The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has said Nigerians will still support President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 general election despite concerns over insecurity in parts of the country.
Yilwatda stated this on Monday during an appearance on Politics Today on Channels Television, where he defended the performance of the Tinubu administration on security, the economy and governance.
Speaking on the country’s security situation, the APC chairman admitted that Nigeria still faces challenges but insisted that the Federal Government is taking deliberate steps to address them.
“We accept the responsibility where we have not done enough and where maybe sometimes there are security leakages,” Yilwatda said.
“And this is the reason because the opening up of the Sahel has opened up a lot of threats from the Sahel axis, and those breakdown in agreements and security structures along with them has affected Nigeria in no small means.”
He said the government was intensifying collaboration with international partners to improve security operations across the country.
“The collaboration with the international community like the US and the rest is improving our targeting of the bandits and also the insecurity in those locations,” he stated.
“Of course, we’re not saying we are there yet, but we’re doing our best to ensure that we improve security, and we’re still working on it. It’s a work in progress.”
Yilwatda said the Tinubu administration had already directed increased recruitment into security agencies as part of efforts to strengthen internal security.
“The President has acted already. He asked the Interior Ministry to recruit more people in civil defence, other security agencies and the police to increase their recruitment,” he said.
“We have a lot of ungoverned spaces across the country and that’s where the forest guards also come in. The President has asked that they be recruited and deployed across the country.”
He also disclosed that the Federal Government was considering the establishment of state police to tackle peculiar security challenges in different parts of the country.
“The President is also looking at the option of state police, working with state governments to see if state police can be implemented so that each state can also have a structure within the state to uniquely manage their security challenges,” he added.
When asked whether Nigerians could punish the APC at the polls over insecurity, Yilwatda dismissed the suggestion and expressed confidence in the party’s chances in 2027.
“They will not,” he said.
“They know what we’re doing for our people also to ensure that we get things right.”
The APC chairman also defended the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms, arguing that the government inherited an economy in distress but had begun reversing the trend.
“Before our coming, the economy was in disarray. We already had negative GDP,” he said.
“Today, Nigeria was among the top 10 countries that contributed to the GDP growth of the world.”
On inflation and economic hardship, Yilwatda acknowledged the challenges Nigerians are facing but insisted that government policies were beginning to yield results.
“If you look at the debt of inflation also, it hit 34 per cent. It dropped to 14 per cent,” he said.
“If you look at the last four quarters, it keeps dropping every quarter. It simply means that the decisions we took were right.”
He listed projects and intervention programmes introduced by the administration, including the student loan scheme, health insurance expansion, road construction and railway development.
“We have about 1.5 million students who have benefited from the student loan,” he said.
“Their school fees are paid completely and they receive support monthly.”
Yilwatda also defended the conduct of the APC presidential primary, insisting that the process was transparent and well organised.
“We have one of the most prepared political machines that can tackle any political opponent,” he said.
“You could see how organised the primaries were — almost crisis-free, almost zero incidences,” he said.
