Senator Abdullahi Adamu was forced to resign his position as the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday, July 16, 2023 by the powers that are loyal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This was followed by the resignation of the National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore, who was denied entry into the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting last Monday morning.
The unceremonious removal of Adamu and Omisore had followed a consistent pattern of forcing out the National Chairmen of the APC since inception.
Adamu joined the former chairmen of the party – John Odigie-Oyegun; Adams Oshiomhole and Mai Mala Buni – who were all forced out of office unceremoniously.
THEWILL recalls that Adamu emerged as APC national chairman during a national convention organised by the Buni-led caretaker committee at the Eagles Square in Abuja in March, 2022. He was Buhari’s preferred candidate and all other aspirants for the position of national chairman were asked to step down for him.
But Adamu’s chance of finishing his first tenure of four years in office without hitches was threatened by two factors: He did not support Tinubu during the last presidential primary of the party. He supported the then Senate President , Senator Ahmad Lawan. Secondly , he was consistently and openly attacked by the National Vice Chairman(North-West) of the party, Salihu Mohammed Lukman, who said Adamu must step aside for a Christian to take over his office.
Lukman had argued that there was no equity, fairness and justice as President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima and Adamu, the party’s national chairman, are all Muslims.
APC as a mega party was formed in February 2013 with the main agenda of wresting power from the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and it came into existence as a result of a merger of many political parties, which collapsed their structures.
The political parties that collapsed their structures to form the APC were the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a breakaway faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP).
In the last 10 years, the APC has had five national chairmen and most of them were disgraced out of office or they left office in an unceremonious way.
Chief Bisi Akande was the pioneer National Chairman of the APC and the decision to appoint Akande as the interim national chairman of the party was arrived at in Abuja during a closed-door meeting of stakeholders which was well-attended by politicians across the coalition parties.
The party had informed journalists shortly after the meeting that the appointment was part of the requirements for the registration of the new party by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
It was said that the appointment of Akande was a consensus decision among the merging parties. The National Secretary of the ANPP, Tijani Tumsa, was appointed as the interim national secretary.
THEWILL recalls that INEC had directed the merging parties to put in place a national executive as part of the registration procedure.
After registration, the APC jettisoned its Interim National Chairman, Akande and former Governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, was appointed as the first substantive national chairman of the party.
Odigie-Oyegun’s emergence was as a result of intense politicking and negotiations as the permutation was that the South-West geo-political zone where Akande comes from would produce the vice president and the North would produce the presidential candidate. His nomination was subsequently ratified by delegates at the first national convention of the party held at the Eagles Square in June 2014 in Abuja.
Odigie-Oyegun’s candidature was promoted by the national leader of the party and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, who at that time was seeking either the party’s presidential or vice presidential ticket and who believed that Akande as National Chairman, being from the South-West, would block his ambition.
And after serving for only one term and leading the party in 2015 to defeat the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Odigie-Oyegun later had a frosty relationship with Tinubu. This led to acrimony in the party’s leadership.
The APC initially wanted to extend the tenure of the Odigie-Oyegun-led executive by a year, but because of a plan to scheme him out of office, it later resolved to go ahead with elective congresses and conventions.
Buhari and most of the party leaders, including some state governors, subsequently endorsed Adams Oshiomole for the slot.
Odigie-Oyegun did not initially indicate openly if he would be re-contesting the national chairmanship slot, but he later indicated interest in contesting the national chairmanship position at the convention scheduled for June 23, 2018.
However, a few days before the convention, he withdrew from the race, having seen the gang-up against him and in favour of Oshiomhole.
In the withdrawal letter, he said, “Even though I had the desire to re-contest as National Chairman of the party, I have decided that it is ultimately in the best interest of the party for me to withdraw from the race”.
“I have taken this decision without prejudice to my commitment to the party in helping to solve some of the subsisting and emerging difficult issues and my ability to continue to provide necessary leadership,”.
“However, I believe that the party faces difficult days ahead and all critical stakeholders in its leadership would be required to bind together for a common purpose. Therefore, the less contentious our national convention is the better for the party.
“I have always sought to be part of solving the problem of APC; I do not intend to be a part of the problem for APC to solve. It is for this reason that l hereby declared that I will not be seeking re-election as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, (APC).
He said that if the earlier decision of extension of tenure for executives was sustained, the party would probably have achieved its objective, but it would amount to “postponing the evil day.”
He had added, “Once the decision was taken by National Executive Committee (NEC) to proceed with the congresses and the convention to elect new officers of the party across the country and at the national level, it would appear natural that I should seek re-election.
“Not only is it within my constitutional right to do so, I believe that my experience and ‘familiarity’ with some of the most important issues that must be at the top of our political agenda put me in the best position to lead the party into another election and for another four years. I also believe that my ability to constantly seek the middle ground, and a win-win situation for all, is quite critical for a young party faced with our kind of challenges.
“Even without declaring my interest, several top stakeholders of our party at all levels began to rally in my support. I believe that these loyal party men and women instinctively chose to support me, not because I am John Oyegun but because they recognised what was in the best interest of the party at this point in time.”
He said since the convention planning committee had invited interested aspirants to obtain forms to contest into the various national positions in the party for the June 23 convention, “it was necessary for him to state his position”.
He said that he consulted widely with his family, friends and associates before taking the decision to withdraw.
Adams Oshiomhole had emerged as the next national chairman of the party. The former governor of Edo State had the support of President Muhammadu Buhari and other top leaders of the party.
Oshiomhole’s tenure was plagued with internal crisis and this led to his sack and that of other members of the National Working Committee (NWC).
The Oshiomhole-led NWC was sacked by the NEC on June 25, 2020, over an alleged abuse of office and failure to unite the various interests in the party.
Oshiomhole and his team had just spent two of their four-year term when an existential crisis hit the party over the control of its structure.
A series of litigations led to Oshiomhole’s suspension via a court order and this was followed by several members of the NWC laying claim to the chairmanship seat.
Sensing the danger this could pose for the survival of the party, President Buhari acceded to a request by the then factional national chairman of the party, Victor Giadom, to convene a NEC meeting, where the decision to sack Oshiomhole was finalised.
Mai Buni was appointed to pilot the affairs of the APC after the NWC led by Adams Oshiomhole was dissolved. His appointment was due to the urgency to address the crisis in the party.
One of the pertinent agenda for the Buni committee was to plan and hold a convention as “soon as possible”.
The committee was first given six months, beginning from June 25, 2020, within which to organise an elective national convention that would produce a new executive, but the committee’s tenure was later extended in December, 2020.
At the expiration of the six months, President Buhari had single-handedly extended the timeline of the committee from December 2020 indefinitely to ensure completion of reconciliation in the party.
Buni-led NWC had serious problems as there were protests by party members over its delay in organising the national convention.
Mala Buni was outside the country on medical grounds when he was unceremoniously removed.
Many Nigerians were shocked when reports of the replacement of Buni by another governor surfaced at a Monday meeting. Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State, also a member of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), was said to have been appointed on Sunday night to steer the affairs of the ruling party.
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
