Yilwatda cites ongoing road projects, salary payment improvements as evidence of Tinubu administration’s northern investment
ABUJA — The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Nentawe Yilwatda, has told northern Nigerians that a victory for opposition candidates Atiku Abubakar or Peter Obi in the January 2027 presidential election would push the region back into deep poverty.
Yilwatda made the remarks in Abuja while welcoming a group of state lawmakers who defected to the APC from the African Democratic Congress, representing Jigawa, Plateau, Taraba and Zamfara states.
The APC chairman argued that opposition promises to reverse President Bola Tinubu’s fuel subsidy removal would cut off funding currently going toward infrastructure, agriculture and education in the North. He accused opposition parties, particularly the ADC, of spreading misinformation through regional radio broadcasts, including claims that the president is hostile toward northern Nigerians.
As evidence of the administration’s commitment to the region, Yilwatda pointed to major highway projects nearing completion, including the roughly 400-kilometer Abuja–Kano road and the 500-kilometer Kano–Maiduguri corridor, along with other ongoing federal road works linking Abuja to Lokoja and Benue, Akwanga to Jos, and several other northern routes. He warned that restoring the fuel subsidy would force the government to halt this construction.
Yilwatda also credited the current administration with helping northern state governments clear salary backlogs, noting that before 2023, every state in the North was among roughly 30 nationwide unable to consistently pay wages.
He closed by urging the newly defected lawmakers and northern voters more broadly to rally behind Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Comments