Expectations of the members of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) and the Grassroots Independent Campaign Council (ICC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign are not being met as there were serious cash crunch within the groups.
Since the campaign kick-started on September 28, no major money has been released to any Directorate of the campaign council, either from the Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu or from the National Leadership of the party.
In fact, a party member confided in Sunday Telegraph that the party has no financial reponsibility to the Presidential campaign. They believe that Tinubu can finance his campaign, the reason that the governors agreed that the ticket should be ceded to him.
The APC National Working Committee (NWC) led by the former Governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, is using the money made in the sales on nomination and expression of interest forms to give the Headquarters, (Buhari House) a face lifting.
A member of the PCC said that the members were all disappointed as no major financial project has been taken since they were constituted. They were all expecting that money would be released immediately and they would hit the ground running.
According to the source, the little money that was being used are being sourced from some of the governors or other party Chieftains.
“For instance, for the Plateau rally, money was only released after the rally was held,” the source said.
Another problem confronting the Campaign Council and the issue of money is the issue of distrust. Distrust exist among the Directorates to the extent that those who have access to Tinubu want money to be delivered to them directly and this is being blocked by the Director General and governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong.
Lalong believes as Director General, that the money to the Directorates should pass through his office and that members of the PCC should not have unfettered access to the Presidential candidate.
The source, speaking said, since the budget of the Directorates – both the PCC and ICC – have been submitted, nobody has heard anything about it again.
“The budgets of the Directorates have been submitted. Instead of them releasing money, they are bringing more members into the Directorates.”
But another source was the opinion that the Tinubu political associates and family members believed that those supporting Tinubu should finance his campaign since they would be cabinet members should Tinubu wins.
They hinged their arguments on the facts that those who are supporting the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi, are doing so with their monies.
According to the source, Tinubu’s associates want to measure to since support the APC Presidential Candidate is getting and not the ones that are rooted into how much money would be released.
“If Obi can go far as much as this, we are expecting Tinubu to go farther than that without money and that is the only time we can believe with money he would win.”
But contacted on the state of Affairs, a Spokesman of the APC PCC and Minister of State for Labourand Employment, Festus Keyamo, said the party has no time to react to rumours. He said until he knew those who spoke with our correspondent, he would not react to such unfounded insinuations. “My Brother, who spoke to you? We don’t and would not react to rumours”, he said. (Sunday Telegraph: Text, excluding headline)
