as the central challenge. He said the organisation needed to persuade supporters to vote and reconnect with eligible residents who had become discouraged and withdrawn from elections.

“The only way by which we can turn out one million votes is to encourage people to come out. And so we are setting up the structure to specifically address that issue, to bring out decided voters and people who have stopped voting,” he said.

The organisation is targeting voter turnout of at least 80 per cent. Its proposed activities include voter education and mobilisation through local government, ward and polling-unit structures.

According to New Telegraph’s account, the elders have facilitated local government chapters under the Progressive Mandate Forum to support the campaign. The organisation intends to seek votes for Tinubu alongside the APC’s National and State Assembly candidates.

Tinubu received 369,924 votes in Ondo during the 2023 presidential election, according to results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission. He won across the state’s 18 local government areas.

The Rainbow Coalition has meanwhile begun establishing its own structures in the state.

In a separate statement on 2 November, its Ondo chairman, Abayomi Adesanya, announced a steering committee and local government coordinators. He said the coalition would campaign for Tinubu and the Peoples Democratic Party’s Ondo South senatorial candidate, Matthew Oyerinmade.

Adesanya described the organisation as a movement drawing members from several parties. Its coordinators would establish ward structures and polling-unit canvassers, according to the statement reporting the appointments.