The Progressive Project (TPP), a coalition of support groups for the actualisation of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo presidency in 2023, said its members had been advised against disparaging any former, present or serving leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Alhaji Usman Usman, Director of Operations, TPP, said this in a statement he issued on Thursday in Abuja.
He said with a view to increasing the popularity of Osinbajo and ensuring his election as the country’s next president in 2023, groups of eminent citizens had started strategy sessions.
He said the sessions are aimed at strengthening the more than 400 Osinbajo support groups nationwide canvassing support for the actualisation of an Osinbajo presidency in 2023.
“Our focus as progressives is on effective strategies towards ensuring the candidature of Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and an eventual victory in 2023.
“No member of our team is allowed to get involved in disparaging any former, present or serving leader who is in the APC,” Usman said.
He said lawyers among personalities who met the Osinbajo support groups at the session, included former National Secretary of the Labour Party, Mr Kayode Ajulo, and Mr Dapo Akinosun.
Others, he said, were a former Managing Director of Africa Petroleum Plc, Shettima Abba-Gana, and a former Military Administrator of Katsina State, Col. Joseph Akaagerger, who served as Senator from 2007 to 2011.
Usman, however, pointed out that Osinbajo supporters would not back any national executive council aspirant other than the party leaders’ consensus candidates.
The statement quoted Mr Dapo Akinosun as saying that the generation that fought the civil war is on their way out.
He emphasised that special strategies and tactics with deep foundations in the nation’s laws are being analysed to make the collective effort a reality.
The statement also quoted Kayode Ajulo as saying that one of the areas to be addressed strategically, is about the norms or principles regarding the right of first refusal.
He added that intellect, capacity and experience are most paramount in this regard.
Ajulo said his recent suggestion that an APC presidential aspirant should step out of the race had led to incessant threats, including unsettling phone calls to his 86-year-old mother who lives in one of the states in the South.
“For someone to co-pilot a complex country like Nigeria, it is not a joke; that is why some of us are talking about the right of first refusal.
“But if there is anyone who stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on integrity, capacity, experience and other qualities, let us have a good debate,” Ajulo said.
He added that various youth groups had, however, stressed their preparedness for more effective marketing of the Osinbajo brand ahead of 2023.
Hajia Rabi Dauda, leader of the Coalition of Women for Osinbajo, in the statement, said women are pushing for Osinbajo’s candidature come 2023 in the interest of a better future for Nigerian children and generations yet unborn.
“This mobilisation for Osinbajo is a special project aimed towards positive impact on the history of Nigeria.
“And this time around, ethnicity, moneybag politics and others will no longer matter to Nigerians who love Osinbajo,” Dauda stated.