The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Nentawe Yilwatda, has emerged as the new National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) following his nomination and election by the members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.
The Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, Governor Hope Uzodimma, nominated him for the position, and the motion was seconded by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen.
The motion was then put to a voice vote and passed by NEC members present at the meeting in Abuja on Thursday.
His emergence came at a time when the APC aims to consolidate its hold on power at the federal level and in some states whose governors recently defected to the ruling party.
President Bola Tinubu appointed him as a minister late last year. He, alongside six others, was nominated on October 23, 2023, and sworn in on November 4 of the same year.
The 56-year-old Yilwatda, from Plateau State, takes over from Abdullahi Ganduje as the chairman of the party after the latter resigned from the position in June, citing personal reasons.
“His resignation, which is effective immediately, was offered to enable him to attend to urgent and important personal matters,” the APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, had said in a statement.
“In his letter of resignation addressed to the National Working Committee (NWC) through the National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, Ganduje expressed gratitude to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Bola Tinubu, for the opportunity to serve the party at the highest level.”
Following Ganduje’s resignation, the APC appointed its Deputy National Chairman (North), Ali Dalori, to take charge of the party’s affairs.
Ganduje took over the reins of APC leadership in August 2023 after Abdullahi Adamu, also a former governor, resigned from the position. Ganduje was the governor of the North-West state between 2015 and 2023.
In the first month of the year, President Tinubu appointed him as the Board Chairman of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
Prof. Yilwatda was born on August 8th, 1968, in Plateau State, North Central Nigeria, and is a politician, academic and engineer.
Until his emergence as APC national chairman during Thursday’s National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting, Yilwatda was the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management. In October 2024, he took over from Betta Edu, who was suspended over a financial scandal.
Yilwatda was the APC gubernatorial candidate in the 2023 election in Plateau State.
Between July 2017 and December 2021, he held the position of Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in Benue State.
Also, he was the ICT director at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, for 12 years.
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