Abuja Bureau Chief, TAIWO AMODU, examines the recently announced Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC), unveiling the intrigues and the power play behind the nominations. He also asks the question: how far can Senator Abdulaziz Yari and Governor Hope Uzodinma-led council go in delivering President Tinubu in January?

THE Presidency on Saturday released the list of members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), ahead of the forthcoming general elections. In the list made public by the presidency, former Zamfara State governor and the Senator representing Zamfara West, Abdulaziz Yari, emerged as the Director General of the PCC, while the governor of Imo State, who is also the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Senator Hope Uzodinma, was picked as the Secretary of the council. His emergence as the secretary of the PCC was contrary to the expectations of many members of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), which he leads. The announcement also ends the weeks of lobbying among party chieftains who had been angling for one position or the other in the PCC.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, on August 22 indicated that while President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima will serve as chairman and vice chairman of the APC PCC respectively, they would be supported by the party’s national chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, who will also serve as vice chairman. Other members of the PCC, as announced by Onanuga, include the APC National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Bashiru, and Hadiza Bala-Usman, who will serve as deputy and assistant secretaries.

“The chairman of the campaign Council, President Tinubu, will work with a body of advisers comprising Chief Bisi Akande, Chief Segun Osoba, Senator Rochas Okorocha, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and Senator Florence Ita Giwa. Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker Tajudeen Abass, and Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State have been assigned as deputy directors-general for the campaign in the south and the north. They will work with Senator Bamidele Opeyemi and Senator Jibril Barau in the two zones,” the statement noted.

The statement also indicated that Senator Adams Oshiomhole will serve as deputy director-general in charge of mobilisation, while the President’s Chief of Staff, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, will serve as deputy director-general for administration. Hon. James Abiodun Faleke will serve as the deputy director-general for election planning, coordination and monitoring, while they will be joined by Senator Olushola Adeyeye in charge of the South West, Dr Ngozi Olejeme in the South South, Senator Uche Ekwunife in the South East, Muntaqha Rabe in the North West, Ahmed Muhammed Ketso in the North Central, and Senator Sani Danladi in the North East. Ms Stella Okotete, Engineer Abdullahi Garba Ramat and Audu Maikori will serve as secretaries of the election planning directorate.

Did Uzodinma lose out?

Ahead of the announcement of the PCC, multiple sources had tipped the governor of Imo State and chairman of PGF as the likely chairman of the PCC. Besides, he was also the chairman of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors (RHA), a team of coordinators appointed across the 36 states, whose assignment has been to popularise the service delivery activities of the administration of President Bola Tinubu. Sources within the ruling party revealed that the announcement of the Imo State Governor as DG was taken as a fait accompli, against the backdrop of his leadership of the 31-member APC PGF and the 36-member RHA. Senator Hope Uzodinma has earned more visibility for himself in the Presidency with the activities of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors, which he leads as Director-General. This platform is networked across the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory and has been showcasing the stewardship of President Bola Tinubu.

Why the North matters

Investigations revealed that the Presidency settled for the former governor of Zamfara State, who incidentally is from the North West, where the forthcoming general elections will be won and lost. It was gathered that of the six geo- political zones in the country, the North West appears to be the region where the stake is most high in 2027.

In the 2023 general election, while Tinubu won convincingly in the South West, securing 55 per cent of the votes, he lost the North East to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who won 51.7 per cent of the votes to Tinubu’s 35 per cent. Tinubu won 40.08 per cent of the total votes in the North West region; he recorded the same feat in the North Central zone as he equally secured 40 per cent of the votes, beating Atiku to a third position in the region as Peter Obi of the Labour Party secured 30 per cent of the votes in the region.

Ahead of the 2027 election, Tinubu appears to have regained lost ground in the North East, the geopolitical base of his main rival, Atiku Abubakar, where five of the six governors are now members of his party. Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State, Atiku Abubakar’s home state, has defected to the APC, same as his counterpart in Taraba, Agbu Kefas. The development leaves only Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State as the lone PDP governor in the zone. “It would have been an error of judgment that could result in heavy political cost if the face of the campaign is Hope Uzodinma, a southerner like Tinubu,” a party source volunteered. To work with Yari in mobilising votes in the North West and North East are the governors of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, and the Deputy Senate President, Senator Jibril Barau. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Speaker Tajudeen Abass, will serve as Deputy Director General for the entire North.

Kwankwaso: Was it a Freudian slip?

Former Kano State governor and vice presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, somewhat voiced the concern of the North in the choice ’f Yari as Tinubu’s Director General when he decried Senator Yari’s acceptance of the DG job. His statement inadvertently corroborated the concern across the North over the choice of the former Zamfara State governor and his capacity to boost the chances of Tinubu in the region.

Apparently affirming the political stature of Senator Yari in the North, Kwankwaso declared that the federal lawmaker representing Zamfara West ought to have declined Tinubu’s offer.

He said: “I particularly appeal to my brother, Senator Abdul’aziz Yari, who has accepted to serve as Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, to reflect deeply and reconsider accepting this responsibility.

“As a former governor of Zamfara State and a prominent leader from the North-West, I believe Senator Yari has a clear understanding of the devastating consequences of insecurity, poverty, unemployment, displacement and the destruction of livelihoods in the region and the country at large.”

The former Kano State governor maintained that he “will be surprised if, in his good conscience, (Yari) will lead a campaign whose principal objective is to secure the continuation of a government under which many of the people he once governed, and other innocent Nigerians remain trapped in these challenges?”

Apart from Kwankwaso, who is the running mate to Peter Obi, the region also has one of its own, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Kwakwanso’s message cannot be lost on the APC and Tinubu as presidential candidate.

Just before the formal commencement of campaigns, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, issued a disclaimer to dismiss his alleged endorsement of President Tinubu as a favoured candidate for the 2027 presidential race. The Sultan, in a statement signed by his media aide, Prince Bashir Adefaka, declared that he has no preferred candidate in the 2027 presidential election. Not a few political observers would read the statement as a measure of political correctness on the part of the foremost monarch.

Yari hits the ground running:

Barely 24 hours after the Presidency unveiled the composition of the PCC, the Director-General, who was outside the country, returned home during the weekend. Addressing party faithful, Senator Yari promised to work with all tendencies in the party to ensure victory for Tinubu. He expressed the hope that given the president’s performance in the last three years, the assurances of his re-election were very high.

He said: “I want to assure Nigerians that whatever promise we made during the campaign, we shall keep to our promises. Today we have seen him [Bola Ahmed Tinubu] as President, and by God’s grace he shall be the president come 2027.

“Our party is synonymous with keeping to our words. We pray that Almighty Allah will give him [the President] the wisdom to lead this country. We assure Nigerians that we shall fulfill all our campaign promises.

“We pray that our party will continue to be the party to lead the country after President Tinubu’s second term.” (Nigerian Tribune)