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By Akeem Olaniyi Adebomojo

The numbers coming out of APC’s recent primaries are raising eyebrows for all the wrong reasons. According to figures released by the party, 14,002,661 votes were cast nationwide during the exercise.

But here’s the problem: APC’s own membership register lists just 6,531,205 members. That’s more than double the number of registered members voting. In a sane political environment, that kind of gap doesn’t get glossed over. It gets questioned immediately.

Let’s be direct. If you have 6.5 million people on record as members of your party, you cannot credibly produce 14 million votes without an explanation. Either the register is outdated and incomplete, or the voting process was inflated. And if it’s the latter, then we’re looking at a rehearsal for something bigger.

This isn’t just about internal party housekeeping. It’s about what it signals for 2027. When a party that controls the federal machinery can report turnout numbers that exceed its own membership by 7.4 million, it creates a dangerous precedent.

It tells Nigerians that figures can be manufactured, and that the process is secondary to the outcome. In countries where elections are taken seriously, this would trigger an independent audit, parliamentary questions, and civil society pressure within 48 hours.

In Nigeria, it risks being waved away as “party matter.” But it’s not. Party primaries are the first step in the electoral chain. If they are compromised at the source, the general election inherits that compromise.

The call here is simple: Nigerians cannot afford to ignore this. Civil society, opposition parties, INEC, and the media need to press for answers. How did 14 million people vote in a party with 6.5 million registered members? Where did the extra votes come from? Were non-members allowed to participate? Was the register padded? Was the result inflated?

If APC wants to be taken seriously as a democratic party, it owes the public a clear explanation—not spin, not deflection, but numbers that reconcile.

Because if we let this slide now, we’re telling every political actor that it’s open season on data. And once you normalize inflated figures at the primary stage, you’ve already laid the groundwork to rig the main election without firing a shot.

This is the moment to push back. Every Nigerian who cares about 2027 being credible should be asking the same question: where did the extra 7.4 million votes come from?Silence now is permission for worse later.

• Culled from The Southerner.com. ng