OPENING A NEW LEAF FOR THE APC

Abdullahi Adamu is taking decisive steps to reposition the party, contends Mu’azzam Kalam

Essentially, character is etched in granite and largely, people seldom change with time, positions or appointments. Indeed, these attainments merely reinforce the real person or bring certain traits to bolder relief. Focused, dexterous and broad-minded, Senator Abdullahi Adamu has always been result-driven and these qualities, whether as minister, governor or senator, have been consistent in his public service career. Positively, they are manifesting as the new All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairman. Barely a month in the saddle, he has been taking bold and decisive steps towards repositioning the party.

Paradoxically, APC has had its fair share of anxious moments, when party chieftains worked at cross purposes, trying to unite it.  Initially, the Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, inaugurated in June 2020, had a six-month mandate. However, through various extensions, the committee held sway for 18 months and at some point, the National Convention looked like a mirage. The party, like a tower of babble, became a house of confusion but ultimately, some APC chieftains moved to rescue it. In the end, common sense prevailed and the party is united again. Specifically, it conducted its National Convention and Senator Adamu emerged National Chairman on March 26. Indeed, four days later, Buni handed over to the new helmsman and broadly, the  chairman  spelt out his vision.

Since then, APC has bounced back to life as the party, almost at a frenetic pace, has gotten back its mojo. First, the Adamu-led National Working Committee, with a stroke of the executive pen, has granted financial waiver to all APC female aspirants. Indeed, this is beyond mere symbolism as it expresses greater commitment to gender mainstreaming. Before now, female aspirants were required to pay 50% of the nomination fees but this financial hurdle has been removed by the Adamu-leadership. Specifically, this ‘reverse discrimination’ tallies with APC’s manifesto on women empowerment. The document, amongst other things, seeks to protect women’s rights, guarantees adequate representation in appointments and ensures that the rights of women are protected.

However, beyond that palliative, the Adamu-led NWC has taken concrete steps to bring peace to APC. In fact, the Buni-led CECPC started the process but did not go very far two years ago. On August 23, 2020, the CECPC summoned the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi and the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, to the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja, where they were reconciled and asked to work for the party. Right now, the Adamu-led NWC has  directed that all appeal cases, according to reports, should be immediately withdrawn from court. Indeed, this path to political solution is a better option than litigation, given the disputed ward, local government and state congresses. Adamu, as chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee, had listened to the peoples’ grievances and as National Chairman, he is better placed to solve.

The APC, after the ward and local government congresses, was  beset with  internal crises in most of its state chapters. From Kwara, to Imo and Ogun States, including Zamfara, Lagos and Osun, as well as Enugu and Delta States, disagreements had metastasized to crisis. In fact, these state chapters held parallel congresses and each camp paraded ward and local government executives.

 In Kwara State, APC was divided between Alhaji Lai Mohammed,  the Minister of Information and Culture and  Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. In Ogun State, Governor Dapo Abiodun and his predecessor, Senator, Ibikunle Amosun, have factionalized the party. The feud, according to reports, dates back to 2019 when Amosun was lukewarm towards Abiodun’s aspiration and this frosty relationship has impinged on APC in the state. Similarly, there were disagreements between the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola and his successor, Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State. Perpetually, their supporters were at daggers-drawn, threatening to spill blood. Likewise, the crisis in Zamfara State has deepened, especially with Governor Bello Matawalle’s defection to APC. Besides, it is the same sad story in Delta State, where  the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo and the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege,  flexed  muscles. Similarly, the supporters of   Hope Uzodimma, the Imo State governor, and Senator  Rochas Okorocha, were at each other’s throats. 

However, the ward and local government congresses, in a manner of speaking, were mere dress rehearsals compared to the state congresses, where combatants deployed their full arsenals. Notably, violence erupted in at least 10 states as Osun, Ogun, Kwara and Niger States held parallel congresses. In Osun, the state congress degenerated into a free-for-all as thugs descended on the Oyetola-led camp, injuring two persons as a result. Similarly, a fiasco played out in Ogun and Kwara States, as Governors Abiodun and Abdulrazaq’s loyalists, locked horns with Senator Amosun and Lai Mohammed’s supporters.

In Lagos, there were three people claiming to be state chairmen at the congress. First, Mr Cornelius Ojelabi was elected, through voice vote, at Mobolaji Johnson Arena. However, another group christened Lagos4Lagos, held its own congress at Airport Hotel Ikeja and elected Sunday Ajayi as chairman. Likewise, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, the immediate past governor, led a faction which held its congress at Baptist Academy, Obanikoro area, to elect Mrs Beatrice Omotayo Tugbobo.

Significantly, the Abdullahi Adamu-led National Reconciliation Committee, toured most parts of the country, listened to all factions and made far reaching recommendations to the Buni-led CECPC. On January 30, the committee submitted its interim report and at that event, Senator Adamu noted that there is still work to be done. Reconciliation, according to him, ‘’is a work in progress’’ and he promised that the committee’s enduring recommendations will be contained in the final report. As National Chairman, he may have as well started implementing the recommendation in the final report.

Kalam writes from Kaduna