Defectors won’t displace founding members in APC -Yilwatda

The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has cautioned political defectors into the party against attempting to take over leadership structures, insisting that ‘legacy members’ who built the party must be respected.

He described voter outreach as a core responsibility that cannot be left to chance.

Represented by Prof. Atah Pine, the APC national chairman urged the groups to go beyond rallying existing loyalists and actively engage ordinary Nigerians -communicating the President Bola Tinubu administration’s record and articulating its agenda for the next four years.

“Voter mobilization is one of the functions of political parties and it is expected that the integrity group will be at the forefront of doing that, telling Nigerians what the president has done and what he is going to do in the next four years,” he said.

Noting the strategic value of support groups beyond electoral politics, Yilwatda said they serve as a reservoir of skilled professionals from which the administration can draw for appointments.

He described them as indispensable to the broader project of governance, not merely campaign tools.

“I think this support is going to continue, and in the coming years, especially next year, the integrity group will continue to play a very important role in the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I think it is very important that the integrity group continues to play a very important role in the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“One of the functions is leadership recruitment. Another function of the political party is policy advocacy. Another function of the political party is voter mobilisation. Another function of the political party is political education. There are so many objectives and functions of a political party.

“Now, if you have a support group existing alongside a political party, this support group, and I want us to pay attention to this because many people don’t understand the critical role and place of a support group in democracy and democratic consolidation.

“Now, since the President came on board, we are talking of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he has floated so many policies across the divide, across all the sectors of the society.

“And I’m going to mention a few of those policies. In the economic reforms of the President, he has introduced the subsidy revolver policy. He has standardised the foreign exchange market. We have tax reforms and customs reforms. There’s fiscal discipline in the area of infrastructure.

“The President has, you know, let me say, done revolution in the area of infrastructure provision. We are aware of the 700 kilometre road from Lagos to Calabar, and the other one from Badagry to Sokoto. The President has also floated the energy transition programme, the CNG programme. It’s well and doing fine.

“Then there’s also the electricity act that the administration has passed. You also have social investment and welfare programmes, such as NelFund – The students are being given loans to undertake their studies without relying so much on their parents and putting themselves on immense pressures. And then the government has also signed a minimum wage, 70,000 Naira.

The policies of this government are so much that we can detain ourselves here if we want to read all the policies.

“Now, as a support group, especially the integrity group, what we look up to the integrity group is how to propagate these policies. Are we the same? Are we the same? How do we explain to Nigerians? How do we mobilise Nigerians around this project that are so much?

“Within four sectors, I’ve called over eight projects. And we are silent or deliberately, certain persons don’t want the country to understand that these policies are being floated by the government.”

Convener of the group, Dr. Oke Idawene declared that there will be no vacancy in Aso Rock come 2027.

Casting the president’s ascent to power in providential terms, Idawene urged the gathering to see their role as messengers of a larger mission.

“We are here to support a man helped by God. Bola Tinubu is a man prepared by God. He came prepared and we are here to ensure that every information about the Nigerian state is effectively disseminated,” he said.

Cautioning against any internal reconfiguration of the political coalition that delivered the 2023 presidency, he said, “You don’t change a winning team. Doing so is an error.

“All the way from Abia to Abuja 5am this morning, there was no police escort. They arrived here and passed. I keep saying on the press that there are fascists here and there.

“Please make it so that the collaboration is of Nigerians as leaders to give information to security agents so that we can have ample information in collaboration with what security agents are doing protect the lives of Nigerians.

“That is why we think of this program as a very big national consolidation. How is that so? The economy is getting better. The people are getting silver.

“This symposium, more will be coming as we move on. We will be having North-East Summit, North-West Summit, South-South Summit, South-East Summit and South-North-West Summit already.

“We’ve done National Summit already before in Abuja. This is the third series of our summit. So Abuja is here, we love Nigeria,” Idawene said.

Chief Host and immediate-past Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Chief Godfrey Uche Nnaji, who was represented by Dr. Robert Ngwu, advocated politics without bitterness.

He said that it is important to situate the achievements of this administration within the context of global turbulence that has defined the period since 2023.

“The world has faced unprecedented destructions from the escalation of conflicts in the Middle East to global inflation and others that have driven up cost, including the war in Ukraine.

“Despite all these, the county has made remarkable achievements in health, space and education,” he said.