•APC national chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda and PDP, ADC and LP logos
The new Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, yesterday, downplayed the relevance and strength of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
“There is no opposition for now,” he said dismissively on Channels Television last night shortly after he emerged as the ruling party’s chairman yesterday in Abuja.
“Zero fears,” he said of the opposition coalition champion on the ADC platform. The new APC chair also boasted that his party would win the next presidential election.
“Why is it that all the by-elections in the last two years were all won by the APC and in landslide victories, in most cases?” he quipped.
The former humanitarian affairs minister said the APC has no fears about the opposition parties, saying that they’ve all failed in post-2023 off-season governorship polls in Edo, Ondo, Kogi and Imo states. The APC won the four governorship elections.
He said he would invest in legwork to bring more governors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other opposition parties to join the APC.
“My job is to unite the party, (and) to expand the party. We have 23 governors and we are still counting. My job is to bring in more. We would do legwork and bring in more,” he said.
So far in 2025, two governors dumped the PDP for the APC — Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State and his Delta State counterpart, Sheriff Oborevwori.
At the moment, the APC controls 23 states, the PDP rules 10 states, whilst the Labour Party (LP), the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) control one state each.
‘I Have Sufficient Experience’
Furthermore, the new APC chairman said he would capitalise on the presence of his predecessors Abdullahi Ganduje, Adams Oshiomhole, Abdullahi Adamu, and Mai Mala Buni still in the party, glean from their vast experience to steer the APC to the desired destination.
“My immediate priority is that the party is united,” he said, saying he will coordinate the party to implement its manifesto to the fullest.
Yilwatda was the APC 2023 governorship candidate in Plateau State. The election was won by Caleb Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The new APC chairman said, given his antecedents, he has the necessary experience to lead the ruling party.
Yilwatda said his experience as a registered engineer, a former lecturer with the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State; a former Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and until recently, Humanitarian Affairs Minister, were “building blocks” that prepared him for the big role of APC national chairman.
“I’m a politician coming in with private sector experience, university experience, administrative experience, election processes experience and now with the political experience to gear the wheel of the party,” he said.
Yilwatda, who was appointed minister by President Bola Tinubu in October 2024, occupied the office till his emergence as the APC national chairman yesterday.
