…As ex-minister gets automatic waiver, heads think-tank ahead 2023
Former Aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, who defected to the All Progressives Congress, (APC), from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), may emerge as the National Publicity Secretary of the ruling party at its next National Convention slated for between November/ December this year.
According to sources, aside that, the former minister has been confirmed to have earned an automatic waiver even as a pro-North political pressure think-tank has secretly made Fani-Kayode its National Coordinator ahead of the 2023 presidential race.
The ex-minister was presented to the president at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, by the chairman, APC Extraordinary and Convention Planning Committee, Mai Mala Buni, and Zamfara State governor, Bello Matawalle.
It was gathered that prior to the new thinking in respect of national image-maker for the ruling party, some close allies of the President had already penciled Fani-Kayode as National Coordinator of a think-tank, the National Consensus Project, (NCP), which is allegedly bankrolled by close allies of the President from the North.
The source said the lot to install Fani-Kayode as party spokesperson is a later thought and it is coming amid reports that, among others that one of the conditions given by the former minister to join the party was that he should be positioned “strategically” to play a crucial role ahead of the 2023 general elections.
It is however unclear where the various positions in the National Working Committee of the APC would be zoned ahead of the National Convention.
It was, however, gathered that a trusted member of the president’s kitchen cabinet (a serving minister)and three northern governors are behind the plot to impose Fani-Kayode.
A source close to one of the governors in the know of the plot confided in this medium that already, the Osun State governor, Gboyega Oyetola, has been contacted to clear the way for the emergence of Fani-Kayode as a national delegate in order for him to be eligible to contest the position at the National Convention.
