More than 10 million Nigerians who received the Federal Government’s ₦75,000 conditional cash transfer do not have phones or use social media, according to All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda. He made the statement on Saturday, September 26, 2026, after an APC National Executive Council retreat in Maiduguri, Borno State, as part of preparations for the 2027 general election.
APC Chairman’s Claim on Beneficiaries Without Phones
Yilwatda said the beneficiaries were poor and vulnerable Nigerians reached through the Federal Government’s conditional cash-transfer programme. “Mind you, these people who are poor and vulnerable don’t have a telephone to make calls; they are not on social media. They don’t have television,” Yilwatda said.
The party said after the retreat that it was prepared for the election and would continue to communicate the work of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to Nigerians. Yilwatda’s claim has implications beyond the cash-transfer programme because it points to a large group of Nigerians who may be largely absent from the digital conversations shaping the 2027 election.
Nigeria’s Digital Divide in Numbers
DataReportal estimates that Nigeria had 165 million cellular mobile connections (not people) at the end of 2025, equivalent to 69.2% of the population. The country had about 109 million internet users, leaving an estimated 130 million people offline. There were also 47.8 million social media user identities, equivalent to about 20% of the population.
With Nigeria’s population projected at more than 240 million, this means a significant share of the voting population is not part of the social-media audience that dominates political arguments online. A candidate can trend on X, Facebook, TikTok or Instagram without necessarily reaching the Nigerians who are most affected by policies such as food prices, fuel costs, wages or cash transfers.
Implications for 2027 Election Campaigns
It also means social media reactions cannot automatically be treated as a measure of how Nigerians generally feel about a government or candidate. The issue is therefore bigger than whether or not 10 million people were beneficiaries of the ₦75,000 disbursed by the Federal Government.
If millions of voters have limited access to phones, internet or social media, political parties and election officials cannot rely on digital platforms alone to reach them. The digital divide could make social media debates an incomplete picture of what Nigerian voters think ahead of 2027.
