Unuevbo TV
"A Journey of Continuity": Faleke Picks Up Tinubu's ₦100m APC Forms, Formally Fires Starting Gun for 2027 Re‑Election Bid
The machinery of continuity has been formally set in motion. On Tuesday, 28 April 2026, at the national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, the lawmaker representing Ikeja Federal Constituency, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke, picked up the party's Expression of Interest and Nomination forms for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu — a ₦100 million transaction that officially launches the President's campaign for a second term in the 2027 general elections. In the same breath, Faleke also purchased the ₦50 million governorship nomination form for Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, signalling that the APC’s dominance in the nation's commercial capital is a project the party intends to renew without complication.
The event, presided over by the APC National Organising Secretary, Alhaji Suleiman Argungu, was both a bureaucratic formality and a carefully choreographed piece of political theatre. Faleke, who served as the Secretary of the APC Presidential Campaign Council in 2023, was flanked by party loyalists as he received the documents that will be submitted when the party opens its nomination window. Argungu, whose position places him at the administrative heart of the party's primary machinery, declared the process officially open, telling journalists that the party is on track to hold its presidential primary on May 23 — a date that has been moved from the originally scheduled May 15 to accommodate what party insiders describe as "logistical refinements".
"He Will Deliver Nigeria": Faleke's Message
Speaking shortly after picking up the forms, Faleke dismissed any suggestion that the 2027 election would pose a serious threat to the APC. “The President will run. He will win. He will deliver Nigeria,” he said, in a statement that combined brevity with the kind of absolute certainty that has become the hallmark of the APC's messaging as the election cycle intensifies. “The party is united behind Mr. President. There is no alternative to continuity.” Faleke's confidence mirrors the broader mood within the APC leadership, which has spent recent weeks consolidating its structures and accelerating its electoral timetable — a sharp contrast to the opposition's ongoing struggles to translate the symbolic unity of the Ibadan Declaration into a single, agreed-upon presidential candidate.
The ₦100 million price tag for the presidential forms — comprising ₦30 million for the Expression of Interest and ₦70 million for the Nomination form — is a significant financial commitment, but one that the Tinubu camp has met without visible strain. Political analysts note that the speed with which the forms were picked up, just days after the APC opened sales, underscores the President's determination to project an image of inevitability. For a ruling party seeking re-election, the optics of a swift, well-financed, and orderly nomination process are themselves a political weapon — a message to opponents, both within the party and outside it, that the incumbent is not waiting, not hesitating, and not leaving anything to chance.
Hamzat's ₦50m Form and the Lagos Calculus
Faleke's parallel purchase of the ₦50 million governorship form for Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat — a move that drew applause from party supporters at the secretariat — carries its own significance. Lagos State, the APC’s crown jewel, has been governed by the party since the return to democracy in 1999, and Governor Babajide Sanwo‑Olu is constitutionally term‑limited. Hamzat, a long‑serving technocrat and loyalist of the President, is widely regarded as the heir apparent. By purchasing Hamzat's forms alongside the President's, Faleke — a key figure in Lagos APC politics — is effectively signalling that the succession question in Lagos has been resolved within the party's inner circles, even before the formal primary process begins. The ₦50 million price for the governorship forms — ₦10 million for Expression of Interest, ₦40 million for Nomination — is a fraction of the presidential fee, but the symbolic weight of the transaction is considerable. Lagos generates the largest voting bloc in the country and serves as both the financial engine and the political weathervane of the APC's national dominance. A seamless transition in Lagos is not merely a state matter; it is a national imperative for a party that cannot afford to lose its most reliable stronghold.
An Accelerated Timetable and a Party in Control
Argungu confirmed that the APC has published designated bank accounts for aspirants and that the sale of forms will continue through the coming weeks. The presidential primary has been rescheduled from May 15 to May 23 — an adjustment the party attributes to the need for "logistical refinements" but which opposition figures have suggested may be designed to accommodate ongoing negotiations within the ruling party's power blocs. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has set the window for party primaries to run from April 23 to May 30, 2026, with the presidential election itself scheduled for January 16, 2027. The APC's accelerated timetable means that the ruling party will likely be the first major political group to settle its presidential ticket, giving it a significant head start in the general election campaign. By contrast, the opposition coalition — which emerged from the Ibadan summit with a pledge to field a single candidate but without an agreed mechanism for selecting one — remains in the early stages of what promises to be a protracted and fractious negotiation. As one APC strategist put it privately: "While they are still debating who should run, we are already running."
A Message of Control and Continuity
The Faleke transaction is about far more than forms. It is a meticulously staged piece of political communication, designed to signal that the APC is in control of its own destiny, that the President's re‑election campaign is not a distant prospect but an active reality, and that the machinery of the ruling party — from Abuja to Lagos — is already in motion. In an electoral cycle defined by uncertainty — a fragile economy, a volatile security environment, and an opposition that has promised unity but not yet delivered it — the APC is betting that the appearance of order, momentum, and inevitability will carry its own persuasive force. The campaign has not yet officially begun, but at the APC headquarters on Tuesday, it was impossible to miss the message: the President is running, and those who wish to stop him are already running late.
A Starting Pistol Fired
James Faleke's journey to the APC secretariat on Tuesday was not merely an administrative errand. It was the firing of a starting pistol, the sound of a ruling party declaring that the 2027 election has effectively begun. With the presidential forms in hand and the governorship forms for Lagos secured, the APC has moved from preparation to execution — and the opposition, still navigating the aftermath of the Ibadan Declaration, must now decide whether it can move at a similar pace. The clock is ticking, and the contest that will define Nigeria's political future is no longer on the horizon. It is here.
Stay tuned to Unuevbo TV for continuing coverage of Nigeria's 2027 presidential race and political developments.
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