Indications emerged on Thursday night that the ruling All Progressives Congress APC was on its way to resolving the seeming faceoff with its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, following the decision of the latter to grant more concessions to the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee NWC.
There was confusion on Thursday following the leakage of a draft protest letter purportedly written by Adamu to Tinubu on the composition of the presidential campaign council.
Adamu had in the said letter accused the party’s standard bearer of taking unilateral decisions and embarking on solo runs without carrying the party hierarchy along.
Although the party later denied authoring the letter, some of its officials insisted that the letter was indeed drafted and was going to be sent to Tinubu.
The NWC had a few days ago set up a three-member committee made up of the National Organizing Secretary, the National Legal Adviser and the Deputy Women Leader to harmonize the council membership list with a team set up by Tinubu.
Among the recommendations of the NWC team were to have Senator Adamu as Deputy Chairman of the Council; the APC Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Abubakar Kyari as Deputy Regional Coordinating Chairman (North) and his counterpart in the South, Hon. Emma Eneukwu as Deputy Regional Coordinating Chairman (South).
The demand also includes having APC National Secretary, Sen. Iyiola Omisore as Vice Chairman (Party Affairs); the National Organizing Secretary, Alhaji Sulaiman Argungu as Deputy Director-General (Organizing); the APC National Vice Chairman (South South), Hon. Victor Giadom as Deputy Zonal Campaign Coordinator, South South and the APC National Vice Chairman (South West) as Deputy Zonal Campaign Coordinator of the zone.
Others are APC National Vice Chairman (South East) Deputy Zonal Campaign Coordinator; APC National Vice Chairman (North Central) as Deputy Zonal Campaign Coordinator; APC National Vice Chairman (North East) as Deputy Zonal Campaign Coordinator and APC National Vice Chairman (North West) as Deputy Zonal Campaign Coordinator of the zone.
The NWC team was said to have also recommended the creation of more directorates like the Directorate of Media Relations to be headed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary; Directorate of Compliance to be headed by the National Legal Adviser; Directorate of Organizing, Contact and Mobilization to be headed by the National Organizing Secretary.
“The NWC also wants the National Women Leader to coordinate the Women Wing; the National Youth Leader to be in charge of Youth Wing and the National Leader, People With Disabilities (PWD) to coordinate people with disabilities in the Presidential Campaign Council PCC”, said a top-ranking party official who pleaded anonymity.
While the Tinubu team made some concessions and incorporated the NWC members into the council, most of the party officials did not get the exact positions they had envisaged.
However, it was gathered on Thursday night that the council would again be expanded by creating more directorates, but that the campaigns would still be run by the Tinubu team.
“Tinubu is the candidate. It is his election. He must be allowed to run his campaign. If we did not have a sitting president, Tinubu would have been the chairman of the campaign council. Whenever you have a campaign council, what is the job of the NWC? The NWC takes the back seat. That is tradition. That is the way it has always been.
“However, our presidential candidate is always ready to accommodate all interests. Do not be surprised if membership of the council rises to between 1,800 and 2,000. He is ready to accommodate everybody”, said one of his close associates.
