Buhari, APC lied in disowning campaign document, “My Covenant With Nigerians”

Muhammadu Buhari and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo at APC Campaign In Awka, Anambra State

The claims by President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress, that a key campaign document, “My Covenant With Nigerians” did not emerge from them is false and misleading, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation has shown.

Extensive checks by this newspaper showed that not only was the document circulated in the run-up to the April 11 presidential election by staff of Mr. Buhari’s campaign organization, the literature was also extensively promoted by party officials, including using the APC website to do so.

It was the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, who kicked off the campaign of distancing the APC and Mr. Buhari from two of the key campaign documents that apparently swayed a lot of votes for the president and his party.

In a widely circulated opinion article published on August 28, Mr. Shehu wrote, “In the course of electioneering, the presidential campaign had so many centres of public communication which, for whatever reason, were on the loose.

“There is a certain document tagged ‘One Hundred Things Buhari Will Do in 100 Days’ and the other, ‘My Covenant With Nigerians’. Both pamphlets bore the authorized party logo but as the Director of Media and Communications in that campaign, I did not fund or authorize any of those. I can equally bet my last kobo that candidate Buhari did not see or authorize those publications.

“As a consequence of these publications, expectations have been raised unreasonably, that as President, Muhammadu Buhari will wave his hand and all the problems that the country faces- insecurity, corruption, unemployment, poor infrastructure – would go away.”

On Monday, the National Publicity Secretary for the APC, Lai Mohammed, picked the baton from where Mr. Shehu dropped it. Speaking during an interview with Channels Television, Mr. Mohammed said President Buhari and the party had nothing to do with any other campaign materials apart from the APC manifesto and constitution.

“Buhari never promised to do anything in 100 days, that’s the honest truth,” Mr. Mohammed. “You see, when you are running a campaign, all kinds of literature will emerge from all sorts of groups but there are only two documents that you can judge a party with: That is the constitution of the party and the manifesto of the party.

“Those are the only two documents that are registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission; you can go to court or hold a party accountable for them.”

Both officials spoke just as Nigerians began the countdown to Mr. Buhari’s first 100 days in office with conversations going on over whether the president and his party were on the path to delivering the “change” they promised. Mr. Buhari would be 100-day old in office on Saturday, September 5.

But investigations by this newspaper showed that by disowning the “My Covenant With Nigerians” document, President Buhari and his party were likely being dishonest and deceitful.

While a volunteer group backed by the party and the presidential campaign may have produced the document on ‘One Hundred Things Buhari Will Do in 100 Days’, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report that the policy and research directorate of the APC presidential campaign, headed by former Governor Kayode Fayemi, produced the covenant document.

Mr. Fayemi could not be reached for comments Tuesday. His aides say he is travelling in Cote D’ivoire with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Party insiders said the document, which harmonised promises contained in the party’s manifesto and various campaign speeches by Mr. Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, was produced after rigorous and extensive deliberation with top campaign officials and the president himself.

After the president signed off on the final version of the covenant, insiders say, the document was emailed to journalists at the time by well-known campaign staff charged with circulating publicity materials for the organization during the period.

For instance, Egghead Odewale, who worked at the headquarters of the presidential campaign in Abuja, sent a PDF version of the document to PREMIUM TIMES on March 12.

Apparently concerned that the document was not getting enough publicity, another campaign official emailed a word version to reporters on March 16.

Newspapers and websites thereafter ran several stories on the document.

Vanguard’s version of the report, entitled “My contract with Nigeria – Buhari” was later republished by the APC on its website at 8:52 a.m on March 17.