All 8,809 wards open this Saturday. The APC calls it democracy. Insiders call it desperation. Three rival aspirant blocs are already accusing each other of bribing electoral officers before a single vote is cast.
National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje says the ward system will end rigging. Yet the same system produced 14 parallel executives at the last convention. Security reports name 32 wards where rival delegate camps are stockpiling machetes. INEC has vowed to blacklist any ward that descends into violence.
The stakes could not be higher. A disputed primary will send defectors flooding to the PDP. The Northern caucus has already won a court order to freeze the exercise in Kano and Kaduna. If the order stands the APC loses its northern firewall before the general election even kicks off.
This is not about choosing a candidate. This is about survival. The APC is fighting to keep its coalition from collapsing into regional fragments before the nation goes to the polls.
