(Nentawe Yilwatda. Photo by Vanguard News)
Political appointees in President Bola Tinubu’s administration have been cautioned by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that they cannot hold political positions while claiming to be technocrats disengaged from partisan duties.
The APC insists that these appointees must be prepared to mobilize support for the party or resign from their positions.
Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, the national chairman of the APC, issued the warning on Wednesday in Abuja after meeting with representatives of the Progressive Local Government Chairmen’s Forum, which is headed by Dr. Mustafa Jibrin, the chairman of Chanchaga Local Government in Niger State.
Yilwatda was briefed on the group’s grassroots mobilization effort ahead of the 2027 general election.
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Prof. Ali Nuhu Yilwatda, has charged local government chairmen to hold political appointees accountable for their performance at the grassroots level, insisting that being closer to the people places them in a better position to assess appointees’ political impact than officials in Abuja.
According to him, council chairmen were better positioned to identify appointees who were failing to deliver politically in their wards, regardless of how well they performed administratively in their offices.
He said it was up to them to point out when a commissioner or director-general, though functional in the office, was politically ineffective back home.
Yilwatda argued that appointees could not distance themselves from politics simply because their titles carried technocratic descriptions, likening such claims to someone denying their ethnic identity despite bearing its unmistakable markers.
He stressed that they were referred to as political appointees precisely because the word “political” was attached to the title, insisting that one could not hold a political position while claiming not to be a politician, just as someone with certain tribal marks could not credibly deny belonging to that ethnic group.
He said appointees who wished to avoid politics altogether should have declined political appointments from the outset, noting that the party’s mobilisation efforts depended on votes rather than office holders who saw themselves purely as administrators.
He urged the chairmen to work with such appointees, pointing out areas where they were underperforming and where the party had gaps, in order to strengthen its chances of winning the election.
Receiving a briefing from the local government chairmen, Yilwatda assured the group of the party’s full backing for their mobilisation activities, including plans to inaugurate the forum’s state coordinators and organise a mass endorsement rally for the President in Abuja.
He pledged the party’s support and partnership towards securing a strong victory for the APC in 2027, and promised that the party would personally join any mobilisation efforts organised by the forum without waiting for formal invitations, comparing reluctance to participate to someone who is hungry but insists on being invited before eating.
Earlier, Jibrin had informed the national chairman that the Progressive Local Government Chairmen’s Forum now had the backing of over 685 local government chairmen and 31 state governors, with the group targeting at least 70 per cent of votes cast in the 2027 election for the APC.
He said the forum enjoyed the support of the Governor of Niger State, Mohammed Umar Bago, who nominated him to lead the group, and disclosed plans to mobilise all 685 council chairmen alongside their councillors for a formal endorsement of President Tinubu’s re-election bid, on a date to be fixed by the national chairman.
