Follow Us on Google
By Chinelo Obogo
A pro-Tinubu support group, Renewed Hope Advocates of Nigeria (RHAN), has urged the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Yilwatda Nentawe, not to allow any alleged issue he has with Governor Caleb Mutfwang to jeopardise President Bola Tinubu’s re-election.
The group, in a statement by its national coordinator, Prince Miaphen, alleged that Prof. Nentawe was frustrating Governor Mutfwang’s planned defection to the APC.
Miaphen claimed that at a stakeholders’ meeting in Jos last Friday which was chaired by Prof. Nentawe himself, a motion was allegedly forced through to bar Governor Mutfwang from joining the APC.
“At a stakeholders’ meeting recently held in Jos which was presided over by the national chairman himself, a motion was not only moved but unanimously adopted to bar Mutfwang from joining the APC. The same meeting that endorsed President Tinubu’s second term bid decided to block a sitting governor, who could have been one of his strongest electoral assets in the North Central region,” Miaphen alleged.
He warned that, “any political strategy that alienates Plateau’s sitting governor is both short-sighted and dangerous to the party’s national interest.”
Miaphen noted that under President Tinubu, Nigeria has witnessed unprecedented political inclusivity, citing the alignment of governors from Cross River, Ebonyi, Zamfara and Enugu states as examples of the President’s bridge-building strategy.
Other News
“Mr. President, your administration’s success story is built upon inclusion and political bridge-building. How can the same APC that celebrates the defection of governors elsewhere suddenly turn hostile to one in Plateau, a state with over 2.5 million registered voters, crucial to the political arithmetic of 2027?
“Rather than convening meetings to block Mutfwang, Nentawe should be hosting strategic engagement sessions to woo him and his supporters. What sense does it make that the national chairman’s own governor is still in the opposition?” he queried.
RHAN also reminded the President of the bitter lessons of 2023, when the APC lost Plateau, despite having former Governor Simon Lalong as director-general of Tinubu’s campaign.
“If a sitting governor’s support could not guarantee victory in 2023, how much worse would it be when the national chairman himself alienates the current governor? Personality politics and disunity on the Plateau can once again ruin our national effort,” he warned.
He urged President Tinubu to call Nentawe and the Plateau APC caucus to order, insisting that the party’s unity and 2027 prospects depend on openness and reconciliation.
“Mr. President, you are a bridge builder who understands that no region should be politically isolated. It is in that spirit that we urge you to intervene immediately. Plateau is too strategic to be lost to personal vendetta.”
He added that the door of the APC must remain open to all well-meaning Plateau citizens, including Governor Mutfwang if the goal truly is to secure and strengthen President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election.”
