News Investigators/ An interest group within All Progressives Congress, Renewed Hope Advocates of Nigeria (RHAN), has advised the party’s National Chairman, Yilwatda Nentawe, not to scuttle the re-election prospect of President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
RHAN, a pro-Tinubu support group, gave the advice in a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Prince Miaphen in Abuja on Monday.
According to Mr Miaphen, Prof. Nentawe should not scuttle Tinubu’s 2027 re-election chances because of the issues he is having with Gov. Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau.
He stated that while the president and the APC national leadership were busy reaching out to opposition governors across the country, the APC national chairman was working to frustrate Mutfwang’s planned defection to the party.
Mr Miaphen recalled that at a stakeholders’ meeting in Jos on Friday, chaired by Nentawe himself, a motion was allegedly forced through to bar Mutfwang from joining APC.
He said that the decision had exposed the growing disconnect between the Plateau APC leadership and the president’s national vision.
Mr Miaphen warned that any political strategy alienating the governor was both short-sighted and dangerous to the party’s national interest.
He noted that under the Tinubu administration, Nigeria had witnessed unprecedented political inclusivity, citing the alignment of governors from Cross River, Ebonyi, Zamfara and Enugu States as examples of the president’s bridge-building strategy.
‘’Mr President, your administration’s success story is built on inclusion and political bridge-building.
“How can the same APC that celebrates the defection of governors elsewhere suddenly turn hostile to the one in Plateau, a state with over 2.5 million registered voters, crucial to the political arithmetic of 2027?” he queried.
The RHAN national coordinator said that than his moves, the APC national chairman should be hosting strategic engagement sessions to woo the governor and his supporters.
‘’What sense does it make that the national chairman’s own governor is still in the opposition?” he asked.
Mr Miaphen reminded the president of the bitter lessons of 2023, when APC lost Plateau in spite of having former Gov. Simon Lalong as the Director-General of Tinubu’s campaign council.
“Personality politics and disunity on the Plateau can once again ruin our national effort,” he stated, maintaining that APC’s unity and 2027 prospects depend on openness and reconciliation.
“Mr. President, you are a master strategist, a bridge builder who understands that no region should be politically isolated.
‘’It is in that spirit that we urge you to intervene immediately. Plateau is too strategic to be lost to personal vendetta,” he said.
NAN