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The Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC) is yet to begin its nationwide campaign
because of the urgent need to resolve the controversy trailing the
submission of candidates.

The Party’s
spokesman, Rotimi Fashakin who disclosed this to our correspondent in
Abuja yesterday, said there are issues arising from the substitution of
candidates after the submission of the list to the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC).

Controversies have
been trailing the substitution of the names of the party’s
gubernatorial candidates in Kano, Katsina, Enugu and other states.

According to him,
“we have issues arising from the list of candidates and substitution of
candidates, that is why we are yet to commence our campaign,” Mr
Fasahakin said in a telephone interview yesterday. “But now that the
deadline for the submission and replacement of names has expired, we
will soon start our campaign in earnest.”

Trusted hands

Mr Fashakin said
the national leadership of the CPC is already in the process of
constituting the presidential campaign committee to handle the
nationwide campaign of its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

He also hinted that
Sule Hamma may head the campaign organisation. Mr Hamma served as the
Director General of The Buhari Campaign Organisation in 2007.

A trusted ally of
the former head of state, Mr Hamma is at present the deputy chairman of
the CPC Board of Trustees. He served as the Secretary to the old Kano
State Government under the late Abubakar Rimi between 1979 and 1983 and
later moved to the Presidency during the military administration of the
late Sani Abacha.

Working committee

Meanwhile, the
national working committee (NWC) of the All Nigeria People’s Party
(ANPP) will meet today over the constitution of its presidential
campaign committee.

A source in the
party told NEXT yesterday that the nominees into the committee to
handle the campaign of the party’s presidential candidate, Ibrahim
Shekarau may be made known to the public.

As at last week,
the opposition party was said to have been in a dilemma over the
constitution of the presidential campaign organisation following Mr
Shekarau’s inability to send in names of his nominees to the national
secretariat.

When contacted
yesterday, the ANPP spokesman, Emmanuel Eneukwu said the leadership of
the party is still in the process of setting up the campaign committee.
He refused to confirm today’s meeting of the NWC.

“We’re still in the
process of setting it up, that is all I can say. Please, be patient
with us because there are many things to consider in setting up such
committees. We want to get it right,” Mr Eneukwu told NEXT in a
telephone chat in Abuja.

Also speaking with
NEXT, the vice presidential candidate of the ANPP, John Odigie-Oyegun
said the party will constitute the campaign organisation in the next
few days.

Mr Odigie-Oyegun, however, said that he and the presidential candidate have been campaigning on their own for the past one week.

According to him,
they have been to some South Eastern parts of the country where they
met with supporters and also opened campaign offices.

The ANPP vice
presidential candidate said Nigerians should not expect the ANPP to
conduct a similar campaign to that of the PDP because it does not have
the kind of resources available to the ruling party.

The ruling PDP had
on Monday organised committees for its campaign funding, with twelve
top Nigerian businessmen, including billionaires Aliko Dangote, Femi
Otedola and Mike Adenuga, to raise funds to support President Goodluck
Jonathan’s presidential campaign.

Others in this
Committee are: Tony Elumelu, former chairman of the United Bank for
Africa; Jimoh Ibrahim, chairman of NICON Insurance; Emeka Offor, Kashim
Bukar, Sayyu Dantata, Jim Ovia, Dahiru Manga,

Abdulsamad Rabiu and Kola Salako.