The Independent National Electoral Commission will on Saturday, August 29, publish the personal particulars of candidates nominated by political parties for the 2027 governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
The exercise is part of INEC’s preparations for the 2027 general elections and will give political parties, candidates and members of the public an opportunity to examine the information submitted to the commission and raise any concerns through the appropriate channels.
The governorship elections are scheduled to take place in 28 states, while elections into the State Houses of Assembly will be conducted across all 36 states of the federation. INEC has fixed February 6, 2027, for the governorship and State House of Assembly elections.
The 28 states where governorship elections will be held are Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia, Kwara, Benue, Plateau, Niger, Nasarawa, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi and Sokoto.
The eight states excluded from the 2027 governorship election are Ondo, Osun, Ekiti, Edo, Bayelsa, Anambra, Imo and Kogi. Their governorship elections operate on different schedules because of Nigeria’s staggered electoral cycle.
The publication of the candidates’ particulars is an important stage in the electoral process because it moves the nomination process into greater public scrutiny. Voters and other interested parties will be able to examine the information submitted by political parties and candidates ahead of the elections.
The exercise follows the completion of the period for political parties to upload their governorship and State House of Assembly candidates to INEC’s nomination portal. The commission had earlier extended the submission deadline from August 8 to August 11 after political parties requested additional time to complete the process.
The extension allowed parties to complete outstanding aspects of their nominations and upload the required candidate information to the commission’s portal.
Political parties have been preparing their candidate lists through primaries, appeal processes and other internal procedures before submitting the names to INEC. The ruling All Progressives Congress, for example, said it had completed the electronic upload of its candidates for the 2027 elections.
The publication on Saturday will not necessarily mean that every candidate's position is permanently settled. The electoral timetable provides for further processes relating to withdrawal and substitution of candidates, subject to the applicable legal requirements and deadlines.
Candidates seeking to withdraw from the 2027 elections were required to do so through their political parties within the prescribed period. The 2026 Electoral Act also sets out the formal requirements for such withdrawals, including written notice and an accompanying affidavit.
The publication of the governorship and Assembly candidates also comes as political parties intensify preparations for the wider 2027 elections. The presidential and National Assembly elections will take place earlier, with INEC's current schedule placing those elections on January 16, 2027.
INEC is expected to publish the final list of presidential and National Assembly candidates on September 12, after the relevant nomination and substitution processes have been completed.
For the governorship contests, the publication is likely to provide voters with a clearer picture of the candidates who will be seeking to lead their states from 2027, particularly in states where incumbent governors are completing their constitutional terms.
The process is also important for electoral transparency because publicly displaying candidate information allows interested citizens and political stakeholders to scrutinise the details submitted to the electoral commission before election day.
Any objection or dispute over a candidate's eligibility or submitted information will have to follow the procedures provided under Nigeria's electoral laws rather than being treated as established fact simply because a complaint has been made.
For INEC, the immediate task is to complete the publication process while maintaining the wider electoral timetable. For political parties, the next phase will involve campaigning, voter mobilisation and preparations for the February 2027 contests.
The publication on August 29 therefore represents another significant step towards the 2027 elections and provides voters with more information about the candidates seeking elective office at the state level.
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