INEC Releases Final List: Big Names Left Outside Like Guests Without Wristbands

You know that moment at a wedding when you arrive in your best aso ebi, smiling, and the man at the gate says, “Sorry, your name is not on the list”? Now imagine that wedding is the 6 February 2027 governorship elections.

INEC has released its final candidates’ list, and two big names did not make it: Isa Pantami in Gombe and Ladi Adebutu in Ogun, both of the PDP. Adebutu’s running mate was left off too, so the PDP has no listed governorship candidate in Ogun, and none in Gombe either. Gombe has sixteen candidates, Ogun has thirteen, and none of them is the one you came to see.

INEC’s documents gave no reasons, which left everyone free to supply their own. The exclusions have been linked to a Supreme Court judgment of 24 September that restored rules limiting primaries to members on the register submitted to INEC. So the whole country has learned a new phrase: “membership register.” Last month it was a boring document. This week it is the most powerful piece of paper in Nigeria, more important than your degree certificate and your birth certificate combined.

Take Pantami’s case. A Gombe court nullified his emergence and ordered a fresh primary, and he reportedly won the rerun with 2,024 votes. He took the exam, passed, took it again, passed again, and the result is still missing. That is not politics. That is secondary school with microphones.

In Ogun, two groups alleged that Adebutu was not on the register. The Ogun PDP says he is a duly registered member and accuses the APC of pressuring INEC. That is an allegation, and we pass it on carefully, as is our duty and our hobby.

Meanwhile, in Rivers, Kingsley Chinda made the list despite questions about when he joined the APC. So everyone is now asking the same question: who was on the register, and when? The register is not answering. It has gone quiet, like a landlord on rent day.

The reactions have been swift. MURIC has demanded the removal of the INEC chairman. Pantami’s camp has urged supporters not to panic and called the omission a temporary setback. Panic, we are told, will be handled by the lawyers, at an hourly rate.

The lesson for aspiring candidates is simple. You can win the primary, win the rerun, win the hearts of your supporters, and still lose to a spreadsheet. Before you spend billions on posters, check three things: your party, your register, and your name on the list.

Or, as the man at the wedding gate would say: “Sir, you may be the groom, but I only trust the list.”