Nigeria, May 21 -- The ongoing APC primaries have exposed a reality that would have been unthinkable in earlier decades: party chairmen now watch from the sidelines while governors call the shots. It wasn't always this way. In the First and Second Republics, and even into the early Fourth Republic, chairmen commanded real authority over party structures, candidate selection, and grassroots mobilization. Governors were influential, but they weren't automatically the party leader. Figures like Suleman Takuma, NPN's national secretary, could shape the government of Awwal Ibrahim in Niger State between 1979 and 1983, according to the available literature.

Today, there is even confusion between APC National Chairman Prof Nentawe and Plateau ...