JUST IN: APC Governors, Tinubu Disagree Again Over Manifesto As Meeting Ends In Deadlock

The All Progressives Congress (APC) is working against the clock to forestall another round of crisis that may fur­ther delay the ultimate flag off of its presidential campaign as APC gover­nors kick against what an insider dubs ‘Tinubu’s Lagos manifesto’ ahead of the party’s campaign flag off.

The development is coming against grapevine find that the APC presiden­tial candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, may have dumped the party’s manifesto in preference for what he achieved as governor of Lagos State.

The APC presidential candidate is said to be uncomfortable run­ning on the manifesto of the party, especially with the litany of unfulfilled promises by the outgoing administration which some minders of the candidate believe would not sell with the people.

However, the shift away from the APC manifesto is said to have drawn the anger of some of the governors who are bitter that their candidate is out to sell the party cheap at the 2023 election in an effort to distance self from alleged glar­ing failings of the APC Federal Government.

The governors were said to have met Tuesday night at Kebbi State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja, where the governors allegedly took a decision to reject the ‘Lagos Manifesto’, prompting the ‘emergency’ meeting of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), the National Working Committee (NWC) and candidates of the party, Tinubu and Shettima.

The conspicuous absence of the party’s national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, from the crucial meeting held at Transcorp Hilton also raised fears of unresolved issues still dogging the APC ahead of the campaign take off.

Recall that the APC NWC had recently kicked against the allege hijack of the PCC by close aides of the APC pres­idential candidate, with the chairman of the APC Gover­nors’ Forum, Kebbi’s Governor Atiku Bagudu admitting that the PCC list ought to have been released by the NWC.

Briefing journalists short­ly after rising from the four hours meeting, spokesman of the campaign, Festus Keyamo, disclosed that the meeting was called to review the draft man­ifesto of the party.

He said the presence of all layers of the organs of the par­ty suggests that the entire party is working together to achieve its purpose which is to win the 2023 election.

Contrary to insinuations, he said the APC presidential can­didate is working with the par­ty and that the draft manifesto of the party was submitted to get the buy in of stakeholders, adding that the draft received about 90% endorsement.

Keyamo said: “What you have seen here today are dif­ferent layers of the party. The Progressive Governors, the NWC and of course the PCC. So these are the different layers, these are the major stakehold­ers of the party and reason for the meeting, like we said be­fore, we are very very united and all the organs of the party are working in unison towards achieving one purpose and so what we did today was to re­view the draft of our manifesto.

“Our candidate is not a can­didate that operates on his own. He tries to carry everybody along. And so he presented the draft to all the stakeholders today to look at it, and guess what, almost all the stakehold­ers gave that draft more than 90 percent pass mark.

“We are not going to take away the thunder from our can­didate. He is going to present it before Nigerians before a par­ticular day and at a particular occasion. Now after that a small committee will be formed and the committee is just to reduce the documents into a highlight. We want to sell the messages in that manifesto to even the mar­ket women, to the street trader in the simple language they will be able to understand. We don’t want to present a compli­cated document to Nigerians that cannot explain or under­stand in simple language what we want to do”.

Asked to give a specific date for campaign flagoff, he hinted that the delay is partly due to the (Buhari) presidential diary which is a key part of the cam­paign.

He, however, said the APC is by no means stampeded stat­ing, “Part of the structure of our campaign involves a presi­dential diary. I said it before that our campaign is not like those who have done kick and start.

“Our campaign is like ma­noeuvering a fifty-ton trailer to the highway and once we get to the highway we head the highway. So the president is the chairman of the cam­paign council. We are going to take his diary into consider­ation in picking and choosing the date for campaign. But we have virtually agreed that we are going to hit the streets very soon. We have agreed on the region we are going to be­gin. We have agreed basically on the campaign but we must carry the president who is the chairman of campaign council along”.

Fielding reporters’ question on the absence of the national chairman from the crucial meeting, Felix Morka, APC National Publicity Secretary, said Adamu was represented by the Deputy National Chair­man, North and South.

He also dismissed allega­tions by the opposition par­ties that the APC is mounting pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commis­sion (INEC) to drop the use of the Biometric Verification and Accreditation System (BVAS) in the 2023 general election.

“That is nonsense talk. There has been absolutely no occasion where the APC either by the NWC or any of its levels of leadership put any kind of pressure on INEC. Those who are sensing defeat are already looking for reasons for that de­feat. But I tell you that it is one of the excuses they are trying to generate to accommodate their defeat but you know their defeat is imminent”.