The nomination and appointment of Professor Nentawe Yilwatda as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the 24th July, 2025, struck a chord in the party’s trajectory as the ruling party. This development has been well received in strategic circles within the party as a validation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s legendary ability to recognise and identify talents for leadership recruitment.
As an overwhelming testimonial to this enduring truth, Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, namely, the South-west, North-west, South-south, North-central, South-east and North-east, bear Tinubu’s emblem in his vast, and yet expanding political network and structures.
Tinubu wants to inject intellectual contents into the APC and Nigerian politics, a long-awaited reform which is expected to transform Nigeria’s democratic landscape and, ultimately, translate to the well-being of the people. This intellectualism is meant to capture imaginative ideas of the present and younger generations under inclusivity.
Those who are perceptive have long admitted this fact that this is where the emergence of Yilwatda as APC’s national chairman is rooted. It is a philosophical response of the pragmatic and futuristic convictions to the anxious conjectures about the next phase of the party and its strategic direction, even as it prepares for the 2027 general elections.
Yilwatda is man of tested loyalty to the president, the party and the country. He is an intellectual, democrat, scholar, politician, administrator, and public servant. Yilwatda is a product of Tinubu’s mastery in structural reengineering of the party towards realising its vision, which is to deliver to Nigerians the benefits of the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President.
It is to President Tinubu and the APC hierarchy’s thoughtfulness to have come up with the brilliant idea that if the party must move to the next level, it needed a comparatively younger and fresh blood with proven creative ideas, experience and energy to drive the Renewed Hope Agenda’s.mandate. Yilwatda is the answer!
But far more than that, the vibrancy, experience, intellectualism, competence and energy of Yilwatda are needed to aggressively drive the 2027 electioneering campaigns, not merely to match but outsmart, ward off and crush threats of the marauding coalitionists in ADC and other political parties.
Unveiling the pack
Those who are close to the cerebral APC national chairman know that there is a coming internal revolution in the party, which he has kept close to his chest. It is therefore in the best interest of all party leaders and stakeholders at the federal, state, local government and ward levels to brace up or risk being left behind.
There is a hint that a periodic performance report assessment of stakeholders in the party may be underway. The essence of the review is to identify committed members, reposition the party’s operations ahead of the 2027, mobilise and carry everybody along, especially the massive supporters and the voting population.
This is anchored on the fact that, Yilwatda knows that so much is at stake, and that he must answer the hard questions of how to achieve the tall order, the burden of history placed on his shoulder in driving the APC government’s social contract with Nigerians, the party’s machinery towards 2027 electoral success.
How can he translate his symbolic ascendancy as the new driver of “change” project of the present administration and market President Tinubu, the performance of his economic reforms, and the APC as the best products in the fast coming 2027 market?
Agenda setting
As the amiable and capacity chairman prepares to reveal details of his strategic plan for the party, his first step is to commence resolution of internal conflict in the party at the national and sub-national levels. It is pertinent to extend the hand of fellowship to aggrieved members of the party, many of whom have or are hobnobbing with the rebels in the ADC.
While the party cannot force anyone whose ideology is diametrically opposed to the party’s manifesto, discipline and the rule of law; however, there are people who are genuinely aggrieved and should be reconciled to the family.
It is also pertinent that as hinted earlier, while the party’s next phase should be anchored on inclusivity, it however has to go hand-in-hand with performance-based assessment. It is almost on the same pedestal as ensuring that recognition and reward must be based on proven loyalty to the party and its ideals. The APC under Yilwatda is readily disposed to rewarding loyal party members who demonstrate proven track record, result-oriented contributions and sacrifices to the success of the party at the federal, state, local government and ward levels.
In line with Yilwatda’s coming vision in strategic restructuring, the next phase of the party has to be women and youth-driven. That is why the party and all the relevant governmental structures would have to ensure that the people of Nigeria feels the impact of government policies and programmes at all levels.
One of the issues the national chairman is poised to address aggressively very soon is the fact that, the party’s hierarchy, presidency and Nigerians are not happy with the performance of some of the state governors in terms of providing dividends of democracy to the citizens of their respective states.
The chairman expects a healthy interaction and competition, a peer review method in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure, education, health, among other critical sectors among the APC governors in relation to ensuring that the citizens feel the impacts of the Renewed Hope Agenda at state levels.
The leadership and critical stakeholders of the party are far less impressed by the performance of some of the state governors in comparison to the volume of funds being allocated to them on a monthly basis by the Tinubu administration as a windfall of the removal of fuel subsidy.
Before now, state governors were used to receiving funds without a properly defined status whether as grants or loan under the previous government as a result of the negative impact of COVID-19 on the economy that made it difficult for state governments to pay workers’ salaries, let alone carry out any meaningful infrastructure development.
But the president has introduced a reform granting autonomy to the local governments, and backing it up with improved allocation. Yet, the citizens have continued to complain bitterly about the poor performance of some of the state governors because the impacts of their performance is not being felt by the people at the grassroots. This must be addressed.
Worse still is the fact many political appointees are not doing enough to mobilise the people and showcase the positive results of the economic reforms of the present administration. It is therefore necessary for all the stakeholders and members of the party to aggressively mobilise the citizens to give their total support to the government.
The new phase of the party has begun in earnest. The national chairman is fully set to relaunch the party to a higher pedestal. The aircraft is about to take off, only those on board will take off into the sky. To all the stakeholders of the great party, are you ready?
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