Tinubu Snubs Lai Muhammed, Picks Fani-Kayode For Campaign

The presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, has snubbed a close political ally, Lai Mohammed, in the composition of his campaign council.

Mohammed is the Minister of Information and Culture in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He was Chief of Staff during Tinubu’s first term in office as Executive Governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2003.

It was gathered that he successfully made it as mnister under Buhari due to recommendation from Tinubu, who also ensured the former Kwara State governorship aspirant emerged as the spokesman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, when it was officially formed in 2014.

However, former Minister of Aviation, and former critic of the APC, Femi Fani-Kayode, was included in the 422 presidential campaign council, PCC.

Fani-Kayode, who was the spokesman of the President Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Council in 2015 and senior member of the PDP until a few months ago was one of the fiercest critics of the Buhari administration, who used expletives to denigrate the party.

Also not in the list is former Minister of Communication under the first term of Buhari, Adebayo Shittu.

Asked why Mohammed was not included in the list of the PCC, when a fellow minister, Festus Keyamo, was listed and is acting as one of the APCPCC spokesmen, Bayo Onanuga, one of the APCPCC spokesmen said everyone cannot be on the list.

He said Mohammed has so much on his table as a minister while Shittu despite not being named is playing an important role by way of heading a campaign organ.

He pointed out that Mohammed is with the PCC in the spirit as all heads named in the list will rally people for the success of the campaign.

He told THE WHISTLER on telephone that, “Everybody cannot be on the list.

“The Minister (Mohammed) is very busy with his work. He is a busy man. He is busy.

“He is a government official, performing a pivotal role in government. How do you (now) saddle him with another responsibility?

“He is with the council in the spirit even though he can not be present physically,” he said.

Justifying Shittu’s exclusion, he said, the former minister “has a duty – he’s holding a whole campaign organ. He doesn’t need to be on the list. He is working independently with the council.

“He has his own support organ, he’s working on them.

“Not everybody is on the council, the list itself is not even the complete list. There are members of all the various directorates that you can’t see.

“It’s only the heads that you see. Shittu is somewhere there, apart from that, he is building his campaign organ working independently of the PCC,” he stated.

President Muhammadu Buhari was named as the chairman of the APCPCC while its Director General is Plateau State Governor, Solomon Lalong.

The presidential election campaign is less than one week away ahead of the presidential election in February 2023.