Presidency 2023: APC bleeds internally over Muslim-Muslim ticket, suspends inauguration of Tinubu’s campaign council

The All Progressives Congress (APC) may be bleeding internally over the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the party’s candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, for the 2023 election, which led to the exclusion of some APC members, particularly, Christians in the party from the north, from the composition of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the Tinubu campaign.

After the release of the list of the campaign council, observations made over the exclusion of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo SAN, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, former Speaker of the House of Representative, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, among others.  The spokesperson of the Tinubu Campaign organization, Festus Keyamo SAN, had explained that the Vice President and the SGF, Mustapha, were excluded from the Tinubu presidential campaign council on the order of President Muhammadu Buhari.

However, the Director-General of the Presidential Campaign Council, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, in a statement on Monday evening, disclosed the intention to expand the campaign council list is to “accommodate more stakeholders and interests within the APC family”, perhaps, to reduce the internal wranglings.

Lalong further announced that the inauguration of the council had been postponed. With no new date fixed.

The statement read: “Recall that we had earlier earmarked a peace walk and prayers for Wednesday, September 28, 2022, to officially kick-off our campaigns for the 2023 Presidential Elections. We had also announced that the members of the Campaign Council report at the Campaign Headquarters on that day to collect their letters of appointments.

“However, due to the expansion of the list to accommodate more stakeholders and interests within the APC family, we have decided to adjust the time-table of these activities in order to ensure everyone is on board before activities officially commence.

“Consequently, the activities earlier announced for the 28th of September will no longer hold.”

The DG, however, said that a new date and time-table of events will be announced soon.

Recent efforts by Tinubu to hold meetings with various APC stakeholders, including governors, were not successful as the invited stakeholders ignored invitations.