About 14 days after asking political parties to begin campaigning in line with the 2023 election timetable, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is still waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari to determine the date for the kick-off party’s presidential campaign.
This is coming just as the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu; his running mate, Senator Kassim Shetimma, governors on the party’s platform and members of the party’s national working committee met yesterday to address some knotty issues surrounding the composition of the APC presidential campaign council.
At the enlarged tripartite meeting held at Transcorps Hotel in Abuja, the governors, party leadership and the presidential campaign council also reviewed and approved the manifesto of the presidential candidate, scoring it 90 per cent in terms of content.
Resolving to work together to ensure victory at the 2023 general election, the governors, PCC and the party leadership also harmonised the list of the campaign council, even as the nationwide presidential campaign programme prepared by the PCC was discussed and approved.
Speaking after the meeting which lasted close to four hours, director of Public Affairs/chief spokesman of the campaign council and minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN), said the ball is in Buhari’s court to determine the date for the kick-off of the party’s campaign.
According to Keyamo, the president is both the party national leader and chairman of the campaign council and as such, it would serve the party well to consider his diary in picking and choosing a date to commence the campaign.
Noting however that the campaign train would kick-off soon, he said, “You know that the structure of our campaign involves a presidential diary. I have said that our campaign is not going to be like those that they can kick and start like small vehicles. It is maneuvering a 50-ton tanker on a highway and once we hit the highway, it will be in motion and movement.
“Since Mr President is the chairman of the Campaign Council, we are going to consider his diary in picking and choosing the date. However, we have all virtually agreed to hit the street very soon. We have also agreed on the region we are going to kick-start but I won’t say that now. We have also agreed on all the basic issues. We just want to carry along the leader of the party, Mr President and hit the street.”
Keyamo noted that the meeting resolved to work together for the good of the party and its candidates in the 2023 general elections.
“What you have seen here is the meeting of different layers of the party. It was the meeting of the major stakeholders of the party – the progressive governors, the NWC, and the PCC with the presidential candidates. We are a very united party with all the organs of the party working in unison towards one purpose,” he stated.
Hinting that the meeting also reviewed Tinubu’s manifesto for the campaign, the minister said, “All we did today during the meeting was review the draft of our manifesto. Our candidate is not the type that operates on his own.
“He carries everybody along. He presented the draft of the manifesto to all the stakeholders that looked at it. And guess what, almost all the stakeholders gave that draft more than 90 per cent pass mark.”
On the content of the manifesto, Keyamo said a committee would soon come up with major highlights for easy communication and digestion by Nigerians.
“We can’t give you the content because we are not going to take it away from our candidate. He is going to present himself before Nigerians on a particular date and occasion. We have set up a small committee charged with the responsibility of reducing the manifesto documents to major highlights in message form we will sell to even the market women, and street traders in the most simple language. We don’t want to present to Nigerians a very complicated document that they cannot understand in simple terms,” he noted.
On his part, the party’s national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, announced that the crisis that rocked the party over the initial 422-member campaign list earlier released by the council has come to an end.
He said MWC, the party’s highest administrative organ, is in sync with all the other organs over the composition of the campaign council.
Morka noted that all interest groups have been accommodated in the campaign list, and there is no further disagreement.
He stated: “A party is a unit consisting of so many parts. Yes, we are in sync with all of the segments of the party – the NWC. As you can see, the governors were here, the PCC, and we’re on the same page. And just as the spokesperson has said, we are about to launch. So any moment from now you will be hearing the fullness of our programme, going forward.”
On why the APC national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, was absent at the meeting, the party spokesman refuted insinuations about a cold war or ill feelings.
He said, “The national chairman was not missing. He was adequately represented by the deputy national chairman (North) and the deputy national chairman (South) and he was in touch with every stakeholder who was there. He did inform them of his inability to be here, but he was effectively represented.”
APC Chides Opposition Over BVAS, Says PDP Is A Drowning Party
Meanwhile, the APC also berated the opposition for alleging that it was trying to force the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deactivate and stop the use of Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) at the 2023 general election.
Director of new media of the APC presidential campaign council, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who spoke with journalists after the tripartite meeting of the party leadership, the governors and the council, dismissed the allegation, describing the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as a drowning party.
The former Aviation minister said, “That allegation is absolute nonsense. It’s what you call poppycock. And these are the words of a drowning party spoken by a drowning man with a drowning candidate. There is nothing like that. We are above board, we are serious about what we are trying to do, we are going to achieve our objective, and we are going to win this election fair and square.
“They are the ones that have lost five governors. They’re the ones that can’t get their party leaders to come to their rallies at their presidential campaign inauguration. We don’t have that challenge. We’re working slowly but surely. As one together, everybody’s coming. And I’m very proud to be part of this.
Those who attended the tripartite meeting of the NWC, governors and the presidential campaign council are Tinubu, Shetimma, NWC members, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, 13 governors, one deputy governor and some members of the campaign council.
The state governors in attendance are those of Ondo, Ogun, Lagos, Kebbi, Kano, Jigawa, Zamafara (deputy), Kogi, Niger, Kwara, Nasarawa, Plateau, Borno, Ebonyi and Yobe.
The campaign council members were led by the director-general of the council, Governor Simon Lanlong and his deputy, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
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