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The new Chairperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, has vowed to “bring in” aggrieved members of the APC back to the party, including governors who left the party in the past.
Mr Yilwatda, a former minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, spoke on Thursday night when he appeared as a guest on Channels TV’s Politics Today.
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“My immediate priority is that the party is united,” he said just hours after his appointment was ratified at the APC National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja.
When the new APC chairperson was asked if the speculation of an imminent return of a former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, was true, he responded: “I told you our doors are open.”
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Mr Yilwatda stressed that he was dedicated to uniting all aggrieved APC members and bringing in even state governors into the party.
“My job is to unite the party, to expand the party. We have 23 governors and we are still counting. My job is to bring in more (state governors). We would do legwork and bring in more,” he said.
In the last two months, two governors – Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom) and Sheriff Oborevwori (Delta State) – defected from the PDP to the APC.
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With the development, the APC now controls 23 states, the PDP has 10 states while the Labour Party, the New Nigeria People’s Party and the All Progressives Grand Alliance control one state each.
‘I’ll take tough decisions’
Mr Yilwatda also said he would take tough decisions as the leader of the ruling party.
“The confidence they (APC members) have in me is to make sure I take tough decisions but with gentility and also incorporate teamwork for the collective interest of the party,” Mr Yilwatda said, adding that President Bola Tinubu also took such decisions in moving Nigeria forward.
He pointed out that both President Tinubu and APC members asked him to take tough decisions to reposition the party.
“I will (take tough decisions) because that is what the president asked me to do and the members are asking me to do also,” he said.
The new APC national chairperson said he would also consult adequately across the party’s organs, pointing out that his role is to coordinate the affairs of the party.
READ ALSO: How APC set trap for Osun PDP senators to defect to party —- Gov Adeleke’s aide
‘I’m qualified to be APC national chairperson’
Mr Yilwatda was the APC governorship candidate in Plateau State in 2023, but lost the election to PDP’s Caleb Mutfwang, now governor.
Seun Okinbaloye, the programme anchor, asked the former minister if he believes that despite his loss at the governorship poll, he has required competence to lead the ruling party.
“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,” the APC chairperson responded.
He added his experience as a registered engineer, a former lecturer with the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State; a former INEC’s resident electoral commissioner and recently minister were “building blocks” that prepared him for the higher responsibility of APC national chairperson.
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