Senatorial aspirant Kabiru Sani Giant has vowed to stay in the race against incumbent Senator Adamu Aliero, rejecting any backroom consensus moves ahead of the APC National Assembly primaries.
Giant, a former special adviser on power to Kebbi State Governor Nasir Idris, made the declaration on the steps of political confrontation on Tuesday after formally submitting his expression of interest and nomination forms for the primary election scheduled for May 18, 2026, a date that now looms large on the political calendar of one of Nigeria’s most closely watched intra-party contests.
Speaking to a gathering of journalists in what observers described as an unusually forthright and combative tone for a first-time senatorial aspirant, Giant left no room for ambiguity.
He flatly rejected any suggestion of a consensus arrangement, a mechanism frequently employed within Nigerian political parties to clear the field for preferred or incumbent candidates without the inconvenience of a competitive ballot.
“The issue is what they have done for the people,” Giant said, his words aimed squarely at Senator Aliero’s political record. “If they have anything to show, let them present it to the people. It is the people who will decide.”
His remarks carry the unmistakable weight of a candidate who believes the wind of public sentiment is blowing in his direction and who is gambling that an open, direct primary process will bear that out. “We are ready. We don’t want consensus. With direct primaries, the people will decide who they want. I am ready to face any challenge,” he added, with a confidence that is already drawing attention from political watchers across the Northwest.
The question of whether the APC will allow a free and open contest or engineer a consensus outcome is perhaps the most consequential political variable in this unfolding drama.
Consensus arrangements, while technically permissible under party rules, have in recent cycles attracted criticism for disenfranchising grassroots party members and suppressing democratic competition within Nigeria’s dominant ruling party.
Giant’s insistence on direct primaries is therefore not merely procedural; it is a strategic and ideological stake in the ground. By championing the rights of delegates and ordinary voters to determine the outcome, he is positioning himself as the candidate of democratic principles against what he implies is a system rigged in the incumbent’s favor.
He also questioned the logic behind any push for consensus, emphasizing that his supporters, whose expectations he said he has no intention of betraying, are demanding that the matter be settled through the ballot, not the boardroom.
Beneath the surface of this senatorial contest lies a deeper and more complex political rivalry that gives the story its true significance. Giant is widely believed, in informed political circles, to enjoy the backing of interests aligned with Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, Nigeria’s minister of budget and economic planning and a towering figure in Kebbi State politics, who is said to maintain a longstanding and well-documented political rivalry with Senator Aliero.
If that assessment is accurate, then Giant’s candidacy is not merely the ambition of one man; it potentially represents the latest front in a broader power struggle between two of the most influential political figures the state has produced.
Bagudu, who served as Governor of Kebbi State for eight years before his appointment into President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet, commands a formidable political machinery, and his tacit or active support could prove decisive in shaping the outcome of the May 18 primary.
Senator Aliero, for his part, is no political novice. A former governor of Kebbi State himself and a senator with years of legislative experience, he brings to the contest the considerable advantages of incumbency, name recognition, institutional relationships, and access to the apparatus of political mobilization that comes with holding federal office.
The battle for Kebbi Central is shaping up to be one of the most fiercely contested senatorial primaries in the Northwest ahead of the 2027 general elections. It arrives at a moment of heightened political activity across the country, as political parties race to consolidate structures, identify candidates, and position themselves for what promises to be a consequential electoral cycle.
For Giant, the submission of his forms marks not just a procedural milestone but the formal opening of what he clearly intends to be an aggressive, grassroots-driven campaign.
His message to Kebbi Central voters is unambiguous: the people deserve a choice, the incumbent must be held accountable, and no deal struck in smoke-filled rooms should rob them of the opportunity to exercise that choice.
Whether Senator Aliero chooses to engage his challenger head-on or relies on the weight of incumbency and party structures to see off the threat remains to be seen.
But one thing is now certain: Kabiru Sani Giant has served notice, and Kebbi Central’s political season has well and truly begun.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The senatorial battle for Kebbi Central is shaping up to be far more than a routine party primary. At its core, it is a story about democratic accountability, an aspirant, Kabiru Sani Giant, refusing to be silenced or sidelined by consensus politics and demanding that the people of Kebbi Central be allowed to decide their own representation at the polls.
Backed by forces aligned with Minister Atiku Bagudu and running against a powerful incumbent in Senator Adamu Aliero, Giant’s defiance signals that the May 18 APC primary will be a genuine test of whether intra-party democracy can hold its ground against establishment pressure.
