• Directors bemoan poor funding, lack of mobilisation
• Party members seek overhaul of campaign structure
From Fred Itua, Abuja
Less than a month to the February 25 Presidential election, there are fresh concerns over some internal squabbles in the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The latest development is coming amidst recent outbursts by the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who alleged that the persistent fuel scarcity and the controversy over the new naira notes were part of moves by some forces to frustrate his election.
Multiple sources, who spoke to Saturday Sun, said the seeming lack of coordination of the campaign and recent wave of defections could threaten Tinubu’s victory next month.
National coordinator of Disciples of Jagaban (DOJ), a support group for Bola Tinubu presidential election, Abdulhakeem Adegoke Alawuje, had, during the week, warned of an imminent defeat for the APC in next month’s presidential election.
Alawuje said the PCC and the APC were unfair to those that meant well for the victory of the party in the forthcoming general elections.
The DOJ national coordinator cited recent resignations of the numerous directors in the PCC. He said: “It is a signal to the insincerity of the managers of the PCC itself by appointing those that did not meant well for the party at the detriment of some of them that were working days and nights to ensure the success of the party at the forthcoming general election.”
A director in the APC PCC, Hajia Naja’atu Bala Muhammad, resigned her position in the council and her membership of the ruling party.
Mohammed, who was the Director, Civil Society Liaison at the council, said she discovered that her values no longer aligned with the current political setting.
Since her resignation from the APC PCC, some of the directorates have been thrown into chaos, according to multiple sources who spoke to Saturday Sun.
One of the directors who spoke to our correspondent, said some members of the council have remained idle since their appointments by the leadership of the PCC, with no hope of participating fully during the elections.
The source said mobilisation at the grassroots, which the various directorates are expected to spearhead, was yet to fully gain momentum over lack of funds.
He said engagements with the media, civil society organisations, regional leaders, religious leaders, and the traditional institutions were not going as planned, accusing the PCC of failure to mobilise the directorates financially.
He warned that if Tinubu does not step in personally and instruct the managers of the PCC to deploy funds and begin serious engagements, APC might suffer huge losses next month.
He warned that the next three to four weeks would be very crucial for the campaign, but warned that the APC must step up and deploy the needed human and financial resources to counter the perceived influence of Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar.
He said: “APC has not put its house in order. Governors and the leadership of APC are not on the same page. The leadership of the APC and PCC on the other hand, are not together. Everyone is working at crossroads.
“As I speak, key known figures are not campaigning for Tinubu. The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Rotimi Amaechi, Boss Mustapha and other key leaders have refused to campaign for Tinubu.
“At the grassroots level, APC is not well mobilised. People who should tell Tinubu the truth are lying to him. Unfortunately, he’s not doing enough to find out the truth independently.
“In the South East and South South where we know he won’t win, we’d agreed that the party was going to mobilise to get at least 25 per cent of the votes. I don’t see that happening. They’ve not mobilised the right people.
“They’re not engaging the media – you can see the kind of bad press we’re getting – and the civil society community is not with us. There is no form of engagement in that area at all. Our opponents have taken over.
“We’re not engaging the right religious leaders, traditional rulers and other regional leaders. How do we plan to win without these categories of people?”
Spokesman of the PCC, Bayo Onanuga, neither picked his calls nor returned the calls as at the time of filing in this report.