Oshiomhole: Looks can deceive…APC corrects wrong impression with Yilwatda’s emergence

• Oshiomhole said Yilwatda’s appointment proves the APC chairmanship is not reserved for those who were state governors.
• He described the tradition of ex-governors becoming chairmen as an “unwritten rule” the party needed to dismantle for credibility.

The senator representing Edo North Senatorial District, Adams Oshiomhole, has said appearances can be deceptive while speaking about the newly appointed national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda.

Oshiomhole said the ruling party had finally corrected the impression that anyone aspiring to become the APC national chairman must first be a former governor.

Yilwatda was on Wednesday named the new national chairman of the APC.

He is widely perceived as calm, soft-spoken, and easygoing.

The former minister of humanitarian affairs now leads over 20 APC-controlled states and a majority in the National Assembly.

He stated during an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday that he intends to emulate the leadership style of the President Bola Tinubu.

Speaking on Arise News on Friday night, Oshiomhole said assessing people based on appearance can be misleading.

“It’s too early to say. Too early to say. You can’t know anyone. But you give him the opportunity. Looks can be quite deceiving,” the former national chairman of the APC said.

The former president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, said, “Unwittingly, APC was beginning to establish as though it’s a tradition that you must first be a governor and out of office as a governor before you become chairman of APC.

“It just happened that the first founding chairman who laid a very solid foundation in very complex, complicated circumstances was, I mean, former governor of Osun State, Bisi Akande, you know, he was a former governor.”

The lawmaker explained that the position had often been occupied by former governors since the party’s formation.

“So I think it was even important, even for the optics, to reassure party members that there is no position that is reserved,” he said.

“You don’t have to be a former governor. I think that point has been very well made by the choice of Yilwatda,” Oshiomhole added.