When Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe appended his name to Bola Tinubu’s nomination form for the 2027 presidential bid, it was not a routine clerical act…it was confirmation. Nomination forms are not open to the entire Senate, they are curated, and to be among the select few is to be trusted, counted, and needed, has a larger and deeper meaning. For Jarigbe, who migrated to the APC, the signature act, settles any lingering questions about where he stands. He is not just in the party. He is being positioned inside its 2027 machinery.
Cross River has been under APC control since before 2023, and the party consolidated the state in the last general elections. Jarigbe’s migration therefore is not an opposition figure crossing over for cover. It is a legislator moving in step with the dominant structure in his state to maximize alignment and access. His endorsement of Tinubu’s form signals that the President’s re-election architecture is locking in its Cross River flank early, using senators who own ground operations, not just party cards. For Tinubu, Jarigbe’s name delivers optics of unity and the reality of a vote bank. For Jarigbe, it buys institutional backing for his reelection bid, his projects, and his future in the state’s power architecture.
Talk of an inner circle in Abuja has never been about photo opportunities. It is about access, information, and survival. Jarigbe now has functional access that many ranking APC senators do not. His appointment as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas was the first clue. In a country where gas is the centerpiece of the energy transition and a major revenue line, that committee is not handed to outsiders. He got it, and he has kept it, which means he has sponsors at the highest level. He is present in key delegations, consulted on South-South issues, and able to move files that stall for others. He may not be in the kitchen cabinet that drafts policy late at night, but he is in the anteroom where calls are returned and decisions are previewed. That is proximity, and in this government, proximity is power.
Jarigbe’s politics has always blended maverick tactics with juggernaut results. He entered the Senate in 2021 after a bruising legal and electoral war that he won without the backing of the state at the time. That is maverick. Since then he has been methodical. He aligned with Senate President Akpabio, mastered the committee system, and delivered visible projects across the senatorial district, while keeping a federal profile. That is juggernaut. He does not have unrestricted access, because almost no one does, but he has effective access. He can get a minister on the phone. He can cite a federal project in Cross River North without a public petition. He can speak in caucus and be heard by both the Villa and the Senate leadership. That blend is why his signature was on the form.
His deep strength in this political game rests on three things, and none of them depend on party label. The first is legal and electoral durability. Jarigbe has won every decisive court case since 2019. In a system where mandates are settled in courtrooms as often as in polling units, that record makes him an asset and a risk to underestimate. The second is a personal constituency machine. He did not wait for the APC state structure to hand him Cross River North. He built direct ties with traditional rulers, town unions, youth blocs, and women’s cooperatives. His JariCare health outreaches and scholarship schemes run outside election cycles, which means he owns a vote bank rather than rents one. The third is transactional fluency. He understands how Abuja works and he does not perform opposition for its own sake. In a National Assembly where the President needs numbers for tax reforms, constitutional amendments, and borrowing plans, a senator who can negotiate without drama is gold.
For Tinubu, Jarigbe is now an APC point man in the South-South who can hold Cross River North, expand the party’s reach, and neutralize the argument that the President’s support is narrow. For the APC in Cross River, his migration tightens the party’s grip and complicates the 2027 ambitions of anyone who thought the Senate seat would be vacant or vulnerable. For Jarigbe himself, the nomination-form endorsement is insurance. It protects his Gas Committee, guarantees federal attention for his constituency, and places him at the table when the state’s election tickets are being discussed.
This is why party stakeholders in Cross River State and the establishment should give him unwavering support and respect his strength. Consolidating his leadership position within the state power architecture is not a favor to Jarigbe, it is strategy for the APC. He is the support needed by the governor to keep state power in place and in line at the federal level. The path to stability is partnership, not rivalry. He and the Cross River State governor must work together for the benefit of our state without rancorous politics in the current and future political climate. Jarigbe is loyal to the governor as the leader of the state, and that loyalty, matched with his federal reach, is the kind of alignment that delivers projects, protects the party, and secures Cross River’s voice in Abuja.
So is he inner circle? He is close enough to shape outcomes. Is he a maverick with access? Yes, and that combination is often more potent than rank. His strength lies in the fact that he arrived in the APC with his own structure, his own courtroom record, and his own delivery history. The party gave him a platform, but he did not come empty-handed. The nomination form was just ink. The message is alignment, leverage, and a reminder that in Abuja, the people who matter are not those who shout party slogans the loudest, but those whose calls are answered because they can move votes, move projects, and move rooms. Jarigbe’s call is being answered. Cross River must now answer his, and stand behind him as he and the governor pull in one direction for the state.
Agi, (FCA), a public affairs analyst, writes from Ijegu-Ojor, Yala LGA.
