From all indications, campaign for the 2019 general elections will not
be awash with cash as was the case in the run up to the 2015 elections.
According to a Sunday Telegraph report, the campaign may be “dry”,
particularly money wise.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) set
the ball rolling last month when President Muhammadu Buhari launched his
Next Level Campaign at the Aso Rock Villa with a lot of fanfare.
Only
few weeks ago, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo joined the fray by first
crisscrossing the country, handing out “trader moni” to market men and
women and then becoming more formal with his door-to-door campaign which
has already taken him to Abuja and Lagos.
The wife of the
President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, is not left out as she, on Wednesday,
launched: “Together Nigeria”, where she honoured some prominent
Nigerians in the entertainment industry. The award, she said was in
recognition of their contributions to the development of the country.
However, it was the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) that was actually behind the awards.
The
opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) too was not left out as it
flagged off its campaign with its “Getting Nigeria to Work Again” last
month.
The party then kicked off its rally in Sokoto, seat of the
Caliphate, before stopping over in Ilorin, Kwara State and followed it
up in Ibadan, South Western part of the country early this month.
Nevertheless,
after this initial flurry of campaign activities, there has been
silence from both camps, which is a bit surprising, considering that the
presidential poll takes place in eight weeks time.
Sunday Telegraph reports that the “pause” in both camps was actually caused by cash crunch.
“The
money is not coming in as expected. By now, Atiku would have mobilised
massively for the campaign, have road shows and what have you,” a source
close to the campaign of the former Vice President confided in Sunday
Telegraph.
It was reliably learnt that for many of those who
would have come to the aid of the opposition party by donating money,
the fear of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), is the
beginning of wisdom. “They are afraid of the EFCC coming after them.”
According
to Sunday Telegraph report, a PDP governorship candidate in the South
West confirmed this when he said that his friends, organisations, that
believed in his cause, said: “They are afraid of being hunted and
victimised by the ruling party. Most of those who would have funded our
campaign are shying away from doing that.”
On the part of the
APC, sources who spoke with Sunday Telegraph said that the lull in
campaign is as a result of Buhari “starving” the party of funds, as he
has “sworn not to use public fund for campaigns.”
Spokesperson of
the APC Presidential campaign, Festus Keyamo, alluded to this when he
said, “No more bazaar for election. By now, there should have been
bazaars everywhere. I apologise even to the press, for the press bazaar,
fortune tellers’ bazaar, women’s bazaar. But this president has calmed
things down. This is a departure from the past. We should praise the
president for it.”
On how the campaign would be funded in view of
the President’s disposition to using government money, the APC
spokesman said they would be using every legitimate means to generate
the funds they would be using for the campaign.
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