Felix Morka, National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has dismissed speculation surrounding the 2027 vice-presidential ticket, insisting the party is not engaged in any succession debate.
“The question of who is going to make the 2027 ticket was not coming from us. It was not something that we put out there… our party is not engaging the question as to tickets and who will be on the ticket,” he said.
Speaking on ARISE News on Tuesday, he emphasised that recent media speculation about potential replacements for the Vice President did not originate from the party. “We are a political party and to make sure that Nigerians are not mistaking these rumors and speculations as emanating from our party, we have to make that clarification.”
On the role of the media in political coverage, Morka urged journalists to exercise caution and avoid lending platforms to unverified speculation. “We all have mutual interests in making sure that we do not at this stage overheat our politics. And that information that is coming out is credible and the media has a responsibility.”
Morka also addressed concerns about endorsements and public support for the president, stating that expressions of opinion should not be confused with statutory party processes.
“One is simply expressions of, you know, opinion, commendation, you know, vote of confidence, endorsement. One is the system of primaries that is statutory, that you cannot, you know, waive their systems and procedures and their regulations overseen, supervised by INEC, the Electoral Management Authority. So they’re two separate systems and we shouldn’t conflate them.”
He further clarified speculation surrounding the vice-presidential slot. “If you’re using the past practice or the past events associated with the president as a yardstick to now decide and to flip these rules and speculation, that necessarily he now intends to change the vice-president. That is exactly why it’s speculative. That’s not factual. And that’s my point.”
On internal party primaries and candidate selection, Morka explained that the constituents decide on who represents the party at the local level.
“These primaries are instruments used by the constituents to decide who applies the flag of the party in their constituencies. Parties don’t contend for that. We have one favour of one person or the other. That is a matter for the constituents to decide on the ground. We simply come out and supervise. We don’t dictate or decide to award seats to candidates to anyone in the constituencies.”
Morka further dismissed concerns that the growing number of governors joining APC signals a drift toward a one-party state.
“We cannot be gatekeepers to filter out or decide who comes and who doesn’t come. If we did that, you will also on this show seriously interrogate me about why we are fending people away. So we don’t do that, because it’s undemocratic.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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