2023: Keyamo explains delay in APC presidential campaign flag-off

The Official Spokesperson, APC Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, has explained the delay in flagging off the presidential campaign of the party.

He offered the explanation on Wednesday during an interaction with journalists after a meeting of the campaign council, the party’s national working committee (NWC), and the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF).

Keyamo said that the delay was due partly to a need to follow what he called a “presidential diary”.

According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari’s schedule must be taken into consideration since he is the Chairman of the council.

“Part of the structure of our campaign involves a presidential diary. Our campaign is not like those who have done kick and start with their small vehicles.

“Our campaign is like maneuvering a 50-tonne trailer into the highway and once we hit the road, we hit the road.

“So that is what we are doing, The president is the chairman of the campaign council. We are going to take his diary into consideration in picking and choosing the day.

“But, we have virtually agreed that we are going to hit the streets very soon. We have agreed on the region we are going to begin from and on all other basic issues,” Keyamo said.

The campaign spokesman disclosed that the party has okayed the manifesto of its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

“What we did today was to review the draft of our manifesto. Our candidate is not a candidate that operates on his own. He tries to carry everybody along.

“So, he presented the draft of the manifesto to all the stakeholders. We looked at it and almost all the stakeholders gave the draft a 90 percent pass mark.

“We are not going to take away the thunder away from our candidate. He is going to present it before Nigerians on a particular day, at a particular occasion.

“After that, a small committee has been set up to reduce the document to highlights — major highlights.

“We want to sell the manifesto to even market women, to the street traders in the most simple language. We don’t want to present a very complicated document they cannot understand in simple terms,” Keyamo said.