From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The tight schedules of state governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have temporarily put on hold the build-up to the kick-off of the ruling party’s political campaign activities for next year’s elections.
APC national leadership, the National Working Committee (NWC) had comprehensively lined up a schedule of activities to strategically position the party for victory ahead of the opposition parties, particularly next year’s presidential election.
Some of the activities include the commencement of the zonal reconciliation visits of all the geopolitical zones, starting with the visit to Kano State in the North West and Borno, in the North East.
Another activity is the Monday scheduled meetings between the NWC’s three-man harmonisation committee and the Director General presidential campaign council, Governor Simon Lalong, to finalise the comprehensive list of the presidential national campaign council.
A source close to the NWC told Saturday Sun that the activities were cancelled because most of the APC governors were involved in one form of engagement or the other.
“You know that nothing very concrete came out of the first meeting last week, which necessitated a rescheduled meeting on Monday this week, but the meeting didn’t hold as scheduled because the governors were indisposed.
“Even as it did not hold and we are not also sure when it will hold, the good thing is that the national leadership has made their case known to the campaign council and can only wait for their necessary response. At the end of the day, whether the harmonisation meeting eventually hold or not, they will still send the final list to the party’s leadership for ratification,” our source explained. The source further revealed that the busy schedule of the governors equally affected the zonal reconciliation tour billed to commence this week in Kano and Borno, stressing that it would be an unfruitful venture without the involvement of the governors.
“As you know, the zonal reconciliation visits would have commenced in Kano and Borno this week Wednesday, Governor Umar Ganduje was ready, but his Borno State counterpart, Governor Zulum, was not disposed.
“The NWC would have kick-started the South West zonal visit from Lagos this weekend, but Governor Sanwo-Olu has serious engagements and indisposed for the visit. I think most of the governors have tight schedule, especially those in the entourage of President Muhammadu Buhari in the visits to some States,” our source explained.