Amid what appears to be a growing alliance in the North against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s bid for a fresh term in the 2027 presidential election, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, has advised leaders in the region to reconsider their position and reciprocate what he described as Tinubu’s loyalty and love for the North.
The APC national chairman made the remarks on Friday while receiving defectors from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) from five northern states: Sokoto, Kaduna, Jigawa, Kano and Plateau.
Checks revealed that nine of the 12 defectors from the ADC and NDC had been candidates for House of Representatives seats, while the other three had aspired to seats in their respective state Houses of Assembly before defecting to the APC.
Professor Yilwatda, who went down memory lane, recalled Tinubu’s support for Atiku Abubakar, Nuhu Ribadu and the late Muhammadu Buhari during the 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 presidential elections. The three northern politicians, from the North-East and North-West, respectively, were presidential candidates of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Action Congress (AC) and the APC.
He maintained that, having supported several candidates in the past, including Atiku Abubakar, who is now the presidential candidate of the ADC, the North should reciprocate Tinubu’s support by voting for him in the next presidential election to secure a fresh mandate.
He said: “I’m happy that most of you are from the northern part of Nigeria, where I come from and where all of us come from.
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👉 JOIN GISTSMATE WHATSAPP CHANNEL“If anybody has worked for the unity of Nigeria, it is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in 2007, supported Atiku to become the President of Nigeria because he believed then that power should move from the South to the North.
“In 2011, he also brought the present National Security Adviser into ACN then to run as a presidential candidate. Nuhu Ribadu ran under ACN as a presidential candidate. He supported and sponsored his network to ensure that he became the President of Nigeria. He’s from the North.
“In 2015, he stood behind President Buhari to become the President of Nigeria. He said, for the unity of Nigeria and social cohesion, power should move back to the North because we lost President Yar’Adua. President Buhari won and became the President of Nigeria.
“In 2019, when a lot of northern elders and politicians left Buhari, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu stood by him and led a reconciliation committee that brought Nigerians together to support President Buhari for a second term in 2023 against all odds.
“People that he has supported all through from the North and South, when he said he wanted to contest, most of them withdrew their support. But the Nigerian people, who have been seeing what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done for Nigeria, how he has stood for the unity of Nigeria and defended democracy with his life and his blood, came out and supported him to become President in 2023.
“Today, I’m happy that most of us are seeing the reason why we need the unity of this country to remain intact. People have stood by us for the unity of Nigeria. When it is their turn, it is good and natural that we repeat the same thing he has done for us. That’s why I’m happy that you’re coming to join us so we can build a stronger Nigeria, a more united Nigeria, a Nigeria that will work for the prosperity and common prosperity of the common man on the street.”
The APC national chairman also faulted claims that infrastructure projects undertaken in the last three years had been skewed against the North.
“Most times, they deceive you. They say, ‘What has President Bola Ahmed Tinubu done for the North?’ They keep on saying that.
“I listened to one of them who was discussing and said, ‘Look, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is building the coastal road. What has he done for the North?’
“The coastal road is 700 kilometres, spanning from Calabar to Lagos. The road from Abuja to Kaduna to Kano is over how many kilometres? It’s over 400 kilometres. And the road from Maiduguri to Kano is how many kilometres? Over 500 kilometres. And the road from here to Kano is nearly completed. Those of you who came from Kano will bear witness.
“The road from Kano to Maiduguri is under construction. It has gone far. The two of them alone are 900 kilometres. The coastal road is just 700 kilometres.
“The roads from Kano to Daura, from Kano to Katsina, from Danja to Zaria and back to Kaduna, and from Sokoto into Kebbi are all under construction, and work on them has progressed considerably.
“The one from Sokoto, heading to Kebbi and down to Lagos, is six lanes, with provision for rail in between and provision for over 300 dams along that corridor alone, for water circulation and agriculture, because they know we are farmers in the North.
“He’s doing it for us, and we say he has done nothing for us. Doesn’t he like the North? Something is missing.”
Earlier in his remarks, the party’s National Secretary, Senator Ajibola, in an apparent reference to the ADC presidential candidate, dismissed him as a politician with an unjustified sense of entitlement to the presidency and little to offer.
He criticised Atiku Abubakar’s record as chairman of the National Council on Privatisation.
He said: “We also see somebody who sold our collective assets and patrimony under the privatisation programme in a way that collapsed the commanding heights of our economy into a coma.
“The steel mills were sold at scrap value. Daily Times was sold at scrap value. Ajaokuta Steel Mill is comatose. The Oshogbo steel mills are comatose.
“Nigeria Airways is comatose. Coming around now to say, at the age of 80-something, you want to have an agenda for a new Nigeria. I think it is very important for us to address it.
“And also, we must make a distinction between making progress, which will require all of us to make collective sacrifices, and politicising such.”
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