Katsina’s APC has unanimously affirmed Governor Dikko Radda as its consensus candidate for the 2027 governorship race, as the ruling party moves to consolidate its grip on one of its key northern strongholds.
The affirmation, conducted under the watchful eyes of officials dispatched from the APC’s national headquarters in Abuja, drew 160 delegates who cast their voices in a unanimous verdict, leaving no ambiguity about the party’s preferred standard-bearer heading into what is expected to be a fiercely contested electoral cycle nationwide.
Dr. Yakubu Maccido, Chairman of the Electoral Committee for the Governorship Consensus Exercise, presided over the proceedings with measured authority.
Citing the provisions of the Electoral Act and internal APC guidelines, he explained that where a sole aspirant presents himself for consideration, the party’s rules require that such a candidate be affirmed through a voice vote by accredited delegates, a mechanism designed to give democratic expression to what is, in effect, an uncontested selection.
“One hundred and sixty delegates unanimously affirmed Radda as the party’s candidate,” Dr. Maccido declared, before formally announcing the governor as the APC consensus governorship candidate for the 2027 election in Katsina State.
He subsequently presented declaration of result forms covering other elective positions to party leaders, signaling that the day’s business extended well beyond the gubernatorial ticket.
The exercise drew warm praise from senior party figures who contrasted Katsina’s seamless process with the turbulence reported in some other states during similar exercises held across the country.
Alhaji Datti Garba, the APC Zonal National Vice Chairman, commended party members for conducting the consensus process in a peaceful and orderly manner, describing the atmosphere as befitting a mature political organization.
His sentiments were echoed by Alhaji Abdulkadir Mamman Nasir, Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, who noted with evident pride that Katsina was among the states where the consensus option was adopted without any crisis, a distinction that carried particular weight given the tensions that have accompanied similar exercises elsewhere.
Perhaps the most politically significant voice of the day belonged to former Katsina Governor and current Chairman of the Reconciliation Committee, Alhaji Aminu Masari, a heavyweight whose counsel carries considerable weight within the state’s political establishment.
Masari, who served as Katsina’s governor from 2015 to 2023, directed his first appeal at those who had harbored gubernatorial ambitions of their own. “Party members and aspirants whose ambitions did not materialize should support Radda and work for the unity and success of the party,” he urged, in a message that acknowledged, however diplomatically, that not everyone in the room arrived entirely satisfied.
Turning to the governor himself, Masari issued what amounted to a pointed advisory: that Radda must carry all stakeholders along in the administration and affairs of the party, a reminder, perhaps, that consensus in name must be matched by inclusion in practice.
The elder statesman described the Katsina process as “successful and exemplary” relative to what had occurred in other states and wasted little time in pivoting to the electoral battle ahead.
He called on APC stakeholders across the state to immediately commence grassroots mobilization, stressing that such an effort was indispensable to securing victory not only for Governor Radda but also for President Bola Tinubu and all APC candidates up and down the ballot in 2027.
“Katsina is a stronghold of the party,” Masari declared, urging residents of the state to come out in their numbers on election day and vote for the APC—a rallying cry that laid bare the political stakes now attached to what was, on the surface, a procedural affirmation exercise.
In an acceptance speech that blended religious gratitude with political commitment, Governor Radda struck a tone of humility and determination. He began by thanking Almighty Allah for granting him the opportunity to witness the occasion before expressing appreciation to party leaders, stakeholders, and members for affording him the chance to seek re-election without opposition.
“I would justify the confidence reposed in me and work tirelessly for the success of the APC at all levels,” Radda assured party faithful—words that, in the charged atmosphere of a pre-election season, carried the weight of a solemn pledge.
Thursday’s exercise in Katsina forms part of a broader wave of early primary and consensus activities being conducted by the APC across Nigerian states as the 2027 general elections, still roughly two years away, begin to cast a long shadow over the country’s political landscape.
For the APC, locking down consensus candidates early in states it considers safe ground is a strategic move aimed at projecting unity and freeing up energy for more competitive battlegrounds. Katsina, as a predominantly APC state and the home state of former President Muhammadu Buhari, occupies a symbolic as well as numerical importance within the party’s northern bloc.
Whether the orderly proceedings of Thursday translate into the genuine unity that former Governor Masari called for and whether Governor Radda’s administration can satisfy the diverse ambitions within the party before voting day remain the central questions that will define Katsina’s political story between now and 2027.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Katsina State’s APC has locked in Governor Dikko Radda as its unchallenged governorship candidate for 2027, with 160 delegates affirming him unanimously in a process party officials praised as peaceful and orderly.
Former Governor Masari’s pointed call for Radda to carry all stakeholders along and his appeal to disappointed aspirants to fall in line hint at underlying tensions that the governor must carefully manage.
