Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, an engineer, has the veneer of a gentleman. Polished facial expression. A winsome smile and a friendly aura that seems apolitical. But he’s a politician. A top one at that. Currently chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He has been that since July 2025.

He reminds me of gentleman Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the first Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1998. Urbane. Genteel. Endowed with Victorian ‘steeze’ enhanced by genuine scholastic composure.

Aside these two gentlemen, chairmen of political parties in Nigeria, especially ruling parties, are known to be garrulous, sometimes arrogantly uppity. They bear down on the opposition and rebuke them with waspy tongues. They hugged the headlines with their uncouth statements and always trot out nasty sound bites for the media to feast on. Some, rather than build their party, fragment it into cultic factions. They create crisis where there was none.

Adams Oshiomhole was APC chairman from 2018 to 2020. A former labour leader famed for his virile activism and constant confrontation with Nigerian government, he took his activism skills into APC chairmanship seat. The result of his highhandedness was a raft of internal crisis in the party. He was removed but that was after he had sufficiently marketed APC as a party where suspected criminals under the spotlight of anti-corruption agencies, EFCC and ICPC, could take refuge. His infamous ‘come to APC and all your sins will be forgiven’ became the fodder for Nigerians to brand APC a party of crooks. He simply de-marketed his party. A kind of marketing in reverse. Yes, politicians joined the APC for whatever reason. But in the eyes of the public, these are financial crimes suspects running away from prosecution. Some even described APC as Association of Past Criminals (APC), a tag that still haunts the party till this day. Could this be why governors, senators and other politicians have marched, hotfoot, into the APC carapace where neither EFCC nor ICPC could trouble them? The jury is still out. But this does not bode well for the APC, in fact for any party, to be tagged the assembly of suspected criminals.

But here, APC has a different kind of chairman who is neither dividing nor demarketing the party. Yilwatda’s public engagements these past months sells him as a political builder, a promoter of inclusivity and a rare politician with bridled tongue.  A good 27 years into the 4^th Republic, Nigerian politicians should realise that the most effective political communication is one shorn of insults and banal inanities. Hauling insults at opposition or at anybody that disagrees with you is not grand, not noble. It is, instead, a glorification of base values which affixes on the speaker the badge of primitivity.

Yes, politics, especially African politics, is crude. The currency is vulgar language. The trademark is insult. The more you are able to insult an opponent the more you are perceived to be doing well. This theory only operates in a backward society and it is actually a barometer for measuring the level of civility of a nation. But Nigeria should not be stuck in the muddle. Politicians should transit to trading in the currency of ideas, grand scalable visions and ideologies that promote civil liberties, productivity and reward for illustriousness. The moderation of language and exercise of temperance as seen in politics in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, et al, ought to guide Nigerian politicians. These are nations that shared same political symptoms with Nigeria in the 60s and 70s, including development indices, but have today advanced far ahead of Nigeria because of adherence to the rule of law and prioritization of values in their leadership recruitment processes.

In their politics and during electioneering, they mind their language. Using foul language and spewing obscene expletives could rob a party of victory.

Just last year, October, Japan elected its first female Prime Minister, the value-oriented workaholic, Madam Sanae Takaichi. She now occupies the biggest political office in Japan, the 4^th largest economy in the world. Her resume ticked all boxes in integrity, good scholarship, strong political pedigree, undeniable ethical value of hard work. She believes that work and more work have a reward which is prosperity and more prosperity. The election that brought her to office was not tainted. Politicians canvassed ideas, traded visions and marketed innovation to the electorate. In most Asia nations, premium is placed on corruption-free, ethical value-driven, innovative and visionary leadership. This is lacking in Africa, and the difference is as clear as night and day. These Asian nations have entrenched themselves in the global innovation and development map while African nations are still managing their self-inflicted poverty.

In a democracy, the quality of the polity and the politicians matters. Any democracy that promotes vile as virtue and throws up louts as leaders is in reverse progression. Nigeria needs to clean up the political space just so decent men and women could find the space to contend for power with ideas and evidence-driven ideologies, not with vile words and weapons of death.

Professor Yilwatda has so far struck me as a decent Nigerian politician and one whose template of political leadership and communication in a toxic political milieu deserves laudation. In the face of the muddy pelts from opposition parties at the APC and the counter caustic and abusive responses from the Tinubu/APC camp, Yilwatda has kept his language wholesome. Rather than dissipate energy verbally assaulting opponents, he is busy selling Tinubu from north to south. He is promoting unity in his party and entrenching inclusivity. Simply put, he is stooping to conquer while the opposition is huffing, like inebriated men in the squared arena, tearing themselves up. Any wonder why the APC is the most united party today?

This is an advisory for politicians and those who speak for them. Your penchant for foul language drives followership away. It is a disincentive to building synergy and connecting effectively with the electorate. When you deploy foul language, you attract thugs like yourself, verminous minds whose trademark is destruction.

As we approach 2027 elections, I look forward to healthy ideas-based debates; evidenced-backed electioneering; and integrity-graced campaigns; not the spewing of bovine propositions couched in gutter language. Let’s keep our language clean like Yilwatda, even in the media.