Tinubu has surpassed northern leaders in developing region – Yilwatda

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, has dismissed insinuations that the President Bola Tinubu-led administration did not favour the northern region.

Yilwatda in his defence, described as untrue, the negative impression in the minds of many northerners that President Tinubu has impoverished the North, arguing that no northern leader has developed the region more than Tinubu.

He spoke when he received the eight 2027 legislative candidates of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) that defected to the ruling party on Friday in Abuja, emphasising that President Tinubu has left bold footprints in the sand of times with his infrastructural giant strands in the region.

According to Yilwatda: “I am happy that most of you are from the northern part of Nigeria, where I also come from. If anybody has worked for the unity of Nigeria, it is President Tinubu. In 2007, he 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 NSA, Ribadu, into ACN then to run as a presidential candidate. He supported and sponsored his network to ensure that he became the president of Nigeria. He is from the North.

“In 2015, he stood behind President Buhari to become the president of Nigeria. He said that 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 the northern elders and politicians left Buhari, President Tinubu stood for him and led a reconciliation committee that brought Nigerians together to support President Buhari to repeat his 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 pulled out their support. But the Nigerian people, who have been seeing what President 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.”