I enjoy watching ADC, NDC attack each other — Yilwatda
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Nentawe Yilwatda, on Monday said he enjoys watching opposition parties trade insults, insisting that the crisis rocking the opposition is a sign of self-implosion.
Yilwatda stated this while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
The APC chairman said the ruling party was not distracted by the opposition, claiming that the major political battle was now between the African Democratic Congress and the Nigeria Democratic Congress.
He said, “In the last three weeks the APC is not fighting ADC or NDC. It is NDC versus ADC or ADC versus NDC.
“Actually, I watched with fun all the insults that the ADC is raining on the NDC and the NDC is returning those fireworks on the ADC.
“I watched the videos and I laughed. The self-implosion is in the opposition rather than in the APC.”
When asked whether he was the one directly orchestrating the crisis in the opposition, Yilwatda dismissed the suggestion but admitted he would not mind if it benefited his party.
“No, I can’t. But I will be happy if I can do it. That’s my job,” he said with a laugh.
“If you are opposing me, should I be happy? If you oppose me because you are in the opposition, what’s my job? Of course, to stop the opposition.”
According to him, the ruling APC has stronger internal conflict resolution mechanisms than other political parties in the country.
“I think there’s no party that has a better mechanism for conflict resolution than our party. Look at what happened during the congresses. After the congress, you recall I was on an interview with you and you raised concerns our party would witness self-implosion. Actually, it will not.
“We have our conflict resolution mechanism in the party. We have the presidential committee on conflict resolution, party conflict resolution committee and we advise the states to set up their local conflict resolution committees,” he stated.
Speaking on the credibility of the APC membership register and the 10.99 million votes secured by President Bola Tinubu in the party’s presidential primary, Yilwatda said the APC relied on data from the National Identity Management Commission for its registration process.
“There is a difference between other political parties and us,” he said.
“To register as a member of the APC, your name and primary data are sourced from NIMC. That’s the same primary data that is used across the country to open a bank account, get a driver’s licence and secure an international passport.
“So we’re the only political party that sources our primary data from NIMC. This is why people have seen the APC as one of the most politically viable and stable parties. We are a data-driven political party.”
