Barely one week after releasing his presidential campaign
council list, Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju
Bola Tinubu, has come under heavy fire from the leadership and national working
committee of the party.
In a strongly worded letter written and signed by the
National Chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, to Tinubu who is still
having a vacation in London, the party accused him of arrogantly ignoring their
contribution to the composition of his Presidential Campaign Council.
Tinubu had on Friday unveiled a 422-man committee comprising
political heavyweights and other notable members to pilot the various
sub-committees of the campaign council.
The list of members released by Secretary of the
Presidential Campaign Council, James Faleke, in Abuja, followed a series of
postponements and conjectures about those who would be saddled with the task of
leading the ruling party’s bid to retain power at the federal level.
The campaign council chaired by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, has Tinubu and the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi
Adamu, as co-deputy chairmen.
Also on the PCC are APC governors, ministers, lawmakers,
ambassadors as well as serving and past public office holders.
Zonal and state coordinators, advisers, campaign patrons,
directors, deputy directors and secretaries of directorates were also named.
The sub-committees include media and publicity; support
group coordination; national youth mobilisation; parliamentarian; trade and
economic; agriculturists/commodities; campaign planning; civil societies;
Diaspora directorate; election planning and monitoring; finance; fund raising;
and humanitarian/social.
Others are ICT/data management; intelligence and security;
labour; logistics and support service; medicals; policy research and strategy;
protocol and events, and others.
But a defiant Adamu wrote that the council membership list
was not a true representation of the three-man committee set up to harmonize
it.
The three-member committee comprised the national working
committee comprising the National Organising Secretary, National Legal Adviser
and Deputy Women Leader.
The letter read, “On behalf of the National Working
Committee of the All Progressives Congress, I present my compliments to Your
Excellency, and have the honour to convey to you, in truth and respect, the
Committee’s opinion and position, regarding the above-mentioned subject matter,
with a view to having a clear understanding about the respective roles and
responsibilities of the principal organs of the Party charged with the duties
of conducting the campaigns in the forth-coming general elections.
“This correspondence has become necessary in view of
developments that took place over the last few days around the purported
appointments into the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) that was announced
precipitately by officials of the Council, without making recourse to the NWC
for approval. All along, the NWC had been disposed towards the campaign in a
cooperative spirit that is driven by the overall interest of the Party and the
singular desire of victory for our candidates, in the persons of your esteemed
self and your running mate.
“It is against this background that the NWC received with
astonishment and regret, the press release by the PCC on 23rd September 2022,
in which a purported list of appointees was announced, which effectively served
as the approved roster of participants in the Party’s Presidential Campaign
Council.
“The purported list not only came as a complete surprise to
the NWC and the Party’s leadership, but also contravened the principles and
purposes of the arrangements that you and I had led towards the adoption of the
Organogram of the PCC, and its principal officials.
“Perhaps it has become necessary owing to the passage of
time, that I should draw Your Excellency’s attention to the agreements that we
reached in principle around the final adoption of the PCC list, based on the
understanding that it was a work in progress, until such a time that the Joint
NWC/PCC Committee that was established to formalise the structure and populate
the list, submits its report.
“Your Excellency will no doubt recall our meetings in my
office and also at the NWC Conference Room at the Party’s National Secretariat,
on Wednesday, 7th September 2022, during which we discussed the details of the
Organogram of the PCC and its composition, as a collaborative project between
the two entities. Our recollection of those meetings clearly leaves us in no
doubt that a breach of agreement has occurred, and that a return to the
principles of cooperation and respect for each other is required.
“In Your Excellency’s own words, which I take the liberty to
quote here, which I also hold dearly, you stated that “there is a burden on
everyone’s shoulders towards delivering the elections to the Party and the
candidate”. This has been the view of the NWC and myself all along since Your
Excellency’s emergence as our Great Party’s Flagbearer.
“The NWC is striving under trying circumstances to keep
faith with this vision, and to take our Party and candidates to victory, not
only in the Presidential elections but in all others across the elective strata
of offices.
“May I, therefore, point out to Your Excellency, that
winning election is a cooperative as well as a collaborative effort, that is
done in a transparent and disinterested manner by all parties concerned, by
respecting established boundaries and acknowledging the contributions of
everyone. The NWC believes that any sign of disarray in the Party’s ranks will undermine
the spirit and ethos of the campaign and give undue alarm to faithful members
and followers of the Party across the country.
“At the same, such a development would undoubtedly come as
“Manna from Heaven” for the opposition parties, whose only desire when all else
fails, is to see the introduction of rancour, division and disinclination in
the leadership of our Great Party.
“I am sure Your Excellency will agree with me that this is
an eventuality that we must do all in our power to prevent from happening. You
will also agree that we owe it a duty as leaders to provide guidance by example
to the rest of the Party including the PCC, to abide by agreements and adhere
strictly to the work ethos that has been adopted by all of us. It is only by
doing so that we will establish the premise for victory and gain the trust and
confidence of our dear countrymen and women.
“Without further admonishment or complaints, I wish hereby
to call upon Your Excellency to restrain the PCC from undertaking solo projects
of this nature and agree to work with all stakeholders towards taking our Party
to victory. I shall not find it necessary to reiterate the importance of the
Party in the overall scheme of things in these campaigns, and the singular
position of the NWC in driving the process towards our securing of victory in
the polls.
“It suffices for me to convey the general and overwhelming
sentiment of the NWC with regards 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.”
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