WHY PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI IS NOT ATTENDING THE APC PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN RALLY IN CROSS RIVER STATE

Presidential Campaign Rallies are unarguably very significant and momentous events in the electioneering process. Such rallies offer the presidential candidates the opportunity of not only espousing their party manifestoes and getting to assess the strength of the party across the nation but also gives the candidates a clear view of the loyalty they have from the states and the likely outcome of their electoral fortunes. More often than not, the electronic and print media are awash with statistics relating to the attendance at rallies and the number of political juggernauts present at the events. It is therefore expected that the ruling party in any given circumstance will expect the presence of President Muhammadu Buhari at such events. Nevertheless, events of high official altitude may alter the direction of the President's attendance at rallies. This does not in any way suggest any crack in the party or any sign of disagreement at the topmost level of the party. President Muhammadu Buhari is not attending the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Rally in Calabar, Cross River State because of the collective decision of the party . The decision was arrived at after strategic consultations within the party hierarchy where it was decided that the President should only take the Message of Renewed Hope to non APC states across Nigeria. The well constituted leadership of the party which consists of great and knowledgeable political figures across the country, reasoned and rightly too, that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has very competent foot soldiers and Governors who possess the required capacity and drive to pilot the process of electioneering by leading the party well enough in their respective states to victory in the 2023 general elections. With such very trusted and competent foot soldiers as Governors, Senators, Members of the Hallowed House of Representatives, State Houses of Assembly, Ministers, State Party apparatuses, party officials/executive committees as well as the various mobilization Directorates charged with the responsibilities of prosecuting the party rallies in the states, the party decision is in the right direction. Meanwhile, it is indeed the non APC States that are in dire need of support and political lifeline to espouse the Message of Renewed Hope to the teeming supporters of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the understanding of the great task ahead. The foot soldiers in such states need all the support, encouragement and goodwill to sell the formidable Asiwaju/Shettima Manifesto, the campaign mantra and the real focus of the incoming leadership powered by an APC administration. Cross River State is already politically wired around the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and as such, the Presidential candidate of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate,Senator Kashim Shettima, will lead all the critical stakeholders and leaders to the Presidential Campaign Rally in Cross River State. Expectedly, Governor Ben Ayade who is the leader of APC in the South-South geopolitical zone as well as the State Coordinator of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), will play host to the entire Country in his usual humane and characteristic manner. It is a well known and established fact that Cross River State is politically conscious and it is ever ready to, in one bloc, deliver the ruling APC in any electoral context, having dwarfed other political parties by the re-engineering of the state from an opposition party to a front line APC State with so much political promise. Even if one goes back memory lane, Cross River State has never lost in any presidential election and in 2023, the state is ready to demonstrate its strength once more by ably clearing all the doubts of the opposition. One can surmise without mincing words that the Presidential campaign rally to be held by the ruling APC in Cross River State is more or less a mere formality as the state is ready to navigate the entire political terrain and interact with its teeming supporters and followers to ensure an all round APC victory from top to bottom. This will be easily done with a humongous margin never before witnessed by the withering and cloudy opposition in the State. Nobody should therefore be discouraged or read untrue meanings into the party's decision to allow President Muhammadu Buhari to attend rallies only in non APC States. It is a well thought out decision by the party officials at the highest level. Cross River State is unapologetically APC and APC is Cross River State, No more, no less. It is in that regard that I confidently join my boss and father, His Excellency, Senator (Prof) Ben Ayade, to heartily welcome all Nigerians and the irrepressible diehard supporters of the Tinubu/Shettima Ticket to the Cross River State APC Presidential Campaign Rally in Calabar and equally invite you all to witness what is unarguably the great rise of the All Progressives Congress in Cross River State and the final burial of the already disappearing opposition. BEATRICE AKPALA CHAIRMAN CROSS RIVER STATE PUBLICITY COMMITTEE OF THE APC PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN COUNCIL.