APC Hits Ground Running with Presidential Campaign

Adedayo Akinwale reports that all is set for the ruling All Progressives Congress to commence its campaign in full force following the recent inauguration of the Presidential Campaign Council and the unveiling of an 80-page Action Plan of its flagbearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

It took almost one month after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) gave the go-ahead for electioneering campaigns to start in earnest before the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was able to put its house in order and the eventual inauguration of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the party and the unveiling of the manifesto of the presidential candidate by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Prior to the inauguration, the President had last week at the closing ceremony of the third Ministerial Performance Review Retreat held at the Conference Centre of the State House, Abuja,

warned top government officials against abandoning their duties for election campaigns. He said those who violate the warning would face sanctions.

His words: ‘’All ministers, permanent secretaries and heads of agencies must remain focused in the discharge of their duties, as any infraction will be viewed seriously.Our collective goal is to map out a transition plan for the incoming Administration to ensure proper documentation of all the Policies, Programmes and Projects of Government with up-to-date status of implementation.”

If the composition of the PCC is anything to go by, all serving ministers have been incorporated into the campaign council, while the Minister of State for Employment, Festus Keyamo, is the Chief Spokesperson of the campaign. At the moment, no one knows if the president’s order would be violated or if some of the ministers are prepared to let go of their appointment to deliver the candidate of the party.

Be that as it may, the President, while speaking at the inauguration of PCC pledged to be at the forefront of the campaign and ensure that Tinubu emerges as his successor. According to him,  electing Tinubu would consolidate the achievements of his administration as the presidential candidate has the capacity, visionary leadership and track record to do more.

President Buhari was of the opinion that it would be disastrous to allow a situation that would lead to the reversal of the progress the country has made so far.

He said: “Let me add that I joyfully accept the position of the chairman of the campaign council we are unveiling today. Our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is too well known for his capacity and can-do spirit. He stands tall in his track records as a democrat, a champion of the rule of law, a man at home in every part of our country, and a truly visionary leader. All you need to do is think of Lagos in 1999 and 2022!

“I, therefore, want to assure all party members and supporters of our government that I will be at the forefront of this campaign. This election is even more important than the election of 2015 that brought us into power. The cost of losing the gains our country has made is much more than the need to stop the hemorrhage that led to our coming together nearly nine years ago.

“I want to charge every member to put in all their efforts during the next four and half months of the campaign to ensure we record a resounding victory in all our elections nationwide. The future of this country is safer in our hands.”

On his part, the Director General of PCC and the Governor of Plateau state, Hon Simon Lalong revealed that the PCC leadership has engaged in a lot of consultations to ensure that the ruling party has a robust team that would capture all stakeholders and interests of the party for effectiveness.

He noted that the  Action Plan  passed through a rigorous process of review and scrutiny at all levels of leadership of the party and also got the endorsement of the President, Tinubu, and his running mate. He stressed that the PCC was elated by the zeal and desire of party members across the nation and the diaspora to serve in one position or the other during the campaigns.

His words: “That is why we carefully devised a strategy to ensure that everyone is captured across the various levels of the party structure. With the blessings of Mr. President and the endorsement of the party and our Candidate, we have chosen to carry out a bottom-up approach to the campaigns. In other words, members will work to deliver the party and its candidates from the unit to the national level and not the other way round.”

Lalong explained that the PCC has carefully planned the structure to give roles to all members from the Unit, Ward, Local Government, State, Zonal, Regional and Federal Levels. He said this was to ensure not only getting everyone on board, but also to easily track the roles played by each member in the campaign process.

To him, at the end of the day, the party can conveniently address any challenge and even reward excellence while harvesting maximum votes, saying for the PCC, the days of people flying letters in Abuja while work suffers at the grassroots is over.

Nevertheless, the director-general said despite the fact that the ruling party was confident of victory because of its records of achievements and the growing acceptance it continues to enjoy across the country, the PCC would not take anything to chance.

Lalong noted that the country is in the season  of politics where political opponents are desperate to confuse the electorate and bring the ruling party down.

To this end, he assured that APC campaigns would therefore be issue-based and devoid of propaganda or falsehood. He said the party would tell the electorate what it has done and also remind them of the enviable records set by Tinubu and his running mate, Shettima during their previous national assignments.

The  director -general emphasised that while others spend their valuable time addressing personalities and other frivolities, APC would stay with the mission and vision of the candidate and as encapsulated in the Action Plan. He added that this singular focus would enable APC to deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians.

Lalong called on all party faithful to be committed to this mandate and remain focused on the goal of ensuring that APC retains power at the federal and state levels. This, he said,  would require a lot of sacrifices by members, while urging them to put aside personal or sectional interests and focus on the goal,  which is to win the elections with an unprecedented wide margin in the history of elections in Nigeria.

The director-general said the  PCC was aware that the composition of the leadership and membership of the various committees might not have satisfied the yearnings of everyone, however, it was important to emphasise that everything possible had been done to come up with a list that captures virtually every interest.

On her part,  chairman of the women wing of the campaign council and the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, in an interview on BBC recently declared that the ruling APC would win the 2023 presidential election and hand over to APC government again.

Speaking on the 2023 elections, Aisha said the ruling party would emerge victorious, but noted that Nigerians placed high expectations on the current administration when it assumed office, adding that the government had done its best.

According to her: “The expectations on us were too high. People expected so much from us and maybe after seven years we have not done to their expectations. Only God knows what is in somebody’s mind, as human beings, you can’t just say you are right or you have done what you should do.

“So, the government, the administration, they have really tried, they have done their best but maybe still not the best to others. To them, they have done their best, so, we must apologise to Nigerians whether we have met up with their expectations or not.”

But the presidential flagbearer has given a hint of what to expect from his administration if elected in his 80-page manifesto that he would phase out subsidy on petrol while maintaining the underlying social contract between government and the people.

Tinubu said his government would establish a Special Enforcement and Monitoring Unit with the sole mandate to protect the nation’s pipelines by deploying technological interventions –stationary aerial monitoring platforms, drones towards curbing production disruptions.

He said: “We shall phase out the fuel subsidy yet maintain the underlying social contract between government and the people. We do this by dedicating the money that would have been used on the subsidy to fund targeted infrastructural, agricultural and social welfare programs ranging from road construction, to boreholes, public transportation subsidies, education and healthcare funding programs.”

The former two-term Lagos governor said this was part of efforts to achieve stability of petroleum product supply by fully deregulating the downstream sector and ensuring that local refinery capacity will meet domestic consumption needs.

Acvording to him: “Our planned approach will not only mitigate the price effects of deregulation but will also result in the significant expansion of public infrastructure and improvement of the public well-being. Subsidy removal and deregulation are, however, only part of the solution.

“To further increase our refining capacity, we shall focus on the rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries and shall consider, as a model, the joint venture partnership arrangements implemented by other leading oil producing states and global petrochemical firms.”

Tinubu also assured that his government would increase crude oil production to 2.6mbpd by 2027 and 4mbpd by 2030 if elected. He added that to increase domestic crude production, there was a need  to have greater success in deterring crude oil theft and preventing vandalism of pipelines, crude infrastructure and assets.

He also promised to establish a highly trained and disciplined anti-terrorist battalions to tackle insecurity in the country. He also assured that the Police Force would be repositioned to deliver on its primary duties of community policing and maintaining law and order through crime fighting and prevention.

Tinubu said: “Highly trained and disciplined anti-terrorist battalions (ABATTS) with special forces units will be created. Their objective shall be to seize the strategic and tactical initiative, giving terrorists, kidnappers and bandits. Military units will be better equipped with tactical communications gear and new vehicles to give them a greater communications and mobility advantage over criminals, bandits and terrorists.

“We will further modernise our Armed Forces by ensuring that our weapons systems (land, sea and air) are capable of addressing current and anticipated security threats in the modern world. This shall also mean the recruitment of people who possess the technical skills required for today’s military.”

The APC candidate stressed that if elected, his government would  reduce the country’s dependence on imported foreign military equipment by ramping up domestic production of basic and essential military hardware and equipment, including small arms and ammunition.

He added: “Police reform will be focused on positioning the institution to better deliver on its primary duties of community policing and maintaining law and order through crime fighting and prevention. Police personnel will be freed from extraneous duties such as VIP security and guard duties.

“VIP Security and provision of security for government buildings, installations and other critical assets will be transferred to The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). The NSCDC shall be evaluated and reformed to be better integrated with our internal security apparatus.”

The flagbearer explained that his government would  implement measures to eliminate attacks on vital national infrastructure, saying this would be known as Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Plan.

Although Tinubu has launched his 80-page Action Plan, if what is contained therein is enough to convince the electorate is another kettle of fish going by the performance of the Buhari-led administration. All the same, only time will tell.