The media director of Tinubu’s campaign group, Bayo Onanuga, has said that all stakeholders within the ruling All Progressives Congress, including the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.); and the Progressives Governors’ Forum, had begun deliberating on the composition of the presidential campaign councils .
According to Onanuga, who spoke during an interview with Premium Politics, the APC plans to inaugurate two presidential campaign councils – one by the APC and one by Tinubu.
“There will be two campaign teams. The party is setting up one and the candidate is setting up another but they are going to work together. They are still talking about what should be,” Onanuga said.
He, however, declined comments on the geopolitical zone where the directors general of the two teams would likely emerge from or the criteria that will be used in their selection.
According to him, discussions are still ongoing. When asked the roles the governors will play in the composition of the campaign council, he said, “Everybody, all the stakeholders, are discussing it.”
Asked whether the President has made any input, he said, “It is being discussed, the candidate and the party and everyone are discussing this.”
Onanuga also declined comments on the date of the inauguration of the presidential campaign teams for Tinubu.
On why Tinubu was not in the Villa on Friday during the stakeholders’ meeting with the President, he said, “There is nothing to it. If he was not there, he was not there; it is not a big deal.”
By the timetable of the Independent National Electoral Commission, campaigns ahead of the 2023 general elections will begin in September.
INEC’s timetable for the 2023 general elections, dated February 26, 2022, was signed by the commission’s secretary, Rose Oriaran-Anthony.
In the timetable, the presidential and the National Assembly electioneering campaigns are to commence on September 28 in compliance with Section 94(1) of the Electoral Act 2022.
The law states that public campaigns by political parties shall commence 150 days before the polling day and end 24 hours to election day.
By INEC’s timetable, presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on February 25, 2023.
It was gathered that the APC and its strategists are looking towards the North-West to pick the director general of the party’s presidential campaign council.
It was gathered that the move to pick the campaign leader from the North-West is aimed at pacifying party members from the zone, who are said to be aggrieved because they lost out in the bid to have APC’s vice presidential candidate picked from the zone.
