Wednesday, September 28, 2022 was officially fixed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the kick-off of the presidential/national assembly election campaigns ahead of the 2023 general election, as contained in INEC’s time-table s released a few months ago to all the political parties and the general public.
However, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has not kicked off its campaign. In fact, by last weekend it had not been able to launch its Campaign Council.
The party had earlier released a 422-member campaign council, but there were reports of disagreement within its top echelon, regarding the composition and this has hinder the take-off of its campaign.
Due to dissatisfaction with the composition of the campaign council, especially the complaints by some state governors that their nominees were not included, the party postponed its campaign indefinitely.
The Director-General of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council and Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong Lalong, announced the postponement in a statement released penultimate Tuesday.
According to him, the adjustment of the timetable and schedule of activities is meant to accommodate more people who are interested in being part of the campaign council.
The statement read: “Recall that we had earlier earmarked a peace walk and prayers for Wednesday, September 28, 2022, to officially kick-off our campaigns for the 2023 presidential election. We had also asked members of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) to report at the Campaign Headquarters on that day to collect their letters of appointments.
“However, due to the expansion of the list to accommodate more stakeholders and interests within the APC family, we have decided to adjust the time-table of these activities in order to ensure everyone is on board before activities officially commence. Consequently, the activities earlier announced for September 28 will no longer hold.”
According to him, a new date for the kick-off would be announced soon.
Lalong further said: “As the ruling and most attractive party in Nigeria, we understand the sacrifices and understanding of our teeming members who are more than willing to volunteer themselves for this great task ahead. It also shows the enormous love that the party members have for our candidates.”
THEWILL gathered that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Adamu Abdullahi had some differences, with Tinubu’s loyalists alleging that Abdullahi and other members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) wanted to hijack the Presidential Campaign Council.
It was also alleged that officials of the party did not like the fact that Tinubu made James Faleke secretary of the campaign council. Investigation showed that most members of the NWC wanted to retain the same positions in the PCC, with Senator Iyiola Omisore as its Secretary.
Coincidentally, APC was at the same time also embroiled in a different crisis that prevented it from holding the public launch of its PCC.
On that Wednesday, September 28, a leaked letter from Adamu, accused the presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, of running a one-man campaign show, after having filled the council with his friends and associates without any input from the party. He therefore demanded the withdrawal of the list.
The letter read, in part, “Without further admonishment or complaints, I wish hereby to call upon Your Excellency to restrain the PCC (Presidential Campaign Council) from undertaking solo projects of this nature and agree to work with all stakeholders towards taking our party to victory.
“It suffices for me to convey the general and overwhelming sentiment of the NWC, with regard to the ill-timed and unfortunate release of the PCC list, which confounded rather than pleased the members and whose withdrawal will assure the NWC of Your Excellency’s respect and disposition towards the Party, as well as the magnanimous spirit of cooperation towards achieving victory together with the NWC.”
As this development raged, the party, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, denied that any such ‘draft’ letter titled, ‘Release of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council List,” ever emanated from the office of the party chairman.
Morka wrote, “The DRAFT letter did not emanate from the party. An unsigned letter that marked itself as a ‘DRAFT’ cannot and should not be attributed to its purported author. Such an unsigned draft letter of the kind in circulation is patently unnecessary and of no qualitative value to engagement between the party and the PCC.”
Tinubu later responded to the controversy over the composition of the PCC and he confirmed reports of a disagreement between the PCC and the party’s Exco. He said he would expand the council from its current 422-membership to 2,000 to accommodate aggrieved stakeholders, who Lalong claimed had complained of its composition. While this controversy was trending, another crisis broke.
Another issue that might have delayed the kick-off of the APC campaigns was Tinubu’s absence from the country.
Tinubu only returned to Nigeria from a trip to the United Kingdom last week Friday and was absent at the venue of the signing of a pre-election peace accord by the 18 presidential candidates on the platform of the National Peace Committee, headed by former Military Head of State, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.).
Tinubu was represented at the event by his running mate, Kashim Shettima. It was bad optics for the party. Ordinarily, Tinubu’s absence would not have attracted public interest except that Shettima has been solely attending public functions on behalf of the joint ticket since the emergence of the presidential team in July, 2022, first, at the Nigerian Bar Association Conference held on August 22, 2022 and secondly at the Yoruba Tennis Club on September 17, 2022. It looked like the campaign season for the party would be made for Shettima.
After a meeting of the APC governors with the party’s NWC last Thursday, the party still could not decide on a date for the kick-off of the campaigns.
Responding to a question from journalists on when the campaigns would start, Adamu said: “Don’t be faster than your shadow. The fact of the matter is, we as a party, as APC, will determine when we will do what as long as it is within the framework of INEC’s guidelines.”
Also, the same day, state governors elected on the platform of the party, passed a vote of confidence on the PCC and the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee, (NWC).
At the end of the meeting, the Chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State said the governors were pleased with members of the Campaign Council.
“What I will say is that APC Governors and members of the presidential campaign council visited the chairman and the NWC members to strategise and discuss on the campaign.
“The chairman briefed us about the party and we appreciate how well our party has been doing in the polity,” he said.
Asked if the APC governors were pleased with the composition of PCC, Bagudu said: “Governors are very proud of our party. We are very proud of our party leader, President.
Speaking after the meeting, Adamu said the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the APC was comfortable with the subsisting arrangement, regarding the PCC and that the party would work in accordance with INEC’s guidelines to flag off its campaigns and other activities.
The PCC directors present at the meeting, who had earlier met with some of the governors on Wednesday night, were said to have given the NWC the assurance that all grey areas in the campaign council list had been addressed.
The question is when will the ruling party put its house in order and start the campaign? Like the National Chairman of the party said, there is still time within the window to have an effective campaign across the country.
Also a member of the Tinubu/Shettima Support Group who doesn’t want his name in print because, as he said, he was not a member of neither the Presidential Campaign Council nor the National Working Committee, said “ There is still time . It is better to put the house in order before the kick-off of campaign, so that when the campaign kicks off there would be a smooth sail.”
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
