POLITICAL PULSE: Ministerial Appointment Allegation Dominates as APC Leads Visibility, NDC Wins Sentiment
PRrev analysis shows APC commanding 62.8% of political coverage but recording the highest negative sentiment at 52.7%, while NDC emerges as the most positively perceived party at 68.8%
ABUJA, 24 October 2026: An allegation that ministers pay billions of naira to secure appointments emerged as the dominant political issue monitored on 23 October, intensifying scrutiny around the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) even as the party maintained an overwhelming lead in media and social-media visibility. According to PRrev’s Political Parties Monitor, APC spokesman Alwan Hassan said ministers pay billions to be appointed, prompting Atiku to ask President Tinubu to name those involved.
The controversy headed a politically charged day that also featured the reported killing of two suspected APC thugs during an attack on an NDC candidate’s convoy in Ebonyi, preparations for the APC’s 24 October Kaduna flag-off, Atiku’s “Bola and Ebola” post, and political developments involving Osun and the AAC.
APC Dominates Attention, But Negativity Remains Its Achilles’ Heel
The PRrev Political Parties Monitor analysed 2,738 in-scope items across X, Facebook and mainstream media. APC accounted for 62.8% of pooled coverage, well ahead of NDC at 23.0%, ADC at 9.9%, and PDP at just 4.3%. 1
The visibility advantage, however, did not translate into favourable sentiment.
Across the pooled assessment, 52.7% of APC coverage was negative, the highest negative rating among the four parties monitored. Only 17.2% was positive. By contrast, NDC achieved the strongest positive sentiment at 68.8%, with only 11.5% negative. ADC recorded 29.4% positive and 42.6% negative, while PDP stood at 27.4% positive and 35.9% negative. 1
PRrev Political Party Rating | 23 October
1st in Visibility: APC
62.8% share of pooled coverage | 17.2% positive | 52.7% negative. 1
1st in Positive Sentiment: NDC
23.0% share of pooled coverage | 68.8% positive | 11.5% negative. 1
ADC
9.9% share of pooled coverage | 29.4% positive | 42.6% negative. 1
PDP
4.3% share of pooled coverage | 27.4% positive | 35.9% negative. 1
X Becomes APC’s Toughest Arena
The sharpest reputational pressure on APC came from X, where the party generated 1,566 monitored items, considerably more than NDC’s 587, ADC’s 239 and PDP’s 74. But 54% of APC’s X conversation was negative, compared with only 15% positive.
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NDC presented almost the reverse picture: 68% of its X coverage was positive and 12% negative. On Facebook, its positive rating climbed further to 78%, against only 5% negative.
ADC faced considerable negative pressure on X, where 47% of its coverage was negative compared with 29% positive. PDP similarly recorded 42% negative against 22% positive on the platform.
Political Conversation Shifts
The numbers also point to a significant day-on-day redistribution of political attention.
Total monitored items declined from 3,116 on 22 October to 2,738 on 23 October. Despite the contraction, APC’s pooled share increased from 54.5% to 62.8%, while NDC advanced from 19.8% to 23.0%. ADC declined from 14.8% to 9.9%, while PDP fell from 10.9% to 4.3%.
PRrev notes that the lead political conversation shifted from issues including Osun APC’s rejection of the council and the Emir episode to the ministerial-appointment allegation, the Ebonyi attack, the Kaduna flag-off build-up and Atiku’s Ebola post.
APC nevertheless registered one notable sentiment improvement: its negativity on X fell from 70% to 54%. Its overall negative share of 52.7%, however, remained more than four times NDC’s, according to the report. NDC maintained 68% positive sentiment on X, while ADC’s X negativity climbed from 27% to 47%.
PRrev Political Pulse
The day’s numbers present a striking contrast between political visibility and political favourability. APC commanded nearly two-thirds of the conversation monitored by PRrev, making it overwhelmingly the most visible of the four parties, but much of that attention was negative. NDC attracted substantially less overall coverage but recorded the strongest positive sentiment.
For PDP and ADC, the immediate challenge in the 23 October snapshot was different. Both recorded considerably smaller shares of the political conversation than APC and NDC, while negative sentiment exceeded positive sentiment for each in the pooled data. 1
Political Pulse Verdict: APC wins the battle for attention; NDC wins the sentiment contest. The defining tension in the day’s political conversation is therefore not simply which party Nigerians talked about most, but whether that attention translated into favourable perception.
Political Pulse is based on PRrev/PRNigeria media-monitoring and sentiment data for 23 October 2026. The underlying report notes that fair coverage is treated as neutral, duplicates are included, and five monitored items belonged to no party.
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By PRNigeria
