Festus Keyamu, spokesman of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, says the manifesto of the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has been reviewed and officially approved by the party’s stakeholders.
Addressing journalists Keyamo disclosed this immediately after a meeting on Wednesday which Tinubu had with the Progressive Governors Forum, the Presidential Campaign Council and members of the APC National Working Committee.
He said, “What we did today was to review the draft of our manifesto. Our candidate does not operate on his own. He tries to carry everybody along. And so he presented a draft of the manifesto to all the stakeholders to look at it today.
“Guess what? Almost all the stakeholders gave that draft more than 90 per cent pass.”
When asked if a date has been picked for Tinubu and the party to unveil the manifesto, Keyamo said they were not under any pressure to do that.
He said an ad-hoc committee has been set up to trim the policy document into a simple abridge version for the average Nigerian to comprehend.
“We are not going to take the thunder away from our candidate. He (Tinubu) is going to present to Nigerians on a particular day and occasion. That is what we want to do.
“I can tell you that a small committee has been set up again. Their function is to reduce (the volume of the) document to major highlights so that we can sell the message to even the market woman and street trader in the most simple language. We don’t want to present to Nigerians in a very complicated manner that they can’t understand in simple terms what we want to do for Nigerians,” he said.
When asked why the APC stakeholders and the candidate are yet to decide on an appropriate date for the PCC inauguration and campaign kick-off, Keyamo admitted that a definite date has not been chosen.
He said, “You know some parts of the structure of our campaign involve a presidential diary. So I have said it before that our campaign is not like those who operate kick-and-start with their small vehicles.
“Our campaign is like manoeuvring a 50-tonne trailer into the highway. Once we hit the highway, people will know. The president is the chairman of our campaign council and we are going to consider his diary in picking the date. We have all virtually agreed that we are going to hit the street very soon.
“We have agreed on the region to begin the campaign but I am not going to say that now. We have also addressed all the basic issues because we want to carry the leaders of the party along
“For now, no date has been chosen (for PCC inauguration). We will announce that sooner than you think. I can tell you we have exhausted everything that needed to be discussed today.”
