Less than 60 days to Nigeria’s Presidential election fixed for 25th of February, 2023, there are growing concerns over the level of support the All Progressives Congress (APC) is enjoying from the President, Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected twice on the party’s platform.
Insider source in the party has revealed that the party’s Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu has not received the kind of support expected from the Buhari Presidency despite loud public claims that the President will campaign for candidate.
The views expressed by some Chieftains of the party indicate that the Presidency may not be too keen to display elaborate open support for the APC Presidential candidate.
The debate began to grow in the polity in recent times over Buhari’s real stand in Tinubu’s Presidential ambition, following what seemed an aloofness by the chief occupant of the Aso Rock Villa over his party’s candidate.
The belief in many quarters is that Buhari originally had a candidate, but that his inability to lay his card on the table on time, was why the matter went out of his hand, resulting in the emergence of Tinubu.
The President, it is said, has been struggling to come over the shock and now appears to have been caught between the devil and the blue sea.
Many analysts and commentators had, in the last few days, alleged that the body language of Buhari was not pointing towards any support for Tinubu.
Last month in London, the United Kingdom, after meeting King Charles III, President Buhari, had during an interview, urged Nigerian voters to “vote for whoever they like from whichever political party.”
In his published opinion in a national newspaper, headlined: ‘Will Buhari vote for Tinubu?’ Lasisi Olagunju, said: “A president who said this is not likely to hop from jet to jet campaigning for someone. He has repeatedly promised that he would not be anybody’s fool or tool of interference in the coming polls’ processes. He has said so everywhere he has been in the last couple of months to the sorrow of those banking on presidential sleight of hand to win. I am not surprised that the South-West APC is not at ease at all. They daily read Abuja’s lips and steps and exchange furtive glances.
“They sigh. Even Buhari’s recent currency change is being seen as a vital component of his war against politics – and against those who won’t succeed him.
“In the London interview cited above, Buhari vowed that he wouldn’t allow any candidate to intimidate voters or buy them with dirty money. He explained why he approved the introduction of new naira notes: ‘My aim is to make sure that Nigerians believe that we respect them as an administration…Nobody will be allowed to mobilise resources and thugs to intimidate people in any constituency. That is what I want to go down in Nigerian history for as a leader.'”
Olagunju further said: “Candidates who have mobilised armadas of bullion vans of raw cash for the polls have real reasons to be worried. The old currency notes expire on January 31, 2023 – twenty five days to the presidential election.”
Some observers have also insinuated that Buhari is more likely to throw his weight behind Atiku Abubakar of the PDP than he would behind the APC Candidate, Tinubu.
Olagunju said: “I will be shocked if I am the only person who wonders where Buhari belongs between PDP’s Atiku Abubakar and APC’s Bola Tinubu, two bosom friends fighting over the president’s seat. You know Atiku’s party and Bola Tinubu’s party and the zero-sum ground they hold. The two were part of a national coalition that made Buhari’s presidency possible in 2015. There are persons who vow that for that reason, undergirded by reasons of region and religion, Atiku may in 2023 get Buhari’s vote or, at worst, get him not to lift a finger for the APC and its Èmi l’ókàn candidate. Very interestingly, Buhari clocked 80 on Saturday and Atiku, candidate of the main opposition party, not only issued a statement to celebrate the APC president, he instructively placed newspaper advertisements for him. So, what is happening?”
The newspaper columnist considered as strange Buhari’s refusal to canvass for votes for Tinubu. “Two months to a presidential election, Buhari is not canvassing votes for his party; he is asking Nigerians to vote for any candidate they fancy. That is strange. We saw President Barack Obama with candidate Hillary Clinton throughout the Democratic Party’s campaigns of 2016.”
But BusinessDay also authoritatively gathered that the APC Presidential candidate is, however, comfortable with the current arrangement, following the protests that rocked the Plateau campaign flag-off, allegedly caused by the President’s Security operatives
It was gathered that the President’s security operatives had disorganised the initial security arrangements which resulted in the chaos noticed at the campaign venue during the flag-off in Jos.
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A member of the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told BusinessDay that the party’s campaign Council has “reached an arrangement to continue with the current arrangement to avoid further clash between the President’s security operatives and the local security arrangements made by the campaign Council.
According to the source, “We actually were not expecting that the President will attend that flag-off since he was away in London for his regular medical check-up. So, the security arrangements were done without him in mind.
“You can understand why those who we invited to the rally had to embark on serious protests at the stadium when his security men prevented them from having access into the stadium.”
He also expressed the hope that there would be better security arrangements, while previous lapses will be addressed before the President joins future campaigns to “avoid future reccurrence of the Jos’ ugly incident.”
This is coming on the heels of the assurances by the Presidency last week, “that President Muhammadu Buhari is ready to campaign for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidates for the elections next year.
In a statement by Presidential Spokesman, Garba Shehu, the Presidency said the President “is ready at all times to campaign for the Presidential candidate and all party candidates with full energy and conviction.”
It will be recalled that the President attended only the Jos Campaign Flag off rally since the APC Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu began his state-wide campaign.
Garba, who must have sensed the uneasiness within the party, said the “statement is to dispel expressed concerns in certain quarters that the President has not featured in campaigns since the national launch in Jos, Plateau State and to stress that while he remains committed to party politics, the functions and duties of the President will equally be upheld at times.”
Garba noted that the Nigerian community in Washington DC was also recently assured by President Buhari of his plans to campaign for Tinubu when he stated that “he is ready to campaign for the party’s victory in the general elections next year.”
The Presidency noted that the APC campaigns have so far been the most aggressive in recent history. “They have been impressive and of a high voltage,” compared to the opposition that seems to be playing catch-up.
But BusinessDay gathered that some party chieftains who had expected the President to use a similar strategy adopted under former President Olusegun Obasanjo when he went around the entire country campaigning for his successor, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, are unhappy with the seemingly cold feet approach by the current administration.
Reacting to the development, the APC National Publicity Secretary ( NPS), Felix Morka, who spoke with BusinessDay however, dismissed the existence of tension in the APC camp over the President’s absence in the campaigns.
Morka, who noted that the “campaigns are proceeding according to plans,” added that “We had envisaged that this is going to be one of the longest campaign periods and arranged that the President will join us towards the last lap.
“Remember too that the President still has other responsibilities to the country and that he had assured that governance must not suffer due to engagements in campaigns
“We still have two months and he has promised that he will support our campaigns. So, we want Nigerians to look out for more vigorous campaigns early next year, before the elections.”
While also assessing the APC campaigns so far, Morka noted that the party has had the most vibrant and focused campaign, with strong supports across the states of the country.
“We are amazed at the outpouring of support for our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, unlike the PDP’s candidate who lacks focus. Their campaigns have been lackluster.
Even those of Obi and the Labour Party, the only thing that they have on their trail is massive corruption.
“How can a party who could not do a proper due diligence check on those they are appointing as campaign Director General (DG) before making such appointment, want to change Nigeria? Change Nigeria with crooks?”
Morka also dismissed those claiming that Tinubu may be too old for the office of the President, adding that “There is a reason why the Constitution did not specify maximum age limit, but only stipulated the minimum age limits.
“Age is not a relevant considerations. Asiwaju is the one doing most of the movements across the country, engaging with Nigerians. His opponents have nothing to say that is why they dwell on frivolities.
“What is it that the PDP and Labour parties are offering to Nigerians? You can’t win an election by talking; what about what the APC has or has not done. They should tell Nigerians what they have to offer.”
Also speaking on the issue, the Secretary of Logistics and Support Services, of the APC Campaign Council, Abdulrazak Namdas, noted that the President has given the Council all the support needed to succeed ahead of the election.
Namdas, who is also a member of the House of Representatives, representing Mayo Belwa, Jada, Ganye, Tongo, Federal Constituency of Adamawa State, said that the President has never hidden his support for the candidature of Bola Tinubu.
“To be fair to the President, he has given us all the support we need to succeed and you must also understand that governance must continue, otherwise, our political opponents may use it to also campaign against us.
“People will look at it as if the President is being insensitive to the issues of governance. Even during the regime of former President Obasanjo, he did not attend all the campaign rallies of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua
“There is no doubt that the President has a cult followership at the grassroots, now, if you have that kind of cult followership, the supporters will naturally transfer such support to whosoever the President has anointed to become President after him.
“You will also recall that when some Northern elders came out to declare their support for Peter Obi, President Buhari came out openly to remind them that Bola Tinubu has been a strong supporter of the north.”
He further said: “There are 22 Governors working for the APC at the grassroots levels and they run the party machinery and they are on ground. The Governors are in charge and are working to ensure victory for the party in the 2023 elections.”
It is believed that whether the President participates in the campaigns or not, the coast is clear for the party to return to power at the centre, in 2023.
