July 27, (THEWILL) — The emergence of Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction until his appointment on Thursday as the new National Chairman of the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, has breathed some life into the party and its entire membership.
The party’s zoning formula immediately changed after he was selected by the 14th National Executive Committee, NEC, of the APC, which met at the Presidential Villa under the watchful eyes of President Bola Tinubu, to fill the vacuum created by former chairman of the party, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, when he resigned his appointment on June 27, 2025.
President Tinubu understandably influenced the emergence of Prof Yilwatda as the replacement for Ganduje.
The party’s National Working Committee, NWC, witnessed a structural adjustment. Deputy National Chairman, North, Hon. Bukar Dalori, who hails from Borno State in the North-East and acted as National Chairman, following the sudden exit of Ganduje, regained his seat as deputy national chairman, North. National Legal Adviser, Professor Adbulkareem Kana who comes from the same North-Central Geopolitical Zone as the new National Chairman, fell in the pecking order to Deputy National Secretary, while Murtala Aliyu Kankia, who hails from the North-West took up the position of National Legal Adviser. Deputy National Secretary, Barrister Festus Faunter lost his position as he hails from the same Plateau State as Yilwatda.
Then stakeholders in the North-Central zone, who had been agitating for the return of the National Chairmanship position to the zone since the exit of Senator Abdullahi Adamu, a former National Chairman of the party from Nasarawa State, literally heaved a sigh of relief when it became clear that Yilwatda had emerged as the new Chairman.
Foremost champion of that cause, the North-Central All Progressives Congress Forum, immediately welcomed the emergence of Professor Nentawe Yilwatda as the National Chairman of the party.
The Chairman of the Forum , Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, expressed his gratitude to President Tinubu for “ensuring that justice finally prevailed in resolving the leadership issue in the APC.”
Zazzaga scored Yilwatda’s emergence as a major victory for the Forum’s campaign to have the position of National Chairman returned to the North-Central zone. According to Zazzaga, the Forum had for the past two years sustained an agitation for the return of the position of National Chairman to the North-Central in line with the party’s zoning arrangement.
“During this struggle, we went to court, led protests, issued open letters and several press statements. We fought with doggedness while continuing to respect the leaders of the party, even when certain decisions did not favour us.
“We are indeed glad that at last, justice has been done, our voices have been heard, and the North-Central has been given what rightfully belongs to it,” Zazzaga said.
Even so, THEWILL recalls that while the Forum’s agitation was going on, some other stakeholders from the zone drummed support for Ganduje, who welcomed the support as a sign that he was a popular choice after the President foisted him on the party.
The APC Forum, now said, “The North-Central APC Forum sincerely thanks President Bola Tinubu for listening to our call for the return of the National Chairmanship to the North-Central region. This has once again proved beyond any reasonable doubt that President Tinubu is a listening President.”
However, Yilwatda’s emergence as the ultimate choice was the outcome of high-wired politics that dealt a blow to the warring leaders of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, particularly the wing loyal to President Tinubu, which is led by former Governor of Nasarawa State, Umaru Al-Makura and his Katsina counterpart, Ahmed Masari. Shortly before former President Muhammadu Buhari died, the CPC, as the only major group beside the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, had been tackling President Tinubu, claiming that members of the party had been badly sidelined in the scheme of things. But with the emergence of Yilwatda as National Chairman, Al-Makara and his CPC group loyal to the President have lost out.
Nonetheless, Yilwatda, who has served as an ICT director at the Federal University of Agriculture in Makurdi for 12 years, is an old APC hand. Before his appointment as Minister in October 2024, he was the governorship candidate of the party in Plateau State in the 2023 general election. He lost to Governor Caleb Muftwang of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Before then, he had served as a Resident Electoral Commissioner in Benue State between July 2017 and December 2021.
His emergence has broken the tradition in the party whereby past National Chairmen were either serving governors or ex-governors, starting from the Interim National Chairman, Bisi Akande who is an ex-governor of Osun State, to subsatntive National Chairman in the person of Chief Odigie Oyegun, former governor of Edo State and Adams Oshiomole, also of Edo State as well as Caretaker Committee Chairman, Governor Mai Bala Buni of Yobe State, and then Senator Abdullahi Adamu, formerly governor of Nasarawa State and Dr Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State.
He has pledged that his coming will witness positive changes for APC in the area of crisis resolution and management, as well as inclusion for the general membership. After thanking the leadership of the party, its NEC and President Tinubu for selecting him as national chairman, he also held a meeting with the NWC.
“I do not take this mandate for granted. I want to accept it with gratitude and with my full heart and with my full mind to work together with you, to build the party, knowing that all of us here are the mechanics of the party and the party is our vehicle and we will all fix it and move it to our destination of choice,” he told the party’s leadership in his acceptance speech. “I pledge without hesitation that I will work with everybody in the party, unite the party, build the party, expand the party with you as the focus and the building block and the support I will require to drive the party as needed by all of us so that we can fulfill the dream of Nigerians who have reposed hope in the Renewed Hope Agenda.”
At a meeting with the NWC at the party’s national secretariat, he pleaded for their support, declaring that the party headquarters must at all times give unalloyed support to the Bola Tinubu administration to enable it redeem its electioneering promises to Nigerians.
He said, “With the trust that you have in the APC and the President’s Renewed Hope Agenda, we must ensure that we help the executive and the people of Nigeria. Like I said in my acceptance speech, all of us here, especially the national working committee, we are the mechanics and the party is a vehicle. We will fix it, we will drive it, we will work on it and ensure that we get to the destination of our choice.
“It’s our collective effort and I’m sure by the time we put our hands on the deck collectively, this party will be great, this party will be the joy and the pride of the entire nation. I look forward to this party becoming great under our collective leadership.”
Not one to miss such an occasion of renewal to get at the opposition coalition politicians, President Tinubu, while welcoming and inviting defecting members of the opposition parties to join the governing APC, said, “It is not a bad idea to abandon a sinking ship or stay away from a coalition of confusion”.
The President said this in his address at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the APC, held at the Banquet Hall of the State House, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
THEWILL reports ongoing political alliance by opposition leaders against President Tinubu, ahead of the 2027 General Election, resulting in the emergence of a coalition party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Amid the coalition movement, the irreconcilable differences in the opposition peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the leadership crisis in the Labour Party (LP), have seen several members joining the APC.
Speaking at the APC NEC meeting, President Tinubu said there is room for defecting politicians to join the APC. He welcomed the defectors, including Delta State governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, and his counterpart in Akwa Ibom, Umo Eno, who recently dumped the PDP for the APC.
“It’s not a bad idea to abandon a sinking ship and be absent from a coalition of confusion. With the space that we have created to allow aspiring people to join us, our doors are still open and we should embrace them wholeheartedly”, he said.
Felix Ifijeh is a journalist with years of professional reporting experience. Known for his keen news sense, compelling storytelling and commitment to accurate, impactful reporting, he has built a reputation for turning leads into clear, engaging, and well-structured reports that resonate with readers. His work reflects deep newsroom experience and a commitment to accurate, impactful journalism.
