The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, has called on Nigerians to demand transparency and tangible development from their state governors and local government chairmen, stressing that subnational leaders now receive significantly higher federal allocations than ever before.
Yilwatda made the call on Monday in Abuja during the public presentation of “Vicious Red Circle”, a book on human trafficking authored by Alex Oriaku.
The APC chairman revealed that while states used to share around ₦400 billion in monthly allocations two years ago, the latest disbursement reached ₦2.2 trillion—an increase he said should translate into meaningful projects and improved living conditions for citizens.
“No governor in Nigeria collects less than three times what they used to collect before. None,” Yilwatda said. “They can do more for their people. I would say, talk to your governors. Talk to your local government chairmen. Let them do more.”
Yilwatda, who assumed leadership of the ruling party amid public concern over economic challenges, reaffirmed confidence in President Bola Tinubu’s administration, describing its economic recovery agenda as being “on the right track.”
Beyond governance, the event also drew attention to the persistent scourge of human trafficking, a crisis that continues to plague Nigeria despite two decades of institutional response. Speakers described the menace as a growing national tragedy that has made Nigeria a source, transit, and destination country for trafficked persons within Africa and beyond.
The Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Mohammed Mohammed, likened human trafficking to drug and arms smuggling, describing it as “one of the most dangerous transnational crimes of our time.” He warned that trafficking had “eroded the nation’s social fabric and robbed countless victims of their dignity and future,” while pledging continued intelligence and operational support to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
Mohammed stressed that combating the crime requires a “whole-of-society approach,” urging stronger collaboration among civil society organisations, faith-based groups, and local communities to dismantle trafficking networks across the country.
Reviewing the 198-page book, President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr. Ike Neliaku, drew parallels between corruption, manipulation, and exploitation, describing them as “interconnected vices” sustained by the nation’s “culture of silence.” He urged Nigerians to speak out and confront the systems that enable abuse and impunity to thrive.
Author Alex Oriaku said his book, “Vicious Red Circle,” was written to humanise the statistics and reveal the human cost of trafficking, which he described as “a cycle that preys on the desperate, the vulnerable, and the unseen.”
“I wrote it to build a bridge of empathy between the abstract horror of a global crisis and the beating heart of a single, human story,” Oriaku said, receiving applause from the audience.
The event underscored both the urgent need for accountability in governance and a coordinated national response to social injustices that threaten Nigeria’s moral and economic fabric.
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