The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the presidential candidates of the opposition parties are no match for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election.
The party named Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Donald Duke of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) and Seyi Makinde of the Allied People’s Movement (APM).
APC National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, said this in Abuja on Thursday while receiving the Forum of APC House of Representatives Aspirants, led by Danjuma Mohammed, at the party’s national secretariat.
“No political party, as it stands today, has a more credible candidate than President Bola Tinubu. We have facts, we have records that if we put them vis-à-vis any other candidate that is on this ballot, none matches our own candidate. None. I mean, none,” he said.
Yilwatda said the opposition could not withstand a side-by-side comparison of records, including on institution building.
Roads: Obasanjo, Atiku
Yilwatda claimed Nigerians could not point to any road built with the over N300 billion released for road projects under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, when Atiku was Vice President.
“We were here live. When the president gave road projects of over N300 billion, when another person was the Minister of Works, we couldn’t find even the road that was patched with that budget,” he said.
He challenged critics to identify a single 500-kilometre road built with the money, adding that he could point to many roads completed in three years under the Tinubu administration.
He cited the Abuja-Kaduna road, which he put at over 441 kilometres, and said the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano section was under construction and nearing completion.
On the Trans-Sahara Superhighway, he said between 30 and 40 per cent of the work had been done, covering a span of over 1,400 kilometres, excluding the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
He also pointed to the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline, saying the gas would supply fertiliser production, CNG, household use and power generation for homes and industries.
Student loan scheme
Yilwatda also criticised Atiku’s position on the student loan scheme, which he said the former Vice President would scrap if elected.
He said an ADC spokesperson had questioned the N20,000 monthly upkeep paid to students, a remark he described as out of touch with ordinary Nigerians.
A former university lecturer, Yilwatda said he had seen first-hand how many students dropped out because they could not pay school fees. He recounted a student who saved part of the N20,000, bought a second-hand refrigerator and began selling iced fish to schoolmates.
He added that opposition leaders own universities that charge millions of naira in fees, yet describe the students’ allowance as too small. According to him, students in those institutions also benefit from the loan scheme.
Aspirants’ forum
Earlier, Mohammed said the forum was formed in 2022 under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to unite aspirants who took part in the party’s primary but did not emerge as candidates. He said its aim then was to mobilise support for Atiku and his running mate, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa.
He said many members had since joined the APC and were united in supporting Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima for a second term. The forum, he said, has members from all 360 federal constituencies and does not intend to set up a parallel structure or undermine party organs.
Mohammed asked the party to approve and fund the production and nationwide distribution of campaign materials in major local languages across multiple media formats. He also proposed a political conference in each of the six geopolitical zones to disseminate them.
Yilwatda said the party already had a directorate working with such groups and promised to link the forum to it.
He urged the aspirants not to lose heart, citing his own loss in the Plateau governorship election, which he took to the Supreme Court and lost. “When I returned back to serve the party, I never grumbled,” he said.
He said the APC has over 261,000 executive members nationwide and wants to convert that strength to victory in 2027. “Partner with us, work with us, and victory is sure for all of us,” he said.
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