All eyes on FCT Area Council elections as litmus test for 2027

thenationonlineng.net · Feb 21, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

Full Article

News February 21, 2026 by Tony Akowe, Abuja Attention of Nigerians will shift to the Federal Capital Territory on Saturday, February 21, 2026 for the conduct of the Area Council Elections which many believe is the first major test of the 2026 Electoral Act signed recently by the President. The stakes are high and the campaign has been intense. Who won the elections? TONY AKOWE reports. On Saturday, February 21, the people of the Federal Capital Territory go to the poll to elect yet another set of local government officials. In all, residents of the city will be electing 68 officials made up of 62 councillors and six Chairmen. Since the return to democracy in 1999, the Independent National Electoral Commission has been the one conducting the Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory. Like the INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan puts it, this is largely because the President is the governor of the FCT while the National Assembly is the legislative House. Interestingly, no single party has won all the seats available in the territory. In the 2023 general elections, the Labour Party carried the day in the FCT, winning the only Senatorial seats and one of the two House of Representatives seats, leaving the other House of Representatives seat to the APC. Senator Phillip Aduda who was a serving Senator platform of the PDP lost the seat and many believe that he was the architect of his own undoing. During the campaign, he was said to have asked his people (he is an indigene or the FCT) to vote for the Labour Party candidate in the Presidential elections, while voting for the PDP in other elections. But that worked against him as the people, especially those in the rural areas, went all out to vote for the Labour Party. It is believed that by the time he realised that the people may not be able to differentiate between him as a PDP candidate for the Senate and Peter Obi as Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, his people had succeeded in voting him out of the Senate. Interestingly, the Area Council seats in the FCT that were shared between the PDP and the APC during the last election in 2022 are today occupied by the APC, following the defection of the Chairmen and their councillors. However, there is no doubt that the battle for the 68 seats (6 Chairmanship and 62 Councillors) will be between the African Democratic Congress and the All Progressives Congress considering the crisis in the PDP and the avowed position of the FCT Minister, Nyelsom Wike to ensure that the APC win all the seats in the territory. The Minister has been able to prevail on two of the Chairmanship candidates of the PDP in Bwari and Abuja Municipal Area Council which has the highest number of councilors seats to withdraw from the race in support of the APC candidates. The Nation reports that In Abaji Area Council, seven political parties will be in the battlefield for the available seats. In Bwari, even though 11 parties were listed for the elections, only 10 of them will be battling for the Chairmanship seat following the withdrawal of the PDP candidate. In Gwagwalada, 11 parties will be battling for the available seats, while Kwali will have 9 political parties. Abuja Municipal Council with 12 wards has 12 parties initially listed, but the PDP candidate for the Chairmanship position has also withdrawn from the race, while asking his supporters to vote for the APC candidate. The Labour Party is not listed for the elections in any of the Area Councils despite an initial court order to include candidates nominated by the Julius Abure- led faction which has been invalidated by the court. There is no explanation for their inclusion. In other words, in areas where the Labour Party is supposed to have shown strength, it is expected that the ADC will attempt to take over such places because of the influence of Senator Ireti Kingible who won elections to the Senate on the platform of the Labour Party but has since joined the ADC as well as the influence of Peter Obi who joined the ADC campaign in some parts of the FCT. But it is believed that Abuja natives are not happy with Senator Kingible and may not vote for her candidate in the elections. Read Also: FCT Area Council election: PDP condemns candidates stepping down for APC In the last Area Council election conducted in 2022, the PDP won in AMAC, Kuje and Bwari Area Councils , while the APC won in Gwagwalada, Abaji and Kwali. But there are fillers that even though the FCT Minister has an imposing figure over the Area Councils, the APC may find it difficult winning the Gwagwalada Area Council seat. The battle in the area is between the PDP candidate considered to be native of the area and the APC candidate who is said to be a Fulani man. Reports from the Kukah Centre made available to INEC have already listed Gwagwalada as one of the areas of particular security concern. The Nation gathered that in the Paiko Area of Gwagwalada, there was a clash between the PDP and APC supporters leading to the burning of houses. With the PDP weakened and it’s candidates bowing out of the race, and the Labour Party not contesting the election, there is no doubt that it will be a straight battle between the APC and the ADC who will be testing their strength in a real election since the take- over of the party by the Senator David Mark- led leadership. Related News FCT polls: PDP AMAC chairmanship candidate Zadna Dantani withdraws, backs APC rival Police deploy high personnel ahead of FCT area council polls Political tensions rise across six councils as FCT polls near There is no doubt that Minister Wike has done well in opening up some of the rural areas in the Territory, constructing roads through hitherto forgotten communities and this has been one of the major campaign weapons of the APC throughout the campaign period. The ADC and the PDP have harped on what they described as poor performance of the APC government. There is no doubt that the election is attracting wider attention than any other local government election in the country. The election is being watched far beyond the FCT, even though it is a grassroots election. But beyond the surface, there is a fierce struggle for the control of the nation’s seat of power especially over political influence, party cohesion and the direction of national politics ahead of 2027. It will be the first litmus test for the 2026 electoral act signed into law by the President on Wednesday. However, while the APC would be using the elections to test its popularity ahead of the 2027 elections and consolidate its hold on the nation’s capital, the election will provide not only administrative leverage, but also strategic ground operations for mobilisation networks, patronage channels and grassroots visibility that can shape future elections, especially with a fractured opposition led by the PDP entering the race amidst internal crisis and an ADC that is trying hard to find its feet. The main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), entered the race suffering from internal crisis that has threatened its existence. In recent days, the withdrawal of some PDP candidates in favour of APC contenders has sparked controversy within the party and drawn public attention to the complex alliances at play in the FCT. For a party already grappling with post-election realignments nationally, the optics of retreat in the nation’s capital are politically costly. The major spotlight in the election has been the FCT Minister who swore long ago that he would win the elections for the APC. Political watchers believe that Wike’s influence has helped shape cross-party withdrawals that tilt the field toward the APC. But many believe that local politics will play a major role as a driving force in Saturday’s election. Some others believe that Wike’s role underscores the fluidity of Nigerian party politics where ideological boundaries are often secondary to strategic advantage. But the ADC has added another layer of visibility to the contest having gained some level of prominence in recent times as recent high-profile endorsements and campaigning from former presidential candidate Peter Obi and other opposition figures seeking to broaden alternatives beyond the APC. Obi’s mobilisation is believed to have injected some level of enthusiasm among voters in the urban centres. Even though many had anticipated a straight race between the APC and the PDP, the crisis within the party has weakened it to the extent that the ADC appeared to be the major party that the APC would have to contend with especially with the Labour Party not in contention. The absence of the party will definitely shift opposition votes and probably sharpen the contest between PDP and ADC for anti-APC support. But the weaknesses in the PDP are another factor that may work in favour of the ADC, especially in areas where Peter Obi has the upper hand. It is clear that the election on Saturday goes far beyond the Chairmanship position. It is a test of the ability of INEC under Amupitan to implement the reforms of the electoral system. The poll will test the opposition realignment against the APC and political analysts believe that. If the ADC performs well in the election, it may embolden efforts to build broader coalitions ahead of the presidential election, while if the PDP struggles to maintain coherence, there will be questions about its capacity to remain a dominant national challenger. It will also test the credibility of the electoral process which is currently under scrutiny, especially considering the fact that as the nation’s capital, the FCT carries symbolic weight and a transparent, orderly election would bolster confidence in the democratic institutions. But allegations of manipulation or undue influence could deepen public cynicism and shape voter attitudes in subsequent national contests. Over time, the electoral umpire has often blasted that the Area Council election is a test of how local government ele