Adamu’s programmed emergence as APC national chairman may have set a process that could hurt the party in the days ahead.
By Emeka Alex Duru
Even as the ruling clique in All Progressives Congress enthused on Sunday over the selection of new executives to oversee the affairs of the party, there was palpable concern by some obviously alienated members.
At a convention held at the Eagle Square in Abuja, former Nasarawa state governor, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, emerged as the National Chairman, while Senator Iyiola Omisore was confirmed as National Secretary. Both were stalwarts of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The selection was mostly done by consensus as many candidates opted to step down in deference to President Muhammadu Buhari. Other officers of the party were also thrown up in the same manner.
The exercise took place nearly two years after the Adams Oshiomole-led National Working Committee (NWC) was dissolved.
Adamu, a serving member of the Senate representing Nasarawa West was President Buhari’s choice for the job. Clinching the post was thus, an easy run for him, following the withdrawal of his co-contestants.
Governor Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State, who acted as the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, announced Adamu as the winner of the contest after he was endorsed by party members and leaders at the convention via a voice vote.
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Adamu replaces Oshiomhole as the substantive APC national chairman after the NWC chaired by the former was sacked in June 2020. He, however, takes over from Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State who was appointed to administer the affairs of the party following Oshiomhole’s controversial ouster.
Adamu’s selection confirms President Buhari’s iron-hold on the party. Moves to thwart Adamu’s emergence were halted when Buhari, who was in London on medical grounds, inspired an insurrection led by Niger State governor, Abubakar Bello, over Buni, his Yobe counterpart, when the latter appeared to be working at cross purposes with the president’s scripts. Buni however fought back, securing a court injunction that had put the convention on hold.
Deft political moves by Buhari, restored a semblance of peace in the party, with Buni returning as the care taker committee chairman. For the president therefore, the relative success of the convention, could pass for a mission accomplished.
Danger not totally averted
But even as it seemed Buhari had had his way, the landmines in the APC are yet to be completely neutralized. In fact, it may not be easy, at the moment to determine the extent the contending tendencies in the party which had been hushed out by Adamu’s imposition would take the outcome of the convention. But if the antecedents of the party are to serve as guides, a new flank may just have been opened in its intrigue-infested politics.
For instance, four years ago, precisely on the June 23, 2018 Oshiomhole was selected as the national chairman of the party in same way Adamu emerged. As in the March 26 exercise that threw up Adamu, Oshiomhole’s emergence was already known to Nigerians three weeks to the convention.
In that outing that was characterised by undisguised coercion, the pioneer National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, was forced to withdraw from going for a re-election, to clear the coast for Oshiomhole, who just exited as Edo State governor. As in the case of Adamu, Oshiomhole was flaunted as President Buhari’s favourite for the position.
Oyegun, who pulled out of the race, said he was doing so in the interest of the party. He stressed that though he would have loved taking another shot at the office, he was opting out so as not to be part of the problems confronting the party.
´´I do not intend to be part of the problem for APC to solve. It is for this reason that I hereby declare that I will not be seeking re-election as the national chairman”, Oyegun remarked. Oshiomhole and his backers had their way.
Barely two years after, opposing forces in the party, rose against Oshiomhole. Surprisingly, Buhari did not come to his rescue. He rather flung him under the bus. Such frightening scenario may not be ruled out in the party in the days ahead.
With desperate eyes on 2023, it is not likely that the schemes that saw to Adamu’s emergence would be allowed to subsist, especially by those whose interests may be threatened by his chairmanship. If it gets to that, the party maybe unwittingly threading the path that led the PDP out of power in 2015.
Like PDP, like APC?
At a flawed March 24, 2012, National Convention of the PDP in Abuja, major positions were parceled out to favoured candidates of the then President Goodluck Jonathan, in a consensus arrangement that analysts considered highly undemocratic.
As was the case with the APC, while preparations for the convention gathered steam, the party hierarchy had sold impressions of a party that had exited from its past that was characterised by intrigues in the conduct of its affair.
Even, Jonathan had on occasions made pronouncements that tended to indicate that the party would conduct the exercise in line with standard practice. Though there were doubts in some quarters that his words could be matched with actions, there was visible air of enthusiasm among ordinary party members that the years of imposition in its fold were gone.
In fact, for these hapless members, there were hopes that internal democracy which was almost stifled would be reinvented. With this euphoria, estranged chieftains of the party who were chiseled out of its mainstream by the dictatorial tendencies of the time, began to nurse a dream of the party returning to the ideals of its forebears.
Hopes of a reformed party were however dashed when few hours to the convention, words filtered out that governor of the defunct Gongola State, Bamanga Tukur, Aso Rock candidate, had been selected for the job. His position was merely affirmed at the convention ground. Former Osun State governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, was made the national secretary.
Faces of disillusioned chieftains of the party at the convention ground, indicated that there were battles ahead. It did not take long for the PDP to go into a consuming feud that saw it losing to the APC in 2015.
There are fears that the APC may have unwittingly embarked on that sordid path.
