Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been called upon to quit immediately by a group of party delegates.
Before the APC presidential primary on Tuesday, Adamu announced Senate President Ahmad Lawan as the “consensus candidate.”
Members of the NWC, however, were offended by the statement, dismissing it as “your personal opinion.”
Many people reacted by saying Adamu’s actions demonstrated that he is working too hard for “a small cabal including a few shadowy but influential figures at the Presidency whose stock in trade is to drop the name of President Buhari, who is a worthy and highly principled leader, in pursuit of their nefarious agenda.”
They claim Adamu is now a “clear and present danger to the APC’s continued existence as a corporate entity,” capable of undermining Nigeria’s democratic processes.
“By this show of shame, Adamu has clearly shown that he is not fit to preside over APC. It is shameful that a man rehabilitated from political penury in March by President Buhari who made him National Chairman by consensus can now be trying to destroy the same party within three months,” said Mohammed Argugu, a delegate from Sokoto State.
“I no longer have confidence in Adamu to continue as APC Chairman,” remarked another delegate from Niger State, Ms. Bintu Ibrahim.
Dr. Salihu Lukman, APC’s National Vice Chairman for the North-West, blasted Adamu’s “autocratic leadership style” by making a major public declaration in the party’s name without consulting fellow NWC members.
In addition, Alhaji Buba Galadima, the self-styled “leader of the reformed APC,” labelled Adamu as a “political snake” who once stabbed President Buhari in the back when serving as Governor of Nasarawa State in 2003.
Galadima, now estranged from Buhari, said “If President Buhari is someone who remembers past evil against, he would not even be shaking hands with Adamu today, much less make him APC Chairman given the very wicked thing he did against Buhari while Buhari was the presidential flagbearer of ANPP and Adamu the sitting governor of Nasarawa.”
Senator Iyiola Omisore, the National Secretary, reportedly scolded the chairman “for treating the rest of us like children” at a NWC meeting over the weekend, according to a source.
At today’s NWC meeting, Adamu defended his position as the result of “my consultation with President Muhammadu Buhari,” according to several sources.
According to a statement by President Buhari’s spokeswoman, Shehu Garba, President Buhari has denied ever designating Lawan as a “consensus candidate.”
It was also said that the President was furious when he learned that Adamu had declared Lawan in his name.
A declaration by 13 northerner APC governors, confirming their prior determination that power should pass to the south after President Buhari’s term ends next year, further revealed Adamu’s lying.
Following a closed-door meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa today, the northern governors spoke.
Inside the Villa’s Press Gallery, Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State, flanked by other northern governors, said: “The majority of us APC governors from the north have agreed that power should go to the south after President Buhari.” This is the position that we support.”
Governor Buni of Yobe State, the party’s immediate past Acting National Chairman, reiterated El Rufai’s sentiments, saying, “That is the position of we northern governors.”
Lawan, Adamu’s own “consensus candidate,” comes from Yobe State, which is ironic.
