Despite the ill-feeling that the National Chairman of The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Sen. Iyorchia Ayu should step down before campaigns, the party has announced that it will kick-off its Presidential Campaign on Monday in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
This is even as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared that its not in a hurry to flag off its campaign for the elections as its Presidential Campaign Council is still busy tidying up details ahead of the flag off
The campaign kick-off will be hosted by the Gov. Udom Emmanuel who is also the Chairman of the Campaign Council.
The announcement was made by the Director General of Atiku Abubakar Campaign Council and Sokoto State governor, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal on Tuesday in Abuja after inspecting the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Office located in Wuse 2.
Hon. Tamuwal said that the party and its candidate is ready to engage Nigerians and sell its manifesto to the people. He said that the campaign is going to be issue based and stressed that the party will not be distracted by mudslingers or issues that have no bearing with the welfare of the country.
“We are pleased to report to you and indeed Nigerians that the campaign is ready to move. By the grace of God, we are flagging off the campaign this coming Monday, the 10th of October 2023 at Uyo Akwa Ibom states. All arrangements have been made to have for a very successful flag off of the campaign”.
He described the Presidential Candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar as the most experienced of all the Presidential candidate who will not begin to learn on the job. He assured that Atiku will hit the ground running from the first day adding that the swift with which the party inaugurated its Presidential Campaign Council on the day campaign embrago was lifted showed that it is very prepared to confront the challenges facing the country from day one.
“Our campaign is going to be issue based. We’re going to be marketing our candidates based on the program that we brought out, which is generally solution based. Atiku is very well prepared to provide the required leadership for this country at this time. He has the experience in governance at the federal level, which I believe none of the rest of the candidates can match.
“This is not the time for Nigerians to go for trial and error. It’s time for Nigerians to give it to the person that has been tested and who has experience do a good job, who would from day one hit the ground running as we have done for the inauguration of campaign council the very day INEC lifted the ban on presidential election campaign on the 28th.
“Even that should confirm to Nigerians that this is the only party and indeed candidate that is prepared and ready to go”.
The campaign Director General asked Nigerians to throw their weight behind the party’s candidate just as he assured that the campaign will be violence free.
“We seek for the collaboration of Nigerians and the understanding as we go about the campaigns. As I said, ours is going to be based on issues and we seek to have violence free electoral process. In any case, our principal has been known to be a peaceful man and his personality speaks for him as a gentleman”.
On the disagreement within the Governors following the continued stay of Ayu as the chairman of the party, Tambuwal said that the party will find a political solution around the crises.
“We’re not involved in a war of attrition. It is a political disagreement and we’re working to resolve all of those issues”.
Tambuwal dismissed the threat posed by the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi in the South East. He said that the party and its candidate was in the South East both during the campaign and last week during its consultative meeting. He claimed that Atiku is still the number Presidential Ticket contender in the South East.
“We’ve travelled throughout the nooks and crannies of this country, particularly, both around the states before the primaries campaign, and he was in the southeast. Only last week, we were in Enugu the political capital of that region for consultations. No states during the consultation will be left out. So, we’re very prepared to go into the southeast and we believe that we’re still the number one candidate for the southeast and we are going to consult everywhere in all of the six political zones in this country”.
You may wish to note that following the lingering crisis rocking the party, Governor Wike’s team pulled out of the Presidential campaign Council. Members of the group vowed not to participate in the campaign in whatever capacity except the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, leaves his position for a southerner.
Some members of the group include: Govs. Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Chief Bode George (Lagos), former Governors Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo, Ayo Fayose of Ekiti, Donald Duke of Cross River, Ibrahim Dakwambo of Gombe, and Jonah Jang of Plateau, and a former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke.
Others are a former Information Minister, Jerry Gana, South-south Chairman of the PDP, Dan Orbih, a former deputy Speaker of the House Representative, Chibudom Nwuche among others.
Meanwhile, Spokesperson of PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Ehiedu Aniagwu has said that efforts to reconcile aggrieved members of the party is yielding results.
Ehiedu who was a guest at AIT’s morning Show, Kakaki on Tuesday hinted that the party’s reconciliation efforts were yielding results adding that there is hope of resolving the crisis in no distant time.
According to Aniagwu, the party’s Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, his running mate, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa and other leaders of the party are working hard to resolve all contending issues to enable it present a common front ahead of the 2023 general elections.
…We won’t rush campaign like other parties – APC
Also speaking in the flag off its campaigns, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Barr. Felix Morka said as the ruling party, is not in a hurry to flag off its campaign as it does not have to rush into the process like other parties.
Morka said, “Our campaigns are ongoing already. Even though it is yet to be formally and globally inaugurated, but you know, make no mistake, the units and at ward levels in the local governments and states, efforts are underway. People are really bursting with energy to hit the road.
“The foremost symbolic thing will be done and the fact that we didn’t do it on the first day of the campaigns doesn’t take away from the seriousness with which we are going to attack this programme.
“As a matter of fact, again, we are also very keen not to have our voice and our efforts lost in the cacophony of the rest of the parties. So, we are taking our time and within a few days, we will get it right.
“By the way, I think we are actually entitled to take a bit of our moment to really fine-tune how the process should be as the largest party on this continent.
“There is a lot of activities at the polling unit level; like me who comes from Delta state, my phone is constantly buzzing with people trying to get involved in the unit and up to ward levels, local government, and state levels. So, what we did was not just at the national level. That is not what really matters. But at the unit level, people are filled with this enthusiasm to get involved because they know and are confident that we are going to succeed and that is not something about Abuja and the national presidential campaign council but also of the wards, units, local governments, and the states as well.
“The fact is that when you try to put together a campaign council for a ruling party, a party of over 40 million people, that is no joke. And in any event, this is a campaign council that every member of our party wishes to be involved in.
“What you are seeing is an overload of interest and enthusiasm and the desire of party men and women to be involved in the process. Those who call it a problem, I call it a sweet problem. That is what it is. I rather have that problem where everyone wants to be involved in the council than to have a problem where no one wants to be involved in the council which is the case for our own key opposition party the PDP. Many of those who were listed and given eminent positions in their campaign council say they are not interested. We have a situation where everyone in our units in our wards wants to be involved, but you know not everyone can be listed as a member of the campaign council otherwise, it becomes unwieldy and unmanageable. It is a sweet problem that we are trying to resolve”, Morka added.
2023: Nigeria’s problems cannot be fixed by those who caused it, SDP’s Adebayo warns
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate, Adewole Adebayo, Tuesday, warned Nigerian electorate ahead of the 2023 elections that country’s challenging problems cannot be fixed by those who caused it
The presidential candidate, who also accused Nigerian politicians of indulging in the illegal act of vote-buying, warned that that the problems would be aggravated if voters allow politicians who are being accused of putting the country in its current state are voted back to power in 2023.
Adewole, who was a guest at book launch in Abuja posited that he has studied the challenges confronting Nigeria in areas of insecurity, education, health care, poverty, as well as other vices, adding that he has also earmarked detailed solution points and strategies which he assured would take the country oput of the challenges when elected as president in 2023
This came as he commented on the proposed plan by the National Assembly to set up a tribunal to prosecute electoral offenders.
The move, according to the legal expert, would amount to nothing given the urge of Nigerian politicians for votes.
Adebayo further described lawmakers in the country as hypocrites, adding that majority of them bought votes to get to where they are today.
“The problem of Nigeria is hypocrisy. Majority of those in the National Assembly are vote buyers even though they’re passing laws against the practice. It is easier to come from the buyers. Many of them did vote buying in their primaries. They are only passing the law they know they are going to disobey,” he said.
The presidential candidate argued that “there is need in this country to call out people who engage in wrong things.”
He blamed Nigeria’s situation on the paucity of good leaders and lack of political understanding by Nigerian voters.
He charged Nigerians to be politically active in order to drive the country forward.
He said: “Consciously or unconsciously, we’re saying that the issue with Nigeria is lack of credible leaders. Other things needed for the country to grow are available and will work if right leaders are in place. Good decisions, not lamentation, can change the country for the better.
“We need to outgrow skepticism and cynicism and come out tenaciously to do what is right. Nigerian voters are not as powerless as they have been made to believe. All you need to do is know what candidates stand for and implications of the spot we’re today.
“My interaction with the people shows that they know what’s right but sometimes don’t want to make the sacrifice. The fact that there is hunger and poverty in the country shouldn’t make us take wrong steps. Misinterpretation of politics is responsible for citizens’ wrong decisions and lack of interest in the system.”
