A former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, has accused President Bola Tinubu of imposing the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Bauchi State, a development that has deepened the crisis within the ruling party ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Tuggar, who served in Tinubu’s cabinet, made the allegation while reacting to the outcome of the APC governorship selection process in Bauchi State, which has triggered anger among some party stakeholders and aspirants.
Speaking with journalists on Saturday, the former minister said APC aspirants had expected a transparent primary election, but were instead informed that a candidate had already been chosen.
“We wanted an election where whoever won would emerge and whoever lost would accept the outcome. But the national chairman of our party called us and announced that M.A. Abubakar had been selected as the governorship candidate,” Tuggar said.
He described the development as an act of injustice, alleging that the manipulation of the process began long before the governorship contest.
His position was echoed by another APC chieftain, Honourable Nuru, who claimed that governorship aspirants in the state were merely summoned and informed that there was a message from President Tinubu on who should fly the party’s flag.
“In Bauchi, there was no primary election. We were called and informed that there was a message from the President concerning who would be APC’s governorship candidate,” Nuru alleged.
According to him, the party leadership simply presented an already chosen candidate to members.
“The candidate was imposed on us. The party chairman said so, and the President also said so,” he added.
Nuru further alleged that the Minister of Health, Muhammad Ali Pate, played a central role in the controversial process, claiming that the minister could not be separated from the allegations surrounding the emergence of the candidate.
The growing discontent within the Bauchi APC has already led to defections.
A former APC senator, Umaru Shehu Buba, said he left the party for the Peoples Redemption Party after concluding that the APC process would not be fair.
According to him, years of political work invested in building the APC in Bauchi were undermined by powerful interests within government.
“We spent three or four years building the APC in Bauchi. But when it was time for the primary election, some people who cannot even win elections in their polling units used their positions in government to do whatever they wanted,” Buba said.
He claimed that no election officials were present on the day the governorship primary was expected to hold.
“This is not democracy. Should the President be the one choosing who will govern the people of Bauchi?” he asked.
The allegations come amid rising tension within the APC in Bauchi, one of the states where a new governor is expected to emerge in 2027.
Meanwhile, the APC candidate, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, continues to face renewed scrutiny over allegations of financial mismanagement, controversial spending decisions and anti-corruption investigations linked to his tenure as governor.
Abubakar left office after losing his re-election bid, amid criticism of his administration’s handling of state finances and allegations of reckless expenditure.
One of the major controversies from his administration occurred in the final days of his tenure in 2019, when about ₦8.5 billion was allegedly disbursed from Bauchi State Government accounts less than 48 hours before the transfer of power.
The transactions later became the subject of legal proceedings after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission approached the Federal High Court in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/858/2019, seeking an order to freeze the Bauchi State Government’s operational account held with First City Monument Bank.
During the proceedings, Abubakar reportedly acknowledged authorising the payments but argued that the funds were disbursed to contractors handling infrastructure projects and for obligations connected to Paris Club refund allocations received through the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The case remains one of the key issues cited by critics in debates over his record in public office.
Efforts to obtain reactions from the Bauchi APC Chairman, Muhammad Tilde, and the Minister of Health, Muhammad Ali Pate, were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.
Neither President Tinubu nor the national leadership of the APC had publicly responded to the allegations.
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