The cracks in the All Progressives Congress was more evident on Saturday during the grand finale of the party’s governorship election campaign rally in Ondo state to support for the APC candidate in the November 26 election in the state, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN).
It was glaring as the APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and three of the party’s four governors in the South-West were conspicuous by their absence.
The only South-West governor present was Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State.
His counterparts in Oyo, Osun, and Lagos states, Abiola Ajimobi, Rauf Aregbesola, and Akinmunmi Ambode, respectively, did not attend the rally which President Muhammadu Buhari personally attended.
The reason for the conspicuous absences was definitely not unconnected with the outcome of the September 3 governorship primary of the APC, which did not go down well with Tinubu and his loyalists.
Meanwhile, at the rally, Buhari spoke for the first time on the controversial primary election of his party in Ondo State, endorsing the winner of the contest, Akeredolu, and declaring the process through which he emerged as transparent.
At the APC rally in Akure, Buhari’s remarks, which were short but weighty, were preceded by solidarity messages by other party leaders and federal government functionaries.
On the Akeredolu candidature, the president said, “I am very proud of my party because it conducted a transparent primary. The candidate won the primary with respect and in a week’s time he will win the election as the governor of Ondo State. We are all here to show our support for Akeredolu.”
Earlier at a meeting with the governorship aspirants who had contested against Akeredolu and leaders of the party, the president commended the aspirants for their loyalty to the party and for supporting the party’s candidate.
He said the unity of the party was crucial to the outcome of next Saturday’s election.
He told the aspirants, “I am very pleased that those of you who lost the primaries are still very much in the party. That you lose elections doesn’t mean you should walk away, you keep on trying. I went to the Supreme Court three times in my bid to become the president of Nigeria.
“I like your high spirit and your commitment to the party and I hope your constituencies are taking note of that.”
Buhari was accompanied to the meeting by Senate President Bukola Saraki, APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, several APC governors, and ministers. He assured that the APC was determined and steadfast in its effort to transform the country’s ailing economy.
In his remarks, Mr. Tunji Abayomi, who spoke on behalf of the other aspirants, assured the president that they had resolved to deliver Ondo to APC.
“No single aspirant left the party after the primaries. Those who left the party were not party members; they returned to where they belonged,” Abayomi alleged.
Also speaking, the chairman of APC Elders Council, Ondo State, Senator Olorunnimbe Farukanmi, said Akeredolu was eminently qualified to lead the state.
“We have fielded an experienced, informed, hardworking and capable legal practitioner to work with President Buhari to carry out massive industrial development, job creation, eradication of poverty and massive economic improvement in the nation,” he said.
However, like it happened on November 10, when APC opened its governorship campaign also at the Democracy Park, Tinubu, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and three of the four APC governors in the South-West were conspicuously absent at the grand finale of Akeredolu’s campaign.
But many other APC governors attended the rally.
They were the chairman of the Akeredolu National Campaign Committee and governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong; chairman of APC Governors’ Forum and governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha; Governor Umaru Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa State; Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State; Governor Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State; Governor Abdulahi Ganduje of Kano State, and Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.
Saraki and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Lasun Yusuf, led some other members of the National Assembly to the rally.
Also at the rally were the Minister of Information, Mr Lai Mohammed; Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr Kayode Fayemi; Minister of Niger Delta, Usani Uguru; Minister of State for Niger Delta, Professor Claudius Daramola; Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, and APC Deputy National Chairman (South), Mr Segun Oni.
There was also in attendance the party’s national vice chairmen for South-west, North-east, and South-east, and the National Women Leader.