Can Adamu and APC Mend Latest Cracks?

Since the All Progressives Congress successfully managed the dispute arising from the failed attempt to anoint the former President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, as the consensus presidential candidate of the party, internal wranglings in the ruling party have persisted. Ejiofor Alike writes that the public pronouncement by the party’s National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, that the National Working Committee had no hand in the emergence of the principal officers announced by the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, is another indication that the crisis of confidence in the party has not been resolved

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, had stirred a controversy in June 2022 when he unilaterally announced a former President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, as the consensus presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general election.

Adamu reportedly announced the consensus decision during the meeting of the party’s national working committee (NWC), in Abuja.

However, signs of cracks in the ruling party emerged when its National Organising Secretary, Sulaiman Argungu, dismissed Adamu’s claim, maintaining that it did not represent the position of the NWC.

“It’s just an information he gave us. All of us are entitled to our opinion. We are all democrats. This decision was never taken by the NWC, but an information given to the NWC,” Argungu reportedly told journalists in Abuja.

The APC governors from the North had also rejected the choice of Lawan and told the then President Muhammadu Buhari that power should rotate to the southern part of the country.

The then Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, former Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, who revealed the position of the governors had also told journalists that Buhari informed the northern governors that he did not anointed any candidate.

Despite Adamu’s claim that the decision to anoint Lawan was taken in consultation the Buhari, the backlash that followed the announcement forced Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, to clarify that the former president had “no preferred candidate,” nor an “anointed” one.

With the rejection of Lawan as consensus candidate, the party held a presidential primary where President Bola Tinubu emerged as its presidential candidate in a keenly contested election.

Since the failed attempt to impose Lawan on the party, it is believed that there is no love lost between Tinubu’s core loyalists and Adamu’s allies in the party, despite their public posturing that all is well within the party.

At the peak of the alleged cold war between Tinubu’s loyalists and Adamu’s allies in September 2022, Tinubu had denied any rift with the former Nasarawa State governor, insisting that he was not nursing grudges against the APC national chairman.

According to him, it was rare to see big masquerades dance in a cage instead of the market square.

Addressing journalists at the APC’s national secretariat, Tinubu who admitted reading his alleged cold war with Adamu in newspapers, claimed that it was a rumour manufactured to suit a particular purpose.

He said: “To the rumour manufacturers, I read in some papers about a disagreement between myself and the chairman and that was a very big lie. They didn’t know that we have come a long way. The big masquerade dance is not in the cage but in the market square. 

“And that is what Adamu used to be, full of wisdom; we were governors together, before God put us together on this project again. He is going to be the chairman of the party for me to become the president of Nigeria. And I am very confident of that,” Tinubu reportedly said.

Despite Tinubu’s claim, his strategists have allegedly continued to view Adamu’s actions with suspicion.

The crisis of confidence had also manifested when APC leadership and Tinubu anointed Akpabio and Abbas as their consensus candidates for the positions of Senate president and Speaker, respectively.

The former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, who was challenging Akpabio was believed to be enjoying the support of a section of the leadership of the party, who was allegedly opposed to Tinubu’s interest.

Yari had insisted that the position of the Senate President should be zoned to the North.

When Abbas and other lawmakers-elect visited Vice President Kashim Shettima before their inauguration, the vice president had addressed Abbas as “by God’s grace, our Speaker-in-waiting.”

Shettima had also referred to his anointed deputy, Benjamin Kalu, as “our Deputy Speaker-in-waiting.”

However, when Abbas and his team visited Adamu, he reportedly warned Abbas’ supporters to stop addressing the Kaduna lawmaker as the incoming Speaker.

Adamu’s statement had angered the National Vice Chairman of the APC for North-west, Dr. Salihu Lukman, who alleged that the leadership of the APC was subtly working against Tinubu on the zoning arrangement adopted by the party.

In a press statement, Lukman said: “The same conservative bloc is now spewing up hardcore ethnic northern arguments against the zoning decisions approved by the NWC following the outcome of consultations between Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC team with President Tinubu.”

Though APC successfully wriggled out of the dispute with the successful emergence of Akpabio and Abbas as the presiding officers of the National Assembly, Adamu’s recent claim that the party’s NWC had no hand in the emergence of the principal officers announced by the two presiding officers was an indication that the crisis of confidence has not been resolved.

Akpabio and Abbas had recently unveiled the names of principal officers in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Tinubu was believed to be behind the announcement of the principal officers who are made up of his loyalists.

But in a swift reaction, Adamu told the APC governors under the aegis of the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) that the party’s NWC heard the announcement as a rumour.

“So, whatever announcement is made, either by President of the Senate, Deputy Senate President, Speaker or Deputy Speaker, is not from this secretariat,” Adamu reportedly said.

However, addressing journalists after the APC governors’ meeting with the NWC, the Chairman of PGF and Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma, declared that Adamu did not say that Akpabio and Abbas were on their own.

Uzodimma said: “Chairman never said that they are on their own. The National Assembly leadership belongs to our great party and they are members of our party; they are members of our party and they enjoy our support.

“If there is any way there is a communication gap anywhere, we will make it up and we have our internal mechanism of resolving such things. The National Assembly leadership enjoys the support of Progressive Governors Forum and that of our party. We don’t have any problem at all.”

The events of the next few weeks will reveal if Adamu and the APC will be able to mend the latest cracks.