Posted by The controversy concerning Vice President Yemi Osinbajo's exclusion from the list of supporters has been resolved by the Bola Tinubu campaign council.
Osinbajo was left off the list to “focus on governance of the country and administration of government,” according to a statement issued on Saturday by Festus Keyamo, the council's spokesperson.
The APC presidential campaign council published a list of its 422 members on Friday.
Along with Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, a former minister of state for education, Yakubu Dogara, a former speaker of the house of representatives, and Babachir Lawal, a former secretary to the government of the federation, Osinbajo was not included on the list.
The friendship between the two men appeared to have broken down after the vice president and Tinubu ran together for the APC presidential ticket.
The campaign council's lack of Osinbajo's name adds gasoline to the fire of their relationship's possible downward spiral.
In response, the campaign team claimed that Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha were ordered to be removed from the list by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to some stories circulating that there may be something amiss within the family of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the name of our own revered and respected Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON, is not included in the list of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council.
“Nothing is more false than the facts. President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, is the campaign council's chairman, just to be clear. As a result, in order to focus on national governance and government administration, Mr. President EXCLUSIVELY ordered that the Vice-President and Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, be excluded from the Campaign Council.
“All the major government officials cannot leave their jobs for electioneering campaigns as a responsible party and government. The APC is charged by the Nigerian people with leading the nation on their behalf until at least May 29, 2023, and we plan to carry out this mandate with the utmost sense of responsibility.
“Both our candidates and the APC leadership have stated that the list is not inviolate and that it may occasionally be reviewed depending on the situation.
We will not follow in the footsteps of those who ran the country irresponsibly before us, and our Party is not completely disorganized like others who want to “save” the nation but are unable to effectively run their own internal affairs.