The All Progressives Congress (APC) is set to release the revised edition of its campaign council list this week in a bid to bring to an end the crisis engulfing the party and delaying the kick-off of its campaign.
This is as the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the party has sough the financial support of its National Working Committee (NWC) for its candidate, Bola Tinubu.
A top official of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) who disclosed this to Daily Sun, yesterday, however warned that it would be practically impossible for all members of the NWC or members of party to make the final list.
“Everybody has been accommodated. The comprehensive names of the members of the directorates will now be released. There are some directorates that we may have up to 30 to 40 names as members. These comprehensive names will be released this week. But, it is important to warn that there is no way every member of the party will be a committee member,” said the source, who declined to have his name mentioned.
On the letter the party’s leadership wrote to request headship of key positions in the PCC, he said: “Does it really make sense for the NWC members that own the party and the campaign to be jostling to be members of the campaign council? Their positions are apparently superior to that of the campaign council.
“Imagine, for instance, the national publicity secretary or national organising secretary of the ruling party struggling to be the director of a campaign council when the council should be statutorily reporting to them,” he said.
The call for support for financial support for Tinubu comes amid fresh crisis over who takes charge of the presidential campaign funds between the NWC and PCC.
It was learnt that the development is threatening to throw a spanner in the works of the ruling party which is yet to formally flag off its campaign ahead of 2023 general election.
A top member of the APC told Daily Sun in confidence that the NWC and PCC, which have been enmeshed in a protracted controversy on sundry issues, last weekend again declared a cold war against each other over who handles the proposed plan to organise a fundraising for the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu.
He said while the party’s leadership insisted on taking charge, the PCC eggheads claimed the NWC ought to support the presidential candidate with part of the funds realised from the sales of nomination forms rather than struggling to take charge of the funds donated by the sponsors of the candidate.
Reacting to the development, a member of the PCC, who also spoke to Daily Sun in confidence about the brewing crisis over the handling of the fundraising and campaign funds, accused the party’s leadership of calculated scheme to destabilise the presidential candidate with one form of frivolity or the other.
He, however, blamed the unending rift between them on the leadership style of the National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu.
He wondered why the party’s leadership that are the rightful landlord should reduced itself to the level of struggling for the ownership of everything with the PCC leadership, which he referred to as an ordinary tenant.
The PCC member recalled how the Adams Oshiomhole-led NWC supported the candidates from presidential, National Assembly to the governorship with funds running into billions of naira, wondering why the case is now different under Adamu.
“Anywhere in the world, the candidate owns his campaign. He appoints what they call campaign manager in the USA or director general in Nigeria, who runs the candidate’s campaign operations and activities. They employ personnel, recruit volunteers, support structures, and, more importantly, run its budget. In every part of the world with modern democracy, the parties will raise their funds to support their candidates.
“Even if individuals donate to the campaign through the candidate, it does not stop the party from raising its fund from traditional donors to support the candidates. The party’s traditional donors are different from other donors that want to support the candidates.” (Daily Sun)
