Jos, Plateau State
A wave of sharp reactions has trailed comments made by the new National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, who declared during a visit by Plateau APC lawmakers that the party would unseat Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang in 2027.
A cross section of concerned Plateau citizens, in a strongly worded statement on Tuesday signed Cornelius David, spokesperson of Plateau Progressives for Consolidation
dismissed the APC Chairman’s remarks as “political hallucination” and warned that “Plateau is not a political experiment or a battleground for misplaced ambitions.”
“It is laughable that a man who couldn’t earn the people’s mandate at the ballot in 2023 now imagines he can unseat a sitting governor from the comfort of an Abuja office,” the statement read.
“Plateau people made a bold and irrevocable choice in 2023. That choice was Caleb Mutfwang, a governor whose performance speaks louder than propaganda.”
The statement described Professor Yilwatda’s claims as “building castles in the air,” reminding him that but for a judicial reversal, the APC would have had only 7 members in the 24-seat Plateau State House of Assembly, compared to PDP’s 16. It added that PDP also secured 5 of 8 House of Representatives seats and 2 out of 3 Senate positions during the general elections.
“APC’s supposed dominance in Plateau is the result of courtroom arithmetic, not ballot-box reality,” it declared.
“You don’t change a winning team in the middle of the game. Governor Mutfwang has restored confidence, opened rural roads long abandoned, and rekindled hope in communities the APC left in darkness.”
In a clear message to the APC leadership, the authors urged Yilwatda to focus on uniting his party and fixing its internal problems rather than meddling in Plateau’s affairs.
“He who wants to remove the log in another man’s eye must first clear the forest in his own. If Yilwatda insists on turning Plateau into a political battleground, he will be fighting a war he cannot win.”
The statement also called out Plateau APC leaders who joined Yilwatda in Abuja, warning that the real verdict lies not in Abuja praise-singing but in the hearts of the Plateau electorate.
“Politics is local, and Plateau people are watching. A dog that barks at a moving train only tires itself. Come 2027, the people will once again speak, not in whispers, but in thunder.”
The statement concluded with a strong reminder: “Plateau is not for sale. The loyalty of our people is earned through performance, not party slogans. Mutfwang is not just the man of the moment, he is the mandate of a generation.”
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