2nd National Colloquium

The National Colloquium is convened in honour of Professor Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, as a forum for rigorous, non-partisan debate on the questions that will define Nigeria’s next decade.

An academic by training and a technologist by practice, he has moved between the university, the public sector and national political life — a vantage point the colloquium is built to reflect: ideas tested by those who study them and those who must act on them.

In his own words

“Nation building is not a spectator sport. It asks something of the scholar, the policymaker, and above all the young person deciding what kind of country to build. This gathering is where those conversations meet.”

The record

8 Aug 1968Born in Dungung, Kanke Local Government Area, Plateau State.

1992B.Eng Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi. Later a master’s at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, and a PhD in Digital Systems Engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; then e-governance training at the United Nations University, Macau.

Twelve yearsDirector of ICT, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi. Member of COREN, the Nigerian Society of Engineers and the IEEE.

Jul 2017 – Dec 2021Resident Electoral Commissioner for Benue State.

2023Governorship candidate in Plateau State, and coordinator of the Tinubu–Shettima presidential campaign in the state.

Oct 2024 – Jul 2025Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, succeeding Betta Edu.

24 Jul 2025Elected National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress by the National Executive Committee at the Presidential Villa — nominated by Governor Hope Uzodimma and seconded by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas — succeeding Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.

Since 2025Re-elected at the party’s 8th National Convention and sworn in for a four-year term.