The noisiest stretch of any election cycle is not the campaign — it is the primaries, when parties decide who carries their banner. For 2027, that window ran from 23 April to 30 May 2026 under INEC's calendar, including the time set aside to resolve disputes. Now that it has closed, here is a non-partisan recap of what emerged at the top of the ballot.
The presidential tickets
- APC — President Bola Tinubu secured the ruling party's nomination through a direct primary, with his running mate to be confirmed around the party convention.
- ADC — Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar won the party's primary and named former Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi, the runner-up, as his running mate.
- NDC — Peter Obi emerged as the candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress after leaving the ADC coalition, with former Kano governor Rabiu Kwankwaso as his running mate.
We unpack how the opposition ended up in two camps rather than one in The 2027 presidential field takes shape.
Down the ballot
The same window decided governorship and National Assembly candidates across the 28 states voting for governor in this cycle. Many incumbents and front-runners locked in their tickets; others are still being settled. Rather than freeze a fast-moving picture, we update the field state by state as it firms up — see the governorship races and National Assembly pages.
Why some tickets aren't final
A primary result is a strong signal, not always the last word. Three things can still change a candidate before the ballot is printed:
- Litigation — losing aspirants can challenge how a primary was run, and courts have substituted candidates in past cycles.
- Factional disputes — where a party has rival leadership claims, even the question of which faction's candidate INEC recognises can be contested.
- Withdrawals and substitutions — parties retain a formal window to replace nominees.
So treat the tickets above as the state of play in mid-2026, not a sealed result. We will keep the directory current as nominations are formally filed and any disputes are resolved.
PoliticsDirect is non-partisan. Every candidate and party is presented equally; this article reports documented primary outcomes and the rules around them, and endorses none of them.