Former Plateau State Governor and Senator representing Plateau South, Simon Lalong, said the newly appointed National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Nentawe Yilwatda, brings valuable experience from his time as a Resident Electoral Commissioner, which will benefit the party in the upcoming general elections.
Lalong made the remarks on Thursday during a courtesy visit to the new chairman at the APC national secretariat in Abuja.
Yilwatda, who was the party’s governorship candidate in Plateau State in the last general elections, previously served as Resident Electoral Commissioner in Benue State from July 2017 to December 2021.
Lalong emphasised that Yilwatda’s background with the Independent National Electoral Commission would be an asset to the APC and dismissed concerns over his capacity to lead.
He argued that despite not being a former governor like his predecessors, Yilwatda possesses the administrative competence required to run the party effectively.
He said, “I can’t say that he’s a new person. This is somebody who was a REC. He was a REC for four years in Benue.
“After REC, he was an aspirant and became a candidate of the party. It’s not easy to get nominated as a candidate of the party.
“After the candidate of the party (sic), he became a minister of the Federal Republic. Humanitarian ministry, he was already working in humanitarian when the issue of the national championship came up.
“Anybody placed in that kind of position, rising to the level of the national chairman, you won’t say that he’s a new person in politics again. He is part of the executive. He is also part of the executive team working with the President.
“He had conducted several elections in Nigeria. When you talk about party, you are talking about election. What is it about election that an electoral officer does not know? What he knows, it is an added advantage to this party.”
The former Plateau State governor remarked that the era when only former governors could become the APC national chairman is over.
He stated, “We have seen people who are not former governors becoming national chairmen of the party. We have also seen some national chairmen of the party, former governors, coming here for one reason or another.
“They didn’t spend time; they were pushed out. But in this one, I see a new trend. Our new trend is the gap between the old and the new.
“So, if the whole exercise is about movement of younger ones, movement of women and children, then it means that you must get somebody that can speak their language. I hope you understand. You now have to get somebody that understands their language.”