The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, has told Nigerians to hold their state governors and local government chairmen accountable for the persistent hardship in the country.
Yilwatda spoke on Monday in Abuja at the public presentation of “Vicious Red Circle,” a book on human trafficking authored by Alex Oriaku.
He said that Nigerians must begin to demand tangible development and people-oriented projects from sub-national leaders, given the significant increase in monthly allocations to states and clocal ouncils.
“No governor in Nigeria collects less than three times, up to four times what they used to collect before. None. Who knows that two years ago there was a sharing of about ₦400bn per month—but today, the last sharing they did was ₦2.2trn,” he stated.
“So they can do more for their people. No governor collects less than three times. None. They are focusing now on bigger projects. And to me, this is a turnaround that we need in governors. I would say, talk to your governors. Talk to your local government chairmen. Let them do more.”
The APC national chairman who assumed leadership of the ruling party amid mounting criticism of government economic policies, maintained that the administration of President Bola Tinubu is on the right track.
He expressed optimism that the party would drive the country toward economic recovery.
At the event, the discussion extended beyond governance to a more pressing humanitarian crisis—human trafficking, a scourge that has earned Nigeria the reputation of being both a source, transit, and destination country for trafficked persons in Africa and beyond.
Despite efforts by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons since its establishment in 2003, Nigeria remains one of the leading countries in West Africa affected by human trafficking.
Hundreds of victims, mostly women and children, are trafficked annually within the country and abroad—particularly to Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa—for forced labour, sexual exploitation, and domestic servitude.
