It is no longer news that the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, 76-year old, Senator Abdullahi Adamu has been eased out of that position. He was said to have resigned his appointment in a letter nobody seems to have sighted up until now. But, to the extent that there is nobody saying anything
It is no longer news that the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, 76-year old, Senator Abdullahi Adamu has been eased out of that position. He was said to have resigned his appointment in a letter nobody seems to have sighted up until now. But, to the extent that there is nobody saying anything to the contrary, it can be safely assumed to be a fait accompli. It was a case of Hobson’ choice of either accepting what is offered or nothing at all.
A legion of reasons has been attributed to his resignation along with that of Senator Iyiola Omisore, the National Secretary. The National Working Committee’s announcement did not also adduce reasons for that development, but there is ample evidence of both remote and immediate occurrences to suggest that it may have to do with issues of who controls the soul of the party, of loyalty, party administration and finances. There is in the middle of it all, a contentious auditor’s report and there are insinuations that monies collected by the party towards its various primaries, amounting to about N32 billion may have been utilized without carrying the other members of the NWC along. Could they have bitten more than they can chew?
Remotely, Senator Adamu’s lack of support for President Tinubu during the APC presidential primaries in 2022 and his recent utterances against the nominations of principal officers for the National Assembly may have jolted President Tinubu and his loyalists. It was also alleged that the National Chairman even refused to join the meeting of class ’99 governors with the President recently. He is a member of that class having been elected Governor of Nasarawa state in 1999. Additionally, there are those who blame the APC loss in the presidential election in Nasarawa state on the National Chairman, ignoring that there was a Tsunami that swept across Nigeria at that time. Even President Tinubu lost Lagos state to the Labour Party.
Chief Bisi Akande, APC Interim Chairman
But the APC has had a chequered history of leadership in its short life-span. There’s been a high turnover of APC headship. Now dethroned Senator Abdullahi Adamu was the fifth Chairman of the party to be eased out in its one decade of existence. Obviously, with success comes haters and those who may feel threatened by that success. That seems to play out generally in Nigeria’s political landscape. As it was in the PDP, when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo eased out Chief Solomon Lar as Party Chairman shortly after being sworn in as President, so it is with President Tinubu who may seem to have eased out his chaperone to the presidency from office albeit unceremoniously.
The APC was founded on 6 February 2013 from a merger of Nigeria’s three largest opposition parties the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) along with a breakaway faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the new PDP – a faction of members of the PDP. But registration by INEC happened on 31 July 2013 and subsequently the operating licenses of the three major parties that merged (the ACN, CPC and ANPP) were withdrawn. Chief Bisi Akande, former Osun state governor was the first interim Chairman of the All Progressives Congress.
Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Foundation Chairman
But the first democratically elected Chairman of the party was Chief Odigie-Oyegun, who was elected on 13 June 2014. He worked like a charm and led the then opposition APC and Muhammad Buhari to victory in 2015 after defeating ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP and the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. But soon after, he came under intense criticism from various factions of the party including some powerful groups, notably the APC Governors for his handling of the party primaries calling for his removal from office as national chairman of the party. His problem with the party peaked in 2017 and was subsequently eased out.
Comrade Adams Oshiomole, former APC Chairman
Then, the chair turned to Comrade Adam’s Oshiomole from same state as Odigie-Oyegun to continue the music. Chief Odigie-Oyegun was forced to step down from office of the National Chairman of the party by persuasion not to seek re-election for a second term at the 2018 elective national convention of the party thereby leaving Adams Oshiomhole his opponent the sole candidate for the position. If he didn’t hearken to the persuasion he would have been disgraced at the polls.
However, the APC faced more internal crises as disputes over the leadership of National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole dominated party internal affairs in 2019 and 2020, leading to Oshiomhole quarrelling with some of the APC governors during the 2019 campaigns and its aftermath. But, quite unexpectedly, in November 2019, from his ward came a salvo suspending him for spurious reasons. The state APC in Oshiomhole’s home-state, endorsed the suspension and argued that a suspended member could not serve in a leadership position. This sounded unusual because the suspension of such high-ranking officers is expected to be ratified by the NEC of the party, but with success comes failure and haters. The matter was taken to court and a High Court ratified the suspension of Oshiomhole as Chairman in March 2020 based on his membership suspension. He fell and was swept away.
His exit triggered a period of brief “lawlessness”, confusion and power struggle with two members of the party’s NWC laying claim to its leadership due to a spate of vacancies arising from officers who have gone to contest for positions in their different states. Mr. Victor Gaidom, the Deputy Secretary and Late Abiola Ajimobi who was appointed Deputy National Chairman (South zone) from his sick bed were laying claim to the position of Acting National Chairman. Rather than allow the drama of the absurd to deepen, the National Executive Council opted to dissolve the National Working Committee and set up the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) which was to midwife the convention and produce new officers.
Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State CECPC Chairman
The CECPC was led by former Party Secretary and then Governor of Yobe State Mai Mala Buni and former Senator John James Akpan Udo-Edehe becoming National Secretary. The caretaker committee was meant to serve for a few months before a national convention was held with elections for permanent leadership but the committee’s term was extended and extended until early 2022 with lawsuits and internal attempts to remove the CECPC not succeeding. There was party infighting and an attempted “palace coup” to replace Buni with Governor of Niger State Abubakar Sani Bello while Buni was abroad for medical attention, the national convention was finally held on 26 March 2022.
That convention which was perceived as stage-managed to produce officers through a consensus arrangement gave birth to Senator Abdullahi Adamu became National Chairman and Senator Iyiola Omisore became National Secretary while Senator Abubakar Kyari became Deputy National Chairman (North zone). The game of musical chairs continues as Senator Abubakar Kyari from Borno state is now in the saddle and has announced the postponement of the National Caucus meeting and the NEC meeting which were both to hold this week. Those two meetings will determine when the convention will hold to replace the vacancies in the National Working Committee and elect a new Chairman. How soon this would be is yet to seen.
