From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The immediate past Kano state Governor and National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC Abdullahi Umar Ganduje last week clocked one year in office amid uncertainties about his continued occupation of the exalted party position.
For Ganduje, it was an admixture of celebrations and apprehension even as several party stakeholders, political associates, friends, well-wishers, and families turned the party’s secretariat into a beehive of a celebratory hub.
New giant-sized banners, large posters, and billboards, identifying with, and felicitating him on his one year in office were conspicuously displayed inside and outside the Blantyre Street, Abuja, housing the headquarters of the party.
Arrangements had also been concluded for a symposium in the honour of the National Chairman
However, the celebratory mood of the former Kano state Governor and his associates was overshadowed by speculations that he was in his last days at the Buhari House national secretariat of the ruling party as National Chairman as President Bola Tinubu has reportedly okayed his replacement with someone from the Northcentral geopolitical zone where the position was originally zoned to. Ganduje took charge of the party last year following the forced resignation from the position, of former Nasarawa state Governor Abdullah Adamu. The former Kano Governor will allegedly be given a soft landing by President Tinubu in the guise of an ambassadorial posting.
Many of his supporters however, insist that removing him as the National Chairman of the APC at this time will be injurious to the party.
They note that Ganduje revitalized the party within one year in office and therefore should be left to continue the giant strides for the growth of the party.
“The former Kano State governor has done well in keeping the party peaceful and strongly united, in stabilising and making it more visible, both at the grassroots and at national levels.Under his dynamic leadership,many hitherto aggrieved and disgruntled party members and chieftains have returned and reunited with the party”, one of his supporters told Daily Sun.
“Under Ganduje’s watch, the ruling party has continued to harvest unexpected political heavyweights, massively decamping from various opposition parties to identify with the APC and this bears an eloquent testimony of his robust leadership qualities, he has achieved a lot through his tactful and subtle application of a sagacious internal resolution mechanism.
“The relative peace in the APC is also reflected in the convivial atmosphere in the party from the myriads of aggrieved party members and chieftains hitherto declaring war against each other. It is also replicated in the weekly meeting of the party’s national leadership, the National Working Committee (NWC), and the engagement of stakeholders.
“Ganduje has raised the bar of party administration in repositioning APC within one year he took charge to the point of becoming the envy of the opposition parties.
“Under him as the national chairman of the ruling party, credible e-registration of party members was reintroduced and launched. He has equally made a landmark in establishing Progressive Institute, the first of its kind in Nigeria’s political space”, he added.
The APC National Chairman who is facing corruption charges in Kano has also be credited with the regular payment of the salaries of secretariat staff and the deliberate involvement of previously disgruntled party members and chieftains in many party activities to carter for their wellbeing and welfare.
“Unlike their past sad experiences from previous administrations, many party faithful would not have really asked for more from Ganduje.
“With the applications of tested and trusted resolution mechanisms, the Ganduje-led national leadership has, to a large extent, restored internal party democracy by successfully organising two crucial party primary elections in Edo and Ondo States without a rift or escalating into a full-blown crisis”.Another supporter of the APC National Chairman told Daily Sun.
For some party stakeholders,Ganduje’s leadership is the best thing to have happened to the ruling party,which, according to them, had previously battled internecine leadership crisis.
In the words of Oliver Okpala, his Special Assistant on Public Enlightenment, “Ganduje is a magician and political miracle worker, stressing that he has actually repositioned the party in the past year”
Speaking to Daily Sun, Okpala further said: “He has redefined the party and brought absolute sanity in the party that members are more united now than ever. Under his leadership, the party now has a focus and direction.
“We can confirm that through the number of decampees from the opposition parties flocking into the APC since he took over the leadership of the party.
“Summarily, Ganduje has brought unity, sanity, cohesion, internal democracy and more importantly, returned the party to the people. Largely due to his leadership qualities, other political parties have virtually collapsed. There is no credible opposition party any longer. We have to give credit to whom it is due.
“His administrative acumen is unimaginable and sense of political decorum top notch. He came prepared and not even the distractions from his home state have affected him in any way. We are aware that all these distractions are emanating from Kano and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
“What I am assuring Nigerians is that the opposition against Ganduje will definitely fail. He left a monumental legacy in Kano as the governor that nobody can quash overnight no matter the level of conspiracy and animosity exhibited. He towers very tall as a figure to be reckoned with in Nigeria’s geopolitics”
The former Kano state Governor has lately passed through a burning furnace of criticisms and attacks from party members bent on having him removed from his exalted position.
To many, he lacks the credibility, trustworthiness, transparency, and limpidity to occupy the position, in the first place. They point to the corruption charges against him by the Kano state government to buttress their argument.
Apart from his own immediately constituency, the Northwest, since taking over from Abdullahi, the North Central stakeholders of the party have persistently charged at Ganduje for usurping their rightful position.
The APC National Chairman’s headache multiplied early this year when some party members from his ward pronounced him suspended on the strength of which a High court would later rule against him.
While he battled to surmount the surging turbulence from the North Central stakeholders and allegedly sponsored elements from his ward Ganduje was also faced with a proxy war with his former principal and and erstwhile godfather and ex Governor of the state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso as can be gleaned from the allegations of financial impropriety from the state government currently under litigation, and most recently the Emirate tussle he is deeply enmeshed in.
Ganduje is also recently linked to an alleged misappropriation of party funds from the presidency and governors budgeted for goodwill and to manage the recent nationwide protests.
His traducers within the party accuse him of deliberate failure to organise the statutory quarterly National Executive Committee (NEC) and Caucus meeting since assuming office where key decisions affecting the party are usually taken.
Former APC national vice chairman North West, Salihu Moh Lukman, has particularly been trenchant in taking Ganduje to the cleaners over perceived leadership failures.
In one of his series of condemnations of the emergence of Ganduje as the party’s boss, Lukman wrote: “It is quite depressing that President Bola Tinubu could marginalise the people of North-Central in the manner he did without leaders in the North showing any concern. In addition to marginalising the people of North-Central, he imposed Ganduje from North-West as National Chairman of APC.”
“Out of all the political leaders of North-West, he finds no one who is better qualified but Ganduje with all the baggage of corruption allegations and poor political relations with other leaders in Kano State, including Kano State government.
“Partly, because of the poor relations between Ganduje and Kano State government, the revered Kano Emirate Council has been plunged into an avoidable crisis with no end in sight and President Tinubu is pretending to be uninterested”
The litany of relentless litigations and criticisms on him, especially from his home state, notwithstanding, his loyalists insist President Tinubu still has unwavering confidence in the APC National Chairman. “I can authoritatively tell you that the presidency is not favourably disposed to allowing Ganduju to bite the dust”, one of his loyalist from the Northeast who craved anonymity told Daily Sun.
“Please, disregard the malicious speculations that tend to suggest that the National Chairman may have lost the support and protection of President Bola Tinubu and the presidency, resulting in the rumoured resolve to pull the rugs under his feet and reward him with ambassadorial position, it is not true”, he added
Notedly, what started as rumours, gradually gained traction with the NWC’s admittance of a proposed national caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings next month and perhaps a non-elective convention sometime in November or December.
Before the confirmation by the NWC, there were reports that President Tinubu had approved next month for caucus and NEC meetings of the party acting on the correspondence earlier transmitted to him by the Ganduje, appealing to him to approve a date for the meetings.
Before then, speculations were already rife that his future not only precariously hung in the balance during the non-elective convention but that decision had also been taken to ease him out and reward him with diplomatic posting.
Reacting, the NWC, last week, confirmed the date for the proposed caucus and NEC meetings but dismissed the insinuation about any arrangement to remove Ganduje and send him on foreign mission as an ambassador.
APC Deputy National Secretary, Festus Fuanter, who clarified the issue said: “The media are correct about our caucus and NEC meetings. It is all over social media. So, we agreed in our meeting that September 11 and 12 would be for our caucus and NEC meetings, subject to the approval of the President. Essentially, we have agreed on a date for the NEC meeting preceded by the Caucus meeting.”
Denying the reports on Ganduje’s uncertain future and his proposed ambassadorial posting, the ruling party’s leadership simply noted: “As to whether our national chairman will be given an ambassadorial appointment, I am unaware of that. We will wait to see.”
However, while dismissing the speculations over Ganduje’s future totally, a member of the NWC told Daily Sun in confidence that there is no iota of truth in such rumour, arguing that it would even be counterproductive to President Tinubu who appointed him.
“I am surprised that people are falling into those baseless rumours. One thing you should know is that Ganduje’s appointment is very strategic. Mr. President has enjoyed full loyalty from Ganduje and he is also aware that he may not get the same loyalty from whoever might be his replacement.
“Don’t forget that the politics of the 2027 presidential election has already started and the President is also aware of what the sensitive and strategic position Ganduje is currently occupying in the North West would bring into his vote bank.
“Removing Ganduje means risking the possibility of not getting the required 25 per cent votes in most states in the North West geopolitical zone, the most populated zone in the country. I can confirm that our chairman is not looking ruffled or losing any sleep on this speculation over his future. He is aware that President Tinubu cannot think it because he may not get the kind of loyalty he is getting from Ganduje from the new person,” the NWC argued.
However, resting the curiosity of those still harbouring any iota of doubt over Ganduje’s future, Okpala also dismissed the rumours with a wave of the hand, insisting that his principal’s position is not under any form of threat.
“As you rightly put it, the rumour about Ganduje’s future is still in the realms of speculation. And there is no credible institution or organisation that works with speculations. As far as we are concerned, the position of the NWC, presented, last week, by the deputy national secretary, that no correspondence for such a high-level issue has been communicated to the NWC, the organ that runs the party.
“It is still a speculation since there is no official confirmation on ground. I want to also say that the rumour about his mismanagement of funds allegedly released by the presidency to manage the nationwide protest is also a speculation.
“There is no concrete credible evidence on ground to confirm that he mismanaged the funds given to him. Please, let us not work on speculation. We have to wait until it is authenticated by the source that released such a fund,” Okpala emphasised.
Judging by the slippery and delicate nature of his position, the push and shove to decide Ganduje’s future as APC national chairman, currently hangs dangerously in the balance and only events in the next few weeks and months will determine his political fate.