By Okoi Obono-Obla | Abuja
When the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) published the final list of candidates cleared to contest the February 6, 2027 governorship election, the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) had no governorship candidate in 11 states.
The situation became more complicated when INEC clarified its interpretation of the judgment of the Supreme Court in INEC v. Zenith Labour Party (Appeal No. SC/CV/495/2026, delivered September 24, 2026). The Supreme Court upheld Sections 77(5)-(7) of the Electoral Act, 2026 as constitutional and mandatory, requiring political parties to submit membership registers at least 21 days before primaries. INEC applied the judgment and excluded defaulting parties, giving affected parties until October 24, 2026 to complain under Section 32(2) of the Electoral Act.
Among the states where NDC governorship candidates were affected are Kano, Kaduna and Nasarawa. INEC’s official final lists, signed by Rose Oriaran-Anthony, Secretary to the Commission, and published on inecnigeria.org on October 10, 2026, show no NDC entry for Kano (17 candidates listed), Nasarawa (13 candidates), Kaduna (16 candidates), Cross River (8 candidates) and Ogun (13 candidates).
Kano and Kaduna are political powerhouses in Northern Nigeria. The NDC vice-presidential candidate, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, 69, former Governor of Kano State, from Kano, whose presidential ticket with Peter Gregory Obi, 65, was confirmed by INEC in its final presidential list of 18 candidates, is expected to perform strongly in Kano. Without governorship candidates in Kano and Kaduna to provide leadership at the grassroots and serve as veritable instruments for mobilization, the party is in serious trouble.
The deficit extends beyond governorship. According to INEC’s final lists for the National Assembly elections scheduled for January 16, 2027, verified directly from inecnigeria.org PDFs:
The NDC fielded 99 senatorial candidates out of 109, leaving 10 senatorial districts without a candidate, and 329 House of Representatives candidates out of 360, leaving 31 federal constituencies without a candidate. The party is thus without grassroots canvassers and polling-unit monitors in those constituencies.
The challenge is compounded in Kano and Kaduna. Both states now boast APC governorship candidates who are incumbents, and the APC is entrenched with solid structures in all Local Government Areas of these two strategic states that are under APC control. The APC formally presented its flags to North-West governors as its 2027 candidates, including Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano (through consensus) and Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna (459,393 votes).
Governors in Nigeria are levers of power. They control huge financial resources and, in conservative Kano and Kaduna, they are bastions that can equally rein in traditional institutions which the people revere and respect, and which could be handy in mobilizing the populace.
Even though there is a perception of hostility towards the APC administration in the North on account of economic hardship and the prevailing general insecurity in some Northern states that has been a recurring decimal in the past two decades, younger political elites who have an eye on the coveted presidency in 2031 — when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s second tenure expires in May 2031, as confirmed by APC National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje and the Presidency — may throw their lot in with the APC instead of Atiku Abubakar of the ADC, who will be about 80 years old and has declared that if he wins he will serve only four years.
Without governors, senators and House members to serve as foot soldiers in Kano, Kaduna and nine other states, the Obi-Kwankwaso ticket will struggle to convert national enthusiasm into polling-unit votes where it matters most.
SOURCES:
INEC Final List – Governorship Election 2027 (All States) – inecnigeria.org/documents – Signed Rose Oriaran-Anthony
INEC Final List – Presidential & National Assembly 2027 – Jan 16 polls
Supreme Court Judgment – INEC v Zenith Labour Party SC/CV/495/2026 – Sept 24, 2026
INEC Final Presidential List: NDC – Peter Gregory Obi / Musa Mohammed Rabiu Kwankwaso
Vanguard, Oct 12, 2026 – Parties kick over omission in INEC final list
APC Flag Presentation to North-West Governors – Voice of Nigeria, SolaceBase
