2013–2015 In November 2013, five serving
Governors from the governing PDP defected to the APC:
Rotimi Amaechi of
Rivers State,
Abdulfatah Ahmed of
Kwara State,
Rabiu Kwankwaso of
Kano State,
Murtala Nyako of
Adamawa State and
Aliyu Wamakko of
Sokoto State. It had been previously reported that Governors
Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu of
Niger State and
Sule Lamido of
Jigawa State were set to defect from the
People's Democratic Party to the APC; however, both ended up remaining with the
People's Democratic Party. Amid the governors' defections, nearly 50 federal legislators (including
Speaker of the House of Representatives Aminu Tambuwal) joined the party, adding to the 137 legislators in the APC as a result of the prior merger of the smaller opposition parties. These legislative defections initially gave the APC a slim majority of 186 legislators in the
Lower House out of a total of 360 legislators; however, subsequent political wrangling and pressure from political factions and interests outside the
National Assembly, gave the party only 37 additional legislators thus giving the APC a nominal majority of 172 out of 360 Legislators, as opposed to the PDP's 171 (although some smaller PDP-allied parties held the balance of the other seats). This was further confirmed when the party seated 179 members on 15 January 2015 when the House resumed after a long recess to finally affirm its majority. Among the party's first electoral tests were a number of off-year gubernatorial elections with the party nominee coming third in
Anambra State in 2013 while the next year, the APC incumbent was
unseated in Ekiti State but the party's incumbent in
Osun State was re-elected. Despite its short history, the party faced infighting in 2014 as several notable members including Okonkwo, Ikimi, and Shekarau resigned from the party and joined the PDP.
2015 elections Ahead of the elections, the
party presidential primary was held on 10 December 2014 with former military dictator
Muhammadu Buhari winning by a significant margin. In the federal elections on 28 and 29 March 2015, Buhari
emerged victorious over incumbent
Goodluck Jonathan by 2.6 million votes—a margin of nine percentage points. The APC
expanded its House of Representatives majority to over 210 seats and
gained a majority in the Senate with 60 seats. In state elections (mainly on 11 April), 21 governorships were won by the APC while the party also won the majority of state
Houses of Assembly.
2015–2019 At the start of the legislative session in June 2015, the picks of the party leadership and Buhari for legislative leadership—
Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North) for
President of the Senate and
Femi Gbajabiamila (Surulere I) for
Speaker of the House of Representatives—lost elections to those offices as dissenting APC members and PDP members voted for different leadership:
Bukola Saraki (APC-
Kwara Central) for Senate President and
Yakubu Dogara (APC-Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa) for Speaker of the House. Although Gbajabiamila became House Majority Leader in 2015 and Lawan later became Senate Majority Leader in 2017, their defeat for the prime position of each body set up a legislature that often feuded with the Buhari-led executive. The party did well electorally during Buhari's first term, with a victories both the
Edo State and
Ondo State gubernatorial elections in 2016 but a loss in the
Anambra State gubernatorial election in 2017. The next year, the party
gained the Ekiti State governorship and
held the Osun State governorship. However, the APC faced larger issues in holding its members together as number of prominent defections (former Vice President
Atiku Abubakar, former
House of Representatives Speaker and incumbent
Governor of Sokoto State Aminu Tambuwal, former
Governor of Kano State and Senator
Rabiu Kwankwaso, and incumbent
Governor of Benue State Samuel Ortom) occurred throughout 2017 and 2018 during an internal crisis that culminated in the defections of Saraki and Dogara along with the loss of the parties' federal legislative majorities. As an organisation, the party also faced problems during this period as party chairman
John Odigie Oyegun, who had served in the role since party foundation, came under intense criticism from various internal factions in 2017 and 2018 despite Buhari's support for Odigie Oyegun. Although Buhari initially pushed for Odigie Oyegun to continue in the position, he eventually agreed with governors in April 2018 to hold party congresses and elect new leadership. After
state parties held state congresses in May 2018, the national party held its convention in June and elected former
Governor of Edo State Adams Oshiomhole as National Chairman;
Mai Mala Buni continued in the National Secretary role while former Senator
Lawali Shuaibu became Deputy National Chairman (North) and former
Governor of Ekiti State Niyi Adebayo became Deputy National Chairman (South).
2019 elections After direct primaries where Buhari was the sole candidate, he advanced to the general election where he defeated
Atiku Abubakar of the
People's Democratic Party by a margin of 14 percentage points—nearly 4 million votes. For the legislative elections, the APC regained its majorities in both the
House of Representatives and the
Senate after losing the majorities due to defections in 2018. On the state level, the party
lost four governorships and gained two governorships leading to a net loss of two governors' offices while winning a majority of state
Houses of Assembly.
2019–2022 At the start of the legislative session in June 2019, the previous picks of the party leadership and Buhari for legislative leadership from 2015—
Ahmad Lawan (Yobe North) for
President of the Senate and
Femi Gbajabiamila (Surulere I) for
Speaker of the House of Representatives—successfully won election to those offices as the party avoided large scale internal dissent unlike 2015. The Lawan-led Senate and Gbajabiamila-helmed House of Representatives were much closer to the executive compared to the previous National Assembly, with critics even derisively referring to the assembly as a "
rubber stamp". In off-year elections, results were mixed as the APC incumbent in
Ondo State won re-election but the APC-turned-PDP incumbent in
Edo State also held his office in 2020. Coupled with the loss of Edo, the party came a distant third in the
Anambra State gubernatorial election in 2021 and the APC incumbent was
unseated in Osun State the next year; though, the party
held the Ekiti State governorship in 2022. As a part of a concerted effort to woo defectors, three governors joined the APC—
Ebonyi State's
Dave Umahi,
Cross River State's
Benedict Ayade, and
Zamfara State's
Bello Muhammad Matawalle—in 2020 and 2021 along with dozens of state and federal lawmakers; however, political moves around party primaries in 2022 erased most of these legislative gains due to members leaving the APC. However, the APC faced more internal leadership crises as disputes over the leadership of National Chairman
Adams Oshiomhole dominated party internal affairs in 2019 and 2020 with Oshiomhole feuding with several APC governors during the 2019 campaign and its aftermath. Tensions rose in November 2019 when the state APC in Edo State—Oshiomhole's home state—suspended his party membership and argued that a suspended member could not serve in a leadership position. Eventually litigation decided the dispute, with a High Court suspending in Oshiomhole as Chairman in March 2020 based on his membership suspension. After the suspension was affirmed during the appeal process, there was a brief June 2020 power struggle between two members of the National Working Committee—
Victor Gaidom and
Abiola Ajimobi—before the party National Executive Council opted to dissolve the National Working Committee and set up the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC). The CECPC was led by former Party Secretary and incumbent
Governor of Yobe State Mai Mala Buni and former Senator
John James Akpan Udo-Edehe becoming National Secretary. The caretaker committee was meant to serve for a few months before a national convention was held with elections for permanent leadership but the committee's term was extended until early 2022 despite regular lawsuits and internal attempts to remove the CECPC. Despite continued party infighting that plagued October 2021 state congresses and an attempted "palace coup" to replace Buni with
Governor of Niger State Abubakar Sani Bello in while Buni was abroad for medical attention, the national convention was finally held on 26 March 2022. The convention mainly used the contentious "consensus" method of electing officials with allegations that Buhari and governors had imposed candidates on the party; in the convention, Senator
Abdullahi Adamu became National Chairman and former
Iyiola Omisore became National Secretary while Senator
Abubakar Kyari became Deputy National Chairman (North) and
Emma Eneukwu became Deputy National Chairman (South).
2023 elections Despite a contentious campaign period rife with allegations of misconduct and vote-buying, the
APC presidential primary on 7 and 8 June 2022 was held peacefully with former
Governor of Lagos State Bola Tinubu defeating
Rotimi Amaechi,
Yemi Osinbajo, and eleven other candidates. However, the party ticket became immensely controversial the next month when Tinubu selected
Kashim Shettima—a Senator and former
Governor of Borno State—as the APC vice presidential nominee; the selection created a Muslim-Muslim ticket, violating an unwritten convention against same religion tickets to ensure representative diversity. In the
2023 elections, the party retained the presidency as Tinubu defeated
Atiku Abubakar of the
People's Democratic Party and
Peter Obi of the
Labour Party, albeit with a significantly reduced vote share compared to 2019. In the legislative elections, the party preserved its majorities in both chambers of the National Assembly, though with notable seat losses amid gains by smaller parties. At the state level, the APC recorded mixed results—losing three governorships while gaining two governorships—ultimately emerging with a slight net decline in the number of states it controlled, even as it maintained a plurality of governorships and state Houses of Assembly nationwide. ==Political ideology==