At APC Leaders’ Visit to Buhari, Ganduje Says Atiku, El-Rufai’s Coalition Talks Doomed to Fail

Few hours after former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had led other opposition figures such as former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai; ex-governor of Sokoto State, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, and others on a visit to former President Muhammadu Buhari at his Kaduna residence, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje on Friday led other APC leaders to Buhari’s residence where he dismissed the coalition talks by the opposition.

Speaking to journalists during the visit, Ganduje described the move by the opposition parties as a futile alliance by strange bedfellows.
Ganduje, while fielding questions from journalists shortly after the Friday night meeting with Buhari, said the APC was comfortable and would win not only the presidential election but more governorship seats in the 2027 elections.
“We are here to pay Sallah Homage to the former President and also, we took time to explain to him the achievements of our great party as he left it, because we have promised to brief him from time to time.

“Concerning the group (Atiku and others) that came to see him, that is not our business. But I must tell them that history is about to repeat itself; they have a joint venture, which will not work. This is because they are just some kinds of particles that cannot come together.

“Well, it’s a game, but we will not reveal our own intrigues and game plan, but I can tell you we are equal to the task.
“The progress President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made is very encouraging, and that has made our party much stronger. I can tell you that, though we have 21 APC states now, I can tell you we are eyeing some more states to come to our fold – either the governors themselves will come or we go into election and we defeat them.

“So, we are comfortable ahead of 2027, but we are not resting on our oars, because it’s politics and we are used to the game,” Ganduje explained.
He dismissed insinuations that President Tinubu was engaged in skewed appointments, saying the party was working on the statistics of appointments done by President Tinubu to clear the air on the allegation.
“We are coming up with the true figures of the appointments to show Nigerians that Mr President is not engaged in skewed appointments,” he said.

Ganduje said the party had introduced a new people-centred approach to campaign administration, different from the usual practice of inaugurating national campaign governorship councils for states in Abuja, adding the campaign councils were inaugurated in the affected states to allow for more and greater participation by party members and other stakeholders in their respective states.

“This innovation has helped to engage the right people to organise and manage campaigns in their states for effective delivery before and during the election.”
Addressing Buhari, the APC national chairman said: “Your Excellency, as you must be aware, we won governorship elections in Imo, Kogi, Edo and Ondo, but unfortunately lost in Bayelsa State.

“Your Excellency, our focus is now on Anambra and Osun states. And in compliance with the time-table released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the party successfully conducted primary elections in Anambra on April 5, 2025,” he stated.

While assuring the former president the APC has been growing from strength to strength, Ganduje said: “Today, we have in our fold the former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim; former Labour Party governorship candidate in Ebonyi State, Edwin Nkwegu; Senator Obinna Ogba (Ebonyi State); Senator Uche Ekwunife from Anambra State, and thousands of their supporters.

“Others decampees are former Ondo Governor Olusegun Mimiko; former Kaduna Governor, Ramalan Yero; former Edo Deputy Governor, Phillips Shaibu; two-term Senator representing Edo South; and former Clerk of the National Assembly, Senator Matthew Onoghide, and Senator Halliru Dauda Jika.

“Your Excellency, in the same vein, the NNPP also lost some of its former National Working Committee (NWC) members to APC, such as former National Chairman, Prof. Rufai Alkali, who led other prominent leaders and members, including former National Organising Secretary, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi; former National Legal Adviser, Prof. Bem Angwe; Chairman and the immediate past Secretary, North-west, Dr. Isa Shika; Kaduna senatorial candidate, Mikaih Takwat, and thousands of their supporters to join us. Other notable decampees are Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the Senate and Hon. Yusuf Shittu Galambi, the only NNPP member of the House of Representatives, Gwaram Federal Constituency in Jigawa state. Most recently, Senator Ned Nwoko representing Delta North also joined us,” Ganduje said.