APC chairman puts govs under pressure

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, has urged Nigerians to hold their local government chairmen and state governors accountable for improved welfare and economic development.

Claiming that his party is making changes that look unreasonable to the eyes of people, Yilwatda hinged his claim on the Federal Government’s removal of petroleum subsidy and the surpassing of World Bank predictions.

He lamented that the governors and local government chairmen may not have been doing enough for the funds from the centre to trickle down to the people at the grassroots.

He spoke at a book launch, Vicious Red Circle written by Alex Ugochukwu Oriaku, in Abuja yesterday. According to him,  state governors are getting more than enough and should not have any reason to complain.

“As a political party, we, in the APC, like doing the unthinkable; making changes that look unreasonable in the eye of people, but deep within, and seated in our hearts, is how to make changes that can improve the life of our people. That is at the centre of our hearts. And that is why we are working as citizens with the economy, and everybody knows the numbers are changing.”

Yilwatda hailed President Bola Tinubu’s administration for efforts to improve living standards but stressed that state governments, receiving increased federal allocations, should do more for their citizens.

“Governors now receive two to four times more than before. They can focus on bigger projects, but they must also improve the daily lives of the people.” He urged Nigerians to engage local leaders, stating that meaningful change was possible through political participation and by pushing for reforms that directly improved citizens’ lives.

Yilwatda cited economic achievements under the Tinubu administration, including Nigeria’s 4.23 percent GDP growth, higher than the World Bank’s prediction of 3 percent, and oil production reaching 1.7 to 1.8 million barrels per day.

He emphasised that critical services like primary health and education fall under local governments, while secondary health and infrastructure fall under state governments, urging all levels to enhance citizen welfare.

Shifting blames on the governors further, Yilwatda said the governors previously getting N400 billion monthly are getting over N2.2 trillion and urged Nigerians to talk to the governors to do more for their people.

“If you feel I need to talk to the governors, please tell me. I will call their attention. And if you feel you want to have a nexus within the National Assembly and the government, not just at the national level, even the state governments, you want to have that nexus between them, we have most of the governors.

“We have 24 and we are still counting. We will have more. No governor in Nigeria… we know that two years ago, what they used to share was about N400 billion per month. But today, the last they shared was N2.2 trillion. No governor in Nigeria today collects less than three times, four times of what they used to collect before. None.

“They can do more for their people. They are focusing now on bigger projects. And to me, this is a turnaround that we need in governors. I would say, talk to your governors. Talk to your local government Chairmen. Let them do more. Talk to the APC governors to do more.

“As a chairman of the party, I want Nigeria to do well. I want Nigeria to do better. It’s my prayer. It’s my dream that I have a party that is driving Nigeria in the right direction. To give Nigeria not just optics alone, but a reality that Nigeria is better and open,” he noted.

Reflecting on his leadership, Yilwatda noted: “I am not a former governor, yet I became the APC National Chairman. We make impossible changes aimed at improving lives.”

He called on Civil Society Organisations to advocate for vulnerable groups, educationists to conduct impactful research, and the National Assembly to strengthen institutions and legal frameworks for better governance.

Explaining his motivation, the author, Ugochukwu Oriaku, said he did not write Vicious Red Circle just to add another statistic to the pile of books and materials on human trafficking. “I wrote it to simply tell a sad story. I wrote it to build a bridge. A bridge of empathy between the abstract horror of a global crisis and the beating heart of a single, human story. “This novel follows one life, one journey-a fictional story woven from countless real, harrowing truths. It’s about the girl, Itohan, who could be your daughter’s classmate. The boy who could have been your son’s friend in the Boys Brigade/Boys Scout or played football with him. It’s about the moments of choice, coercion and the fragile, fierce fight for survival,” he said.