By Jeremy Fregene
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has challenged former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and other opposition presidential contenders to place their records in public office alongside President Bola Tinubu’s, declaring that the administration’s expanding infrastructure footprint provides Nigerians with a clear basis for comparison ahead of the 2027 election.
Yilwatda singled out infrastructure as one area in which he said the records could be physically examined, contrasting major highway projects currently under construction or already partly delivered by the Tinubu administration with the long-running controversy over hundreds of billions of naira budgeted for roads during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, when Atiku served as Vice-President.
The APC chairman spoke on Thursday in Abuja while receiving members of the Forum of APC House of Representatives Aspirants, led by Hon. Danjuma Mohammed, at the party’s national secretariat.
He listed Atiku, Peter Obi, Donald Duke and Seyi Makinde among opposition figures whose records, he argued, should be placed alongside Tinubu’s achievements in infrastructure, institution-building and other sectors.
“Let the opposition present their records alongside those of this administration, including their achievements in building strong institutions, and Nigerians will see the difference,” Yilwatda said.
Turning specifically to Atiku’s years as Vice-President between 1999 and 2007, Yilwatda reopened the controversial roads expenditure of the Obasanjo era.
“We were here live. When the president gave road projects of over ₦300 billion, when another person was the Minister of Works, we couldn’t find even the road that was patched with that budget,” he said.
The ₦300 billion figure has for years featured prominently in political arguments over the infrastructure record of the Obasanjo administration, particularly the period when the late Chief Tony Anenih served as Minister of Works and Housing.
A subsequent Senate investigation was broader, examining more than ₦300 billion in road and transportation expenditure during the Obasanjo years and raising questions over contracts, due process, and the decrepit state of federal highways despite the sums committed to the sector.
Atiku was Vice-President throughout the Obasanjo administration.
The APC chairman contrasted that record with what he described as the visible infrastructure footprint of the Tinubu administration.
He cited the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Highway, Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, and Trans-Sahara Highway among projects through which, he said, Nigerians could physically assess the administration’s performance.
The Federal Government has announced that the first 118-kilometre section of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Highway has been completed largely in reinforced concrete pavement, while the 164-kilometre second lot has crossed 60 per cent completion.
On the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, the Works Ministry says Section 1, covering about 47 kilometres, has been completed, with work progressing on the approximately 55-kilometre second section.
The 750-kilometre coastal highway is one of four major legacy road corridors being pursued by the administration, alongside the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway, Calabar-Ebonyi-Abuja Trans-Saharan corridor, and the Akwanga-Jos-Bauchi-Gombe-Biu-Maiduguri dualisation.
Yilwatda also pointed to the Trans-Sahara project, saying substantial construction had already been achieved along the more than 1,400-kilometre corridor.
The APC chairman’s intervention comes amid renewed criticism of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway by Atiku, who recently demanded that the Federal Government publish contract documents and payment records relating to the project following controversy over its alignment.
The Works Ministry has maintained that the 750-kilometre coastal highway has neither been abandoned nor truncated and that reconstruction of the East-West Road is an additional intervention rather than a replacement for the coastal project.
Beyond roads, the APC chairman cited the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, as another policy on which he said the administration’s record should be compared with the positions and achievements of its opponents.
He defended the student loan programme as a direct intervention for Nigerian families and students who might otherwise struggle to finance tertiary education.
Yilwatda also pointed to the APC’s nationwide political organisation, saying the party has more than 261,000 executives across the country.
He urged members of the Forum of APC House of Representatives Aspirants to integrate their activities with the party’s established structures as preparations for the January 2027 presidential election intensify.
The APC chairman maintained that the coming campaign should ultimately be a contest of verifiable records, with the ruling party presenting Tinubu’s ongoing and completed infrastructure projects against the records of opposition candidates who have previously held public office.
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