Ganye, the heartbeat of the Chamba Chiefdom, has long been regarded as a stronghold of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Owing to some unique demographics and political dynamics, the APC has consistently enjoyed victories in the area since 2015, usually with comfortable margins running into thousands.
In Ganye, the APC has a history of dominance. In the 2019 State Assembly election, Alhassan Hammanjoda of the APC secured 18,719 votes, defeating Yelwa Jibrin Usman of the PDP, who scored 16,252 votes, a margin of 2,467.
In the 2019 gubernatorial election, the APC polled 19,063 votes, while the PDP recorded 17,009 votes, giving the APC a margin of 2,054.
By the 2023 gubernatorial election, the APC further consolidated its grip on Ganye, recording 21,605 votes against the PDP’s 17,883 votes, a margin of 3,322.
Against this backdrop of historical dominance, the August 16, 2025 by-election for the Ganye State Assembly seat delivered a shock. The PDP garnered 15,794 votes, while the APC barely edged them out with 15,923 votes. The margin was a razor-thin 129 votes, a far cry from the thousands that once defined APC victories in Ganye.
This result raises fundamental questions the APC must urgently address:
1. Why has the party’s traditional support base eroded so drastically?
2. What exactly did the APC do, or fail to do, that reduced its commanding lead to a mere 129 votes?
3. Despite heavy deployment of logistics, mobilization, and human resources, including ‘Abuja’ backing why did the outcome shrink to the slimmest of margins?
Victory, no matter how slim, is still sweet victory. Yet the truth remains: the APC has serious homework to do within its own house.
For the APC: The by-election result is a red flag. A constituency once considered a safe zone is now slipping away with speed . If the party fails to re-evaluate its strategy, reconnect with lost sons and daughters , and address emerging grievances, it risks losing Ganye and other strongholds in the near future, decisively.
For the PDP: This near-victory signals an opportunity. If the party could cut APC’s lead from thousands to just 129, then with a carefully recalibrated strategy, it could tilt the balance in its favor. The PDP must ask itself why it failed to fully capitalize on APC’s weaknesses, errors and what adjustments are necessary going forward.
Ganye 129 is more than just a number. It is a political statement, a wake-up call, and a warning to the APC that all is not well within its strongholds .
The 2025 by-election has shown that voter loyalty is no longer automatic and that political dominance can crumble if left unchecked. Both the APC and PDP must take this result as a lesson, one party to fix its shortcomings, the other to exploit the cracks.
Indeed, all politics is local.
Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Abuja
