Yilwatda Says 10m Cash-Transfer Beneficiaries Are Missing From Online Debate

APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda has argued that social-media conversations about the performance of the Federal Government may not fully capture the experiences of the poorest Nigerians.

Yilwatda made the statement on Saturday, September 26, 2026, in Maiduguri, Borno State, while speaking to journalists after a three-day APC National Executive Council retreat.

What Yilwatda said

Yilwatda said more than 10 million Nigerians had received ₦75,000 through the Federal Government’s conditional cash-transfer programme.

He argued that many beneficiaries are poor and vulnerable Nigerians who do not have regular access to mobile phones, television or social media.

His point was that people receiving government assistance may not be the same people dominating online discussions about government policy.

That is a political argument about visibility, rather than independent evidence that every beneficiary lacks a phone or social-media access.

The Buhari-era context

The idea of using cash transfers and social-investment programmes to support vulnerable Nigerians did not begin with the Tinubu administration.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari launched the National Social Investment Programme in 2016, with conditional cash transfers forming one of its major components.

The Buhari administration’s own end-of-tenure factsheet said close to two million poor and vulnerable households were benefiting from the CCT programme at the time.

In 2023, Buhari’s administration also sought funding to expand the social safety-net programme, with the stated objective of supporting poor and vulnerable households.

The important context, therefore, is continuity.

Cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians are part of a longer federal social-protection policy, even though the size, structure and payment arrangements of programmes have changed under different administrations.

What the statement does not prove

Yilwatda’s claim that more than 10 million beneficiaries have received ₦75,000 is a statement by the APC chairman.

The statement itself does not provide an independently audited beneficiary list or evidence that every beneficiary lacks access to a phone or social media.

Nigeria’s National Cash Transfer Office confirms that the federal programme targets poor and vulnerable households identified through the National Social Register.

ADVERTISEMENT

The distinction matters because the social-media absence of beneficiaries cannot, by itself, establish whether the programme has reached its intended targets or whether it has been implemented effectively.

Those questions require administrative records and independent evaluation.

ValidViewNetwork reports that Yilwatda’s intervention highlights an important problem in public debate: the people most affected by poverty may have the least ability to participate in the online conversations used to judge government performance.