Iron Broom: Behind APC’s steady rise to dominance

With Friday’s defection of Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, from the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, to the APC, the ruling party has hit a new mark in its political dominance of Nigeria.

Although, its 29 governors are yet to match the 31 held by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in 2003, the APC boasts of a better standing by having more seats at other electoral levels than the PDP had at its peak.

After the 2003 polls, the PDP reached its zenith of political dominance with 31 governors, 76 senators and 223 members of the House of Representatives. Today, PDP’s hold has shrunk to four governors, 26 senators and 37 Reps.
In comparison, following recent waves of defections the APC is standing astride Nigeria’s political landscape like a colossus.

What arguably began in 2013 as a coalition of strange bedfellows – forged in opposition and baptised in dissent – has matured and morphed into the most dominant political force of the Fourth Republic.
Today, APC has the presidency, 29 governors, 78 senators and 248 Reps. It has a clean sweep of the 12 governors of South-South and North-Central geo-political zones, six of the seven in North-West, four of six in South-West and three of five in the South-East, making altogether 29.

Only seven states -Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Bauchi, Osun, Oyo and Zamfara are governed by opposition parties. The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA(Anambra); Labour Party, LP(Abia) and Accord(Osun) control three while the PDP controls Adamawa, Bauchi, Osun and Oyo.
In barely 12 years, the APC has traveled from protest to power. It now controls the Presidency, a commanding majority of state governments, and two-thirds of the country’s legislative chambers. The broom, once a symbol of defiance, has become an instrument of authority.
To have two-thirds majority, a party needs 24 of 36 state houses of assembly, 240 of 360 Reps, 73 of 109 senators and 24 of 36 governors. The APC has surpassed these marks and looks forward to adding more.

As it is, the APC can pursue and implement its programme without the support of other parties at any level.
In June 2023, for instance, the Senate was finely balanced: APC held 59 seats, opposition parties 50. Consensus was compulsory. By 2025, that restraint had vanished.

Court judgments, deaths, defections and opposition implosion combined to tilt the scale decisively. Today, constitutional actions — amendments, veto overrides, impeachment proceedings, states of emergency — can be executed without opposition consent. Numbers, once negotiated, are now guaranteed.

When arithmetic overpowers argument
The controversy surrounding President Bola Tinubu’s emergency rule in Rivers State — approved amid claims of a disputed voice vote — offers a cautionary tale. When victory is assured, procedure risks becoming expendable.
Beyond plenary lies the Committee of the Whole, where laws are reshaped in fine print. Here, the absence of a vigilant minority can dull scrutiny and silence dissent.

In law and practice, a two-thirds majority is required for the most consequential decisions of state: amending the Constitution, overriding presidential vetoes, approving states of emergency, impeaching a president or vice president, and creating new states. On all these fronts, the APC no longer needs opposition support to prevail.

Challenges of dominance
Yet, with dominance comes an unavoidable question: what will the APC do with power so vast that persuasion is no longer required?

One of the major political hurdles before the APC hierarchy, currently, is the Rivers State political debacle.

Until early December 2025, Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State was officially PDP governor. His defection to the APC a few days after 17 PDP lawmakers jumped ship has made Rivers an APC state
Thus, the ongoing impeachment proceedings by the Rivers State House of Assembly against Fubara and his deputy, Ngozi Odu, is happening in an APC-controlled state and is a matter the APC leadership can intervene to restore peace between the governor and the legislators.
So, one of the major tasks before the APC now is ensuring that one of its newest governors, Fubara, is not impeached by an equally APC-controlled House of Assembly.

Nigeria faces existential challenges: deepening insecurity, biting economic hardship, contentious tax reforms that commenced on January 1, 2026, agitation for state police, and renewed calls to amend the 1999 Constitution and Electoral Act.

These are matters that demand persuasion, inclusion and restraint. Yet, legislative arithmetic now favours speed over debate.

The party must use its majority to address insecurity, resolve the tax issues, get local council autonomy, state police, fix roads, address economic challenges and rising poverty.

Recently, President Tinubu urged governors — most of them APC — to respect local government autonomy and release council allocations and threatened to ensure it through first line charge.
Another issue is giving Nigerians a new electoral act and ensuring that bye and off-cycle elections are free and fair among others..

From merger to political machine
The APC was formally unveiled in February 2013 through the merger of four political tendencies — Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; Congress for Progressive Change, CPC; All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA. At birth, its strength lay not in numbers alone but also in the strategic unity of Nigeria’s disparate opposition forces.

At formation in February 2013, the APC had 11 governors, 39 senators and 137 House of Representatives members. It was officially registered as a political party by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in July 2013.

The party’s profile changed dramatically in November 2013, when five PDP governors from Rivers, Kwara, Kano, Adamawa and Sokoto defected, swelling APC’s governorship tally to 16, senators 50, and Reps 180, which signalled the beginning of a seismic realignment.

From its historic victory in 2015, which ended the PDP’s 16-year rule, the APC has remained Nigeria’s ruling party, sometimes contracting, often expanding, but never relinquishing central power.
In 2015, it had 26 governors, 60 senators and 212 Reps.

In 2019, the APC had 20 governors, 64 senators and 212 Reps.The figure plummeted in 2023 to 20 governors,59 senators and 162 Reps at the 2023 polls

However, series of defections, among others, especially in the last three months, have catapulted APC to an unassailable political summit.

The shift has been driven by a combination of court rulings, defections and the gradual collapse of opposition ranks. Early judicial interventions altered party tallies, but it was the wave of defections in 2025 that decisively tilted the scale. The deaths and movements that followed further weakened minority parties, leaving the Senate with a diminished opposition and a ruling party in firm command.

APC electoral strength over time