Formed in February 2013, the party is the result of a merger of Nigeria's three biggest opposition parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria, the Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and the new PDP - a faction of then ruling People's Democratic Party. The resolution was signed by Tom Ikimi, who represented the ACN; Senator Annie Okonkwo on behalf of the APGA; Ibrahim Shekarau, the Chairman of ANPP's Merger Committee; and Garba Shehu, the Chairman of CPC's Merger Committee. Ironically, less than 2 years before the party's historic victory in the 2015 elections, Messrs. Annie Okonkwo, Tom Ikimi and Ibrahim Shekarau resigned from the party and joined the PDP. The party received approval from the nation's Independent National Electoral Commission on 31 July 2013 to become a political party and subsequently withdrew the operating licenses of the three parties that merged. In March 2013, it was reported that two other associations – African Peoples Congress and All Patriotic Citizens – also applied for INEC registration, adopting APC as an acronym as well, reportedly "a development interpreted to be a move to thwart the successful coalition of the opposition parties, ahead of the 2015 general elections." It was reported in April 2013 that the party was considering changing their name to the All Progressive Congress of Nigeria to avoid further complications. In November 2013, five serving Governors from the governing PDP defected to the APC, as well as 49 legislators who joined the ranks of 137 legislators in the APC as a result of the prior merger of the smaller opposition parties. This initially gave the APC a slim majority of 186 legislators in the Lower House out of a total of 360 legislators; however, subsequent political wrangling and pressure from political factions and interests outside the National Assembly of Nigeria, gave the party only 37 additional legislators thus giving the APC a nominal majority of 172 out of 360 Legislators, as opposed to the PDP's 171 the Nigerian presidential elections of 2003 and 2007 as the presidential nominee of the All Nigeria Peoples Party and the 2011 Nigerian presidential election as the presidential nominee of the Congress for Progressive Change.
The APC support state's rights, advancing state police as part of its manifesto. Its social policy is a combination of social nationalism. Despite the parties' domination by pro-devolution politicians like Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande, the party's presidential bearer and the CPC wing is less inclined to federalism. On 1 November 2017, Dr. SKC Ogbonnia became the first candidate under the party to declare his intention to seek the office of the president of Nigeria in 2019 elections.
