The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, has dismissed calls by Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to step aside, insisting that the president remains fully committed to governing the country.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday night monitored by The News Chronicle, Yilwatda said Tinubu’s workload demonstrates that he is far from being exhausted by the demands of office.
“Is he going for boxing or the 100 metres? President Tinubu works from morning till night,” the APC chairman said while responding to Obi’s recent remarks suggesting that the president was “tired” and should resign. He argued that the presidency is not an athletic contest but a position that requires experience, strategy and endurance.
Yilwatda also rejected allegations that the ruling party was behind the internal crises affecting opposition parties, including the Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). According to him, political defections and party disputes are decisions taken by individual politicians and cannot be blamed on the APC.
“Nobody in APC chased Peter Obi out of PDP, Labour Party, ADC or NDC,” he said, adding that Obi has changed political platforms several times since 2014.
The APC chairman further stated that attracting politicians from other parties is part of his responsibility as the party’s national leader. He said the APC would continue to mobilise support across the country ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“That is my role — to galvanise and mobilise the party,” Yilwatda said.
Defending the Tinubu administration, he pointed to ongoing infrastructure and social intervention programmes such as the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project and other major federal projects as evidence that the government is focused on delivering tangible results for Nigerians.
Yilwatda expressed confidence that these programmes would strengthen public support for President Tinubu ahead of the next presidential election, maintaining that the administration is laying the foundation for long-term economic growth and national development.
The interview comes amid increasing political debate over Tinubu’s performance and the early positioning of opposition figures ahead of the 2027 elections, with Peter Obi emerging as one of the most vocal critics of the current administration.
