As Nigeria inches closer to the 2027 general elections, divisions are emerging once again within the Anambra State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

A local political observer, writing under the name Paschal Candle, has published a widely shared analysis accusing the party’s consensus candidate selection committee of engineering a process predetermined to serve the interests of a few individuals in Abuja, while ignoring the will of grassroots stakeholders.

At the heart of the controversy is the Central Election Committee headed by former PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, who hails from Nnewi North Local Government Area in Anambra State.

The opinion piece pointedly stated: “Chief Olisa Metuh cannot come from Nnewi and impose Consensus Candidate for the good people of Oyi & Ayamelum, Ihiala, Anambra East & West, Orumba North and South and so on.” It asserts that the criteria used in selecting these candidates remain unknown, and that any arrangement reached without the direct participation of Ward, LGA, and Federal Constituency stakeholders is a fraud.

The report highlights specific Federal Constituencies—including Nnewi North/Nnewi South & Ekwusigo, Orumba North and South, Anambra East and West, and Oyi & Ayamelum—where the method of selection is alleged to be deliberately opaque.

Meanwhile, the APC’s national approach has been consistent across the country; observers note that the party is leaning heavily on consensus to reduce costs and circumvent the delegate-based option that was scrapped by the Electoral Act 2026. However, in states like Yobe, Nasarawa, and Oyo, the adoption of consensus has sparked outright rejection by aggrieved aspirants and party members, threatening a deepening internal crisis before the main election campaign has even begun.

Analysts point out that if the APC takes the electorate for granted by imposing an unpopular candidate through coerced consensus, it could hand victory to the opposition.

The history of the APC in Anambra shows that the party’s electoral performance has already been extremely weak. In the 2019 presidential election, then-incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari won as the APC candidate but amassed only 33,298 votes in the entire state, a humiliating figure compared to the PDP’s 524,728 votes. In the 2023 presidential election, the APC again recorded an embarrassing 5,111 votes, a performance often blamed on deep internal divisions and the deliberate marginalization of party members.

The opinion piece starkly concluded: “I have asked in my earlier write up, what is the criteria for arriving at this consensus arrangement? The way and manner the committee is going, APC will not make any meaningful impact in this election.”.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has repeatedly warned political parties to ensure that all primary elections, including consensus arrangements, are conducted transparently and fairly. In March 2026, INEC unveiled a set of new draft regulations explicitly intended to curb opaque internal party processes and align party guidelines with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026.

The Commission has stated that it will no longer serve as a “passive observer” when democratic values are eroded by political actors.

This is not the first time that the use of consensus by a major Nigerian political party has led to protracted legal battles and widespread apathy among members.

Various court rulings have ultimately nullified the results of party primaries where the law was deemed to have been violated. For the APC in Anambra, the decision to push ahead with what critics call a fraudulent consensus could spell disaster.

The opinion piece concluded on a forbodding note: “Anything short of this, we are inviting Massive Apathy and Failures for the Party.”