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Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), held its national convention on Friday, where members held talks and expressed confidence in President Bola Tinubu ahead of the country’s highly-anticipated 2027 general elections.
Nigeria’s next presidential election is scheduled for January 16, 2027, when 73-year-old Tinubu is expected to seek a second term.
AFP reported that the APC annual convention was held under tight security in the country’s capital, Abuja.
But while security operatives man the venue of the convention and the surrounding areas, many areas across the rest of the country reel from a spate of violence and insurgency that has persisted for over a decade.
Nigeria’s battle with terrorism is no breaking news, but the insurgency, which initially set off from the northeast, has spread to the northwest and is creeping into the north-central.
The 2025 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) ranked Nigeria as the fourth most-affected country by terrorism globally. Nigeria rose to fourth place on the index, with 750 people killed in 2025, up 46% from 2024.
The West African country, which is the continent’s most populous country, recorded a major increase in terrorism deaths globally in 2025, with fatalities rising by 46% from 513 in 2024 to 750, behind Pakistan, Burkina Faso and Niger.
No fewer than 11 soldiers were killed in an ambush this week in Kebbi State, while triple suicide bomb attacks killed 23 and wounded more than 100 in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, the previous week.
Analysts note that the insurgents’ expansion in the Sahel plays a major role in Nigeria’s worsening insecurity. The Global Terror Report placed the Sahel as the region worst hit by terrorism in the world.
Nigeria shares borders with Burkina Faso, which was the most affected country in the world for two consecutive years, but was overtaken in 2025 by Pakistan, and Niger, the third on the list of countries worst affected by terrorism, both in the Sahel.
The APC was formed in 2013 as an alliance of several political parties. It overthrew the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015 and has won every election since then, leaving the PDP behind. An internal crisis is currently rocking the PDP, and many of its members have defected to the APC, including governors who were originally elected under the umbrella of the PDP
The ruling party controlled 21 of Nigeria’s 36 states in 2023, but it now controls 31 states.
Even as insecurity worsens across Nigeria, Tinubu’s loyalists and supporters sing his praises and express confidence that he will win the upcoming election.
