National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has threw down a firm marker to political defectors flooding the party in the wake of ongoing Ward, Area Councils and State Congresses in Abuja, warning that they must not be allowed to overrun legacy members who built the party from the ground up.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting of the APC in the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Yilwatda drew a clear distinction between those who were there from the beginning and those who are arriving now, insisting that the party must protect the interests of both without allowing one to subsume the other.
He said; “The people who decamped should not come and take over the party. They should come knowing that there are people who were already living in their party. It is a home that we built. If the house was not built, nobody will come. So nobody should come as a warrior and take over existing party members and take them away.”
The Chairman said the solution lay in a deliberate power-sharing formula that guaranteed inclusion across both blocs.
“We must have everybody included. There will be a sharing formula that will ensure that all the members of the legacy group and defectors are properly carried along”, he said.
On the specific question of FCT’s party structure, Yilwatda outlined a five-dimensional sharing formula: gender inclusion, with women in substantive executive positions and not merely as “women leaders”; geopolitical representation across all six zones of Nigeria; a legacy-versus-defectors formula; inclusion of FCT’s indigenous tribes; and youth engagement commensurate with their numerical dominance in the party.
He confirmed that a committee chaired by the Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Hon. Zephaniah Jisalo— described as a bona fide APC member — had conducted zoning for the FCT and that its work had been followed to the letter. “No single APC member has complained that he has been cheated or he has been deprived in any way,” he said.
Yilwatda also served notice that the party’s constitution would be strictly enforced in the coming congresses.
According to him, defectors seeking executive positions must produce resignation letters accepted by their former party chairmen. “If you are in opposition, you must give resignation letter and show evidence of resignation. You must show evidence of defection, of your resignation and acceptance of your resignation by your own chairman. Very important”, he said.
He also reiterated the constitutional rule on tenure: “If you have spent consecutively eight years in one office, you must step down or at best, change office.”
Beyond the defector controversy, the APC chairman used the occasion to articulate what he described as his core political philosophy – inclusion as a non-negotiable organizational principle.
Drawing on a striking culinary metaphor, he said: “There’s nothing as beautiful as a food that has so many spices in it. You cook rice, and all you see is only rice. No palm oil. Who will eat it? But by the time you discover that there are spices, the rice is there as a major ingredient.”
He applied the logic to ethnic, gender, generational, and geopolitical representation within party structures, saying the APC must ensure that every tribe, every zone, and every demographic sees a face and hears a voice that speaks to them.
“We must accommodate all tribes, including the geopolitical resource,” he said. “If I’m a Yoruba, I should see somebody from Yoruba as part of it. If I’m Igbo, I should see an Igbo as part of it… It gives me a sense of belonging.
“I am chairing this party because of inclusion. If there is no inclusion, I can’t be here because my tribe is only found in two local governments of this country. I am a minority”, he said.
On women, he said; “It is time to take a gender. Women are great mobilizers. We should not be using them on election only. Let’s see them on the list of the experts.”
On youth, Yilwatda cited statistics to make his case, saying: “People between the age of 18 and 50 will form 82% of our own membership. My age group — those over 50 — are at least 18%. These are the numbers, and the election is about numbers.”
Yilwatda also confirmed that the APC is operating in a formal working partnership with FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and, by extension, his tendency of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP.
Responding to a question about whether the partnership was with Wike personally or the PDP as a party, the Chairman was unambiguous. “No, it is the PDP. The reason why I said the PDP is because Wike wrote the National Working Committee NWC of PDP in 2023, and the National Working Committee of PDP approved that Wike should come and work with APC as a minister. So it was the National Working Committee of PDP that gave approval for Wike to work with us — not the APC that gave approval for them to work with us.”
He noted that this arrangement had historical precedent in Nigerian politics, recalling that “in 2007, when the elections were won, there was a working relationship between the defunct All Nigerian People’s Party ANPP and the PDP at that time. Even the ANPP national chairman was given a position in the government. So it is not the first time that we are having this kind of proposition and relationship between political parties taking place in Nigeria.”
Yilwatda was also categorical that this arrangement does not give Wike any authority over APC’s internal affairs.
“The FCT minister is not a member of APC. We have never conferred with him for anything that has to do with APC. He only wrote to the PDP at the inception of this government and the PDP gave him approval to serve in our party.”
