2023: Ngige’s Indecision Over Tinubu, Obi Unsettles APC

There is apprehension in the All Progressives Congress (APC) that some cabinet members in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari may be averse to the bid by the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to emerge victorious in the 2023 presidential poll.

Rivers State governor, Nysom Wike, had recently alleged that some appointees of APC were working for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

But concerns about such indifference to the party’s presidential bid specifically heightened on Friday when minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, declined to publicly declare his support for Tinubu ahead of the 2023 general election.

“Not only Ngige; there are other ministers and key officials of the current APC administration whose lackadaisical attitude to the campaign for pour presidential candidate is a source of worry to the party. Apart from Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and secretary to government of the federation, Boss Mustapha, who the president has exempted to concentrate on issues of governance, there are top government officials, including ministers, who are secretly working against Tinubu,” a source at the APC presidential campaign council told our correspondent last night.”

Ngige had during a programme on a national television, Politics Today, on refused to publicly affirm his choice of Tinubu and Peter Obi of Labour party (LP), when he was asked to do so by the presenter.

When asked about his preferred candidate between Tinubu and Obi who happens to be his successor in Anambra State, Ngige said such a question is difficult to answer because both Tinubu and Peter Obi are his friends and that Nigeria elections are secret ballot.

“I’m not active in politics for now because I am facing national assignment,” he said when asked his preferred candidate between the APC’s Tinubu and the Labour Party’s Peter Obi.

“Both of them are my friends. My choice will be in the ballot box. It is a secret ballot. I shouldn’t tell Nigerians what I would do secretly,” the minister stated.

Apparently disconcerted by Ngige’s response, deputy national publicity secretary of the APC, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, yesterday cautioned political appointees to either campaign publicly in support of the presidential candidate of the party, Tinubu, ahead of the 2023 general election or resign their appointments from the party-led administration immediately.

The APC deputy spokesman, in a statement, described the stance by a sitting minister in a government of the ruling party as “uncalled for.”

Ajaka cautioned the ministers against hide and seek game over their support for Tinubu’s presidential bid.

Noting that Ngige’s comments on a national TV programme is anti-party activity, Ajaka said, “Presidential primary election had long ended and the party had settled for the choice of Senator Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, hence all the party leaders should put their ambitions behind them for now to deliver the party’s presidential ticket.

“It is expected of a serving Minister in an APC government to be a trusted Apostle of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidency in 2023, who along other party leaders laboured to ensure the enthronement of the same government in 2015 which they are now serving in.

“Chief Ngige and other APC appointees, especially in the federal cabinet should not forget in a hurry that they are holding onto party’s mandate, hence the need to protect it with whatever it requires, but if they can no longer protect the interest of the APC in public and that of our presidential candidate (Tinubu), I think the honourable thing to do is to step aside from the government formed by the APC.”

Ajaka further warned that if such behaviour is allowed to continue among the appointees and party leaders, it is capable of generating bad blood among APC rank and file.

Accordingly, he appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to call the cabinet members to order and obtain their commitments to deliver APC and its candidate in 2023.

“With this type of public comment from a sitting minister in a ruling party who cannot declare on national television his choice of presidential candidate, how on earth is the party expected to fare in the forthcoming presidential election?” Ajaka queried.