2026 APC National Convention: As Eagle Square Beckons By Stanley Nkwocha

As dawn settles over Eagle Square in Abuja, what gathers this weekend is not simply a political convention. It is something more consequential. As part of a series of activities to strengthen the All Progressives Congress (APC) and prepare for the 2027 general elections, the event will focus on electing a new National Executive Council, following nationwide ward and state congresses. 

Since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999, party conventions have often been moments of negotiation, consolidation, and occasionally rupture. However, this one carries a different weight. It comes at a time the country is attempting one of the most ambitious socio-economic restructuring in its post-independence history.

For those involved in the internal workings of the APC, the exercise is neither ceremonial nor routine. It is a reckoning with a set of promises made under difficult circumstances, and an attempt to measure whether those promises have begun to take institutional form.

Nigeria has been here before. In the early 1980s, under austerity. In the mid-1990s, under structural adjustment. Each period demanded sacrifice, but often without a clear social contract between policy and people. The present moment attempts something more deliberate. It seeks to restructure without losing political legitimacy, a task that has historically proven elusive in many developing economies.

To understand the significance of this moment, one must return to May 2023, when the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office. The Nigerian economy at that time was constrained by a set of entrenched distortions. Fuel subsidies alone had consumed trillions of naira over decades, often benefiting intermediaries more than ordinary citizens. Multiple exchange rate windows had created arbitrage opportunities that discouraged productive investment.

The decision to remove fuel subsidy was not unprecedented in Nigerian history. Attempts had been made under successive administrations, including those of President Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, both of which encountered strong public resistance. What distinguishes the 2023 reform is the simultaneity of actions. The unification of exchange rates occurred alongside subsidy removal, signalling a willingness to confront structural inefficiencies in a coordinated manner.

The immediate effects were painful. Inflation rose, and the cost of living increased sharply. Yet, fiscal indicators began to shift. Government revenues expanded significantly, with increases exceeding nine trillion naira within a year. More importantly, the ratio of revenue to debt service, which had approached unsustainable levels close to total revenue, began to decline. For a country that had been spending nearly all it earned on servicing debt, this shift represents a critical turning point. Historically, countries that have successfully navigated similar reforms did so by pairing fiscal discipline with targeted social support. 

Infrastructure has long been a measure of state capacity in Nigeria. From the railway expansions of the colonial era to the oil-funded road networks of the 1970s, each phase of development has been marked by attempts to physically integrate the country’s vast geography. 

The current administration’s emphasis on large-scale projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Sokoto-Badagry corridor reflects a return to this tradition. These construction projects are attempts to redraw the nation’s economic geography by linking production zones to consumption centres and export routes.