•He’ll win despite gaffes, attacks on Buhari—PCC

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

Less than three weeks to the presidential election, stakeholders and stalwarts of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and members of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), have expressed fear that the cold war between some of President Muhammadu Buhari’s loyalists and presidential aspirant, Bola Tinubu, could scuttle the chances of the party.

Daily Sun learnt that in recent weeks, APC faithful across the country have expressed concerns that rather than the alleged sabotage from some top shots in the presidency, it is the confrontational stance of the party’s presidential candidate against Buhari that would cost the party the poll. It was also learnt that at the root of the clash between Tinubu and the presidency is the refusal of the APC presidential candidate to include some loyalists of President Buhari in his campaign council and programmes.

A member of the PCC told Daily Sun that Tinubu’s utterances and several gaffes have been a source of embarrassment to most party faithful who have described some of  his outings as undignifying . 

The PCC member, who is also a former member of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) said Tinubu’s utterances against the president and gaffes during rallies, have put the party in tight corner . He said despite the strategic report the PCC submitted on how to approach the remaining campaigns and curtail further errors from Tinubu, the APC candidate has failed to improve in almost all his campaigns.

“Though many have described Asiwaju as a strategist, his strategies so far have  failed him such that the APC will have to work extra hard to win the presidential election. Tinubu has been scoring own goals with the way he has been talking. From the unnecessary ‘Emilokan’ statement  in Ogun before the presidential primary to the recent attack on Mr. President and the presidency he accused of undermining him, he has been everything but presidential in his approaches to campaigns. Few months ago, the PCC presented a strategic paper urging him to behave like a statesman; he was told not to abuse or smear the image of others, be complacent or over confident, and to carry himself with such aura to attract the votes of many undecided electorate, but unfortunately, he has continued with business as usual. Look at the arrogance with which he has approached his campaign. He even told Mr President that he will win with or without his support,” he said. 

It was also learnt that most party faithful were uncomfortable with allegations by Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, that some persons in the presidency were against Tinubu’s candidature. A source within the party described El-Rufai’s allegations as a negation of what most APC members know about Buhari saying he was paranoid that the president is not committed to rigging the election for Tinubu.

“People like El-Rufai believe that Buhari should use his position to impose a candidate on Nigerians. But Buhari is not like them that write election results. They are just in politics for power sake. The governors are all dictators in their states. They are disturbed because they know that vote will count this time around. That is why they are paranoid about the president’s stand. They are afraid of the outcome of the election. The truth is that APC will have to work hard to win this election. It is not going to be an easy task because of the challenges confronting us,” he said.

The former NWC member also claimed that they cannot gang up to deny President Buhari his request to include certain persons in both the party’s leadership and PCC and expect to enjoy his full support.

“See the situation in the party, these same set of people around Tinubu opposed certain persons nominated by the president to be in the NWC. They populated the national leadership and even the PCC with their surrogates. But, what do we have now? Our party is virtually useless to the point of them thinking that the party is even against them. They are also thinking that the government is against them.

“Why should they want Buhari to help them when they abandoned almost all the people that have worked with Buhari for almost 20 years by refusing to include them in the party’s leadership and the PCC? They have suddenly realised that there is something fundamentally wrong in the structural composition of the system. And if you speak on the way out of this quagmire we found ourselves now, they will tag you disloyal. People claim that Asiwaju is a strategist, but I honestly feel that his strategy has failed him and I will see how he will survive this. As it is now, anything can happen. But, if we lose Tinubu should blame himself not Buhari,” he said.

Member, Directorate of Strategic Communication, PCC,Temitope Ajayi, however, dismissed  the fears that Tinubu’s outburst and gaffes will affect his chances at the poll.

“It can’t affect him in any way. It will even help and propel him to victory because from Abeokuta he told Nigerians that PDP is behind the crisis by fifth columnists among petroleum marketers and bank officials to sabotage the government and put Nigerians under needless hardship and agony.”