By Benedict Torhule
At a critical moment when the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State should be consolidating its political gains, strengthening grassroots confidence, and preparing strategically for what promises to be one of the most fiercely contested elections in 2027, disturbing signals emerging from within the party hierarchy now threaten to throw years of political investment into avoidable chaos.
The troubling reports currently circulating across social media regarding alleged plans by the national leadership of the APC to hand automatic return tickets to certain serving National Assembly members from Benue State should concern every serious stakeholder who genuinely desires the continued dominance of the party in the state.
If these reports are true, then what is unfolding is not simply an internal party arrangement. It is the dangerous construction of a political landmine capable of detonating directly beneath the electoral future of the APC in Benue.
There is no polite way to say this: granting automatic tickets to individuals who have steadily lost grassroots acceptance, weakened their political structures, alienated constituents, and whose electoral value has drastically depreciated amounts to rewarding political redundancy at the expense of loyal party members who continue to sustain the APC from the wards upward.
We must remind ourselves that democracy is neither inheritance nor private entitlement. Democracy remains government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Any alleged arrangement that seeks to sideline credible aspirants, suppress internal competition, and impose candidates through elite manipulation represents nothing short of a direct rape on democratic principles and disruption of its rituals.
More dangerously, what is currently being whispered within political circles is fast turning the APC into a subject of ridicule. The entire situation is increasingly becoming a huge joke in public discourse, and ordinary supporters are beginning to question whether performance, popularity, and electoral acceptability still matter within the party.
Those behind this alleged political misengineering must understand the grave implications of their actions.
Benue politics is not what it used to be. The electorate has become more conscious, more impatient, sophisticated and less willing to reward political entitlement. Meritocracy arising from contributions towards dividends of democracy is the watchword. Those who have achieved and become wealthy due to the people’s heritage must be held to account.
Even more concerning is the fact that rival political forces — the gentlemen on the opposite realm — are not sleeping. They are watching every development with surgical precision. They understand that nothing weakens a ruling party faster than internal injustice, elite arrogance, and the deliberate frustration of the loyal masses.
Should the APC national leadership proceed in the wrong direction, with an arrangement that undermines transparent primaries such as the one held in Benue State, it may latently hand opposition parties the most valuable campaign weapon ahead of 2027.
History has repeatedly shown that parties do not always lose elections because the opposition is strong. Sometimes, parties lose because they deliberately destroy themselves from within. The APC must choose wisely between capacity, capability and mediocrity.
The road to 2027 cannot be built on imposition, favoritism, nepotism and political entitlement disguised as strategy. To ignore this warning is to consciously begin the dangerous downward process of demarketing the APC before the people who ultimately determine power — the voters themselves.
Torhule wrote this piece from Gboko
