By Adamu Abuh, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress presidential campaign council (APC PCC) says the conspiracy against the presidential aspiration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by forces within the presidential villa should not be seen as a surprising development.
APC PCC’s Director strategic communications, Mr Dele Alake insist that Tinubu remains unbeatable in the presidential poll scheduled to hold on the 25th of this month.
Alake maintained that with President Muhammadu Buhari solidly behind Tinubu’s aspiration, the subterranean plots by his adversaries would not achieve their goal.
Reacting to the claim by Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai of Kaduna state on the development, he said Tinubu has the large heart to accommodate dissenting voices within the APC.
He pointed accusing fingers at the opposition peoples democratic party (PDP) for doing all within their powers to undermine the chances of Tinubu in the presidential poll.
He noted: “For Nasir El Rufai, Governor of Kaduna state, to state the obvious is nothing for us to clear again. We know that mischief makers, especially from the opposition, will latch on it and twist it out of context.
“That has always been the way of the opposition that we are contending with in Nigeria today. I made bold to say and you can quote me. The PDP opposition that we have today has been conducting the most pernicious, divisive, abusive, ineffective and most irresponsible campaign in the history of this country.
“They have no issues, no track record, no not nothing. No record of performance to put before the Nigerian voters. What then do they do? They resort to personal abuses, issue fabricated and fake stories to denigrate our presidential candidate. That is also because they have no track record of performance to push out to the public.
“That is also because they know that our principal is the candidate to beat. He is a front runner in this race. And where I come from in this country, there is an adage that says it is only the tree that is full of fruits people throw stones at.
“You won’t get to see anybody throwing stones at a tree that is barren or dying. It is clear that Asiwaju is the only fruitful candidate and that is why all of them are throwing stones.
“We understand that and also know it has never won them any election. This one too will not be different. It will also not win them this election because Nigerians are discerning. They can see through their shenanigans.”
Continuing, he said: “As a campaign council, it is very simple. There’s really nothing spectacular about what El Rufai has said. And it’s even self-explanatory. He did say that some people but he never said the president. In any organisation including your own individual media houses, you have editorial policies, and there are elements within your organization’s that won’t agree with those policies. Yet, they still work there.
“It is therefore not a spectacular thing. It is merely a natural phenomenon. In all organisations and institutions, you cannot have 100 per cent of the operatives see issues exactly the same way. However, it is the preponderance of views that matter.
“Now in terms of the presidency, who is the power base? Of course, it is the Commander in Chief. He holds all the aces. We do not expect that he would actually see all his staff eye to eye. But they’re still there.
“Again, you also need perspectives from various angles. That is why we even say even our own principal, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, one of his strengths is to accommodate dissenting views within his own milieu. I have a personal experience of this and I continue to have it. We argue a great deal when we sit down to strategise and plan policies.
“Asiwaju is one leader, from my experience, who has a very large heart, whose horizon is so wide, who is so accommodating of opposing views with a view to reaching a logical conclusion from which germane policies are made. An example of that is what we have in Lagos today.”
Source: The Guardian
