Cracks within the ranks of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are beginning to show as some key ministers and party chieftains have refused to endorse the presidential candidate of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, ahead of the 2023 elections.
While appearing as a guest on Channels TV’s Politics Today, Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, craftily avoided endorsing Tinubu for the 2023 presidency, leading to wild speculations that many party chieftains were not supporting his ambition.
Dr. Ngige himself attempted contesting to become the party’s standard bearer but later pulled out after President Muhammadu Buhari directed his appointees who were aspirants to resign in line with section 84(12) of the Electoral Act.
Ngige could not publicly confirm his choice between Tinubu and the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi. The outspoken minister and former Anambra State Governor refused to give a straight answer. He said “I am not active in politics. When I withdrew from the presidential race, I said I was going to face my work. The work is multifaceted and multifarious as I came back.
“I am not in the campaign council and I don’t want to be. I am doing a national job which is more important than any campaign council. The Vice President and the SGF are not there.”
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Initially, it appeared as though Mr Ngige was torn between supporting the candidate of his party, Tinubu and his kinsman, Obi.
Former Ministers withheld support too
Ministers who resigned their positions to contest the party’s presidential primary may also have distanced themselves from the Tinubu campaign ahead of the 2023 elections.
The affected persons: former Minister for Transportation, Rt Hon. Rotimi Amaechi; former Minister for Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu; Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Akpabio; and former Minister of State for Education, Chief Emeka Nwajiuba, have noted that they were not being treated fairly since their participation in the primary.
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The politicians have not actively participated in APC-related activities after the conclusion of the primary in July.
These former ministers, who served under President Muhammadu Buhari, have largely gone silent over their support for the APC presidential candidate in 2023.
Also, most of them have not appeared at any function relating to the APC presidential campaign.
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Chief Nwajiuba, who stayed away from the convention in protest against what he tagged injustice, filed a suit at the Federal High Court seeking the disqualification of Tinubu from the 2023 elections.
While most of them are distancing themselves from Tinubu, one of the ministers reportedly said some APC delegates, who voted at the special convention of the APC, were regretting their decisions after being induced with money at the convention.
Amaechi’s grouse, it is speculated, was the open romance of the APC candidate with his fierce rival and Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike. The former minister appears displeased with the meetings between some APC South-West Governors who are well-known Tinubu supporters openly flirting with his arch-rival Wike.
Dr. Onu is reportedly displeased over the party’s decision not to zone the presidential ticket to the South-East.
Osinbajo, Boss Mustapha, stayed away too
More key figures in the Buhari administration seem to have distanced themselves from Tinubu’s campaign.
The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, appear to have kept their distance from the campaign altogether.
APC’s official explanation for their absence in the campaign council is “focusing on governance”, though many believe that their decision may be connected with the Muslim/Muslim ticket of the party.
After the primary, Mustapha visited the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, fuelling speculations that the SGF may be backing Atiku, his kinsman from Adamawa state.
Also, Dolapo Osinbajo, the wife of the Vice President, is noticeably absent from the APC Women Campaign list.
Even though Buhari was out of the country for an event in neigbouring Chad, Osinbajo would have stood in for him at the event held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa. Rather, the president was represented by his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
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Buhari’s aloofness
President Buhari, the overall leader of the party, has not shown enough commitment to the APC’s 2023 project. There are speculations that he is not in full support of Tinubu.
Some weeks ago, amid the crisis in the PDP, Nyesom Wike, Governor of Rivers, had alleged that some of Buhari’s men were actually not backing Tinubu.
The Tinubu camp has also been reportedly playing cat and mouse as to whether or not to campaign with Buhari’s records during the presidential election.
The National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, Buhari’s key ally, is reportedly not on the same page with the APC candidate, fuelling speculations that there may be attempts to sabotage Tinubu’s 2023 campaign from the party’s hierarchy.
Adamu met Tinubu’s team over the harmonization of the list for the campaign council last week.
According to several reports, the Director-General of the Campaign, Simon Lalong, and Governor Abubakar Bagudu are working on expanding the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) list but there have been no new updates yet at the time of filing this report.
According to one analyst, the refusal of some APC bigwigs to fully endorse its presidential candidate should be a source of worry ahead of the 2023 election.