New APC National Chairman Emerges
Just as the meeting of the he National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been concluded, the party have announced a new leadership.
The appointment of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, as the new National Chairman of the party was confirmed by Kpomkwem News at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja.
The chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, Governor Hope Uzodimma, nominated him for the position and was seconded by the speaker House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen.
Yilwatda’s emergence as the new National Chairman of the APC marks a deliberate return of the position to the North Central region, aligning with the party’s original zoning arrangement. Yilwatda hails from Plateau State, replacing the recently resigned chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the former Kano State governor.
It is understood that the decision to appoint Yilwatda, a Christian from the North Central zone, is a strategy to balance the party’s religious sentiments which has caused an internal grievances, particularly over the continued dominance of a Muslim-Muslim ticket at the federal level, led by President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima who are both Muslims.
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Yilwatda is an loyalist of former Plateau State Governor, who is currently a sitting Senator, Simon Lalong. He assumed the role of Minister of Humanitarian Affairs following Lalong’s resignation from the cabinet to return to the Senate. It can be recalled that the Court of Appeal overturned the earlier declared winner in the Plateau South Senatorial race.
Before his ministerial appointment, Yilwatda was the APC governorship candidate in Plateau State during the 2023 general elections but was defeated by the PDP’s Caleb Mutfwang. He also played a key role in the presidential campaign as the state coordinator for the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Organisation in 2023.
