Abdullahi Adamu: The Chairman who oversaw election of APC’s second president

Senator Abdullahi Adamu is a politician, lawyer and civil engineer with sterling leadership qualities that have endeared him to many Nigerians across ethnic and religious divides. These outstanding leadership traits have also seen him called to various national assignments to which he had given his best shots always.

Indeed, his emergence as Chairman of the APC was epochal, coming in the lead to the 2023 general election where President Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged winner and was declared president.

His political career began early in 1977 when he was elected into the Constituent Assembly, a body that drafted the country’s Second Republic Constitution of 1979, from where he became a pioneer member of the National Movement that later metamorphosed into the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

He was the first Secretary of the party from December 1978 and later Chairman of the party in Plateau State from 1982 up to 1983 when the military ended the Second Republic. He also served as a member of the National Executive Committee of the party.

Upon the lifting of the ban on politics, he became a member of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) and was one of its leading gubernatorial contenders in Nasarawa State. His efforts did not materialize, as the party, alongside others, was dissolved at the death of General Sani Abacha.

At the onset of the current political dispensation in 1999, Adamu emerged as the Governor of Nasarawa State.

At the gubernatorial elections held throughout the country on April 19, 2003, Alhaji Adamu was elected for a second term of four years as the Governor of Nasarawa State. He thus becomes the first person in the history of the state to be elected by popular mandate of the people to serve twice in the exalted position of governor.

However, in the months prior to the 2022 National Convention of the APC, Senator Adamu, a two- term former governor of Nasarawa State, was called upon by the party leadership to head its National Reconciliation Committee. That appointment afforded him the opportunity to interact with several stakeholders in the effort to resolving lingering grievances that had splintered the party and raised doubts about its preparedness to win the presidential elections.

But in all these national calls to duty, Senator Adamu did creditably well in the reconciliation assignment having been able, alongside other members, to resolve much of the bickering in the party then, as it also afforded him the opportunity to have a hand-on feel of the challenges facing the party in various states of the federation, while further endearing himself to party members across the nation.

For a job well done to the satisfaction of most party members, and with the National Convention of the APC only months away, Senator Adamu began his nationwide consultation on his interest to assume the Chairmanship of the party and received overwhelming response from stakeholders, including former President Muhammadu Buhari and National Leader of the APC , now President Bola Tinubu.

He formally declared interest in the office of National Chairman by mid-February, 2022 and at the National Convention of the party held at the Eagle Square in Abuja on March 26, 2022, Senator Adamu, was unanimously elected as the National Chairman of the APC.

Coming into the office with a wealth of political experience spanning over 50 years during which he served in all branches and strata of government, Senator Adamu’s vision was to make the APC a smart and responsive political party that is able to fulfill the aspirations and hopes of all Nigerians.

On account of his very progressive ideology, Senator (Dr.) Abdullahi Adamu, CON, (Turakin Keffi), who is popularly called The Bridge, made friends across the six geopolitical zones and leveraged such networks to strengthen party discipline and supremacy during his tenure as chairman.

Early Life

Born on July 23, 1946 at Keffi, Nasarawa State, Adamu started his education at the age of 7 in 1953 at Abdu Zanga Primary School, Keffi and completed at the Laminga Senior Primary School, Nasarawa in 1959.

After his Post-Primary education at the Government Secondary School, Makurdi from 1960-1962, he proceeded to Government Technical College Bukuru from 1962-1965.

He had a short employment after the Diploma course with the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (1967/70) as a maintenance supervisor. He later took up another appointment with the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation (NNDC) Kaduna, 1972. Thereafter, he moved to the private sector where in 1973 he became a Consultant Area Manager with AEK, a firm of consultants in the Henry Fajimirokum group of Companies.

In 1974, he was appointed Project Manager for the construction of Durbar Hotel and Murtala Mohammed Square, Kaduna, edifices which were put in place for the World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC).

In 1975, he was appointed the Executive Secretary of BEPCO (Benue/Plateau Construction Company) by the Benue/Plateau State Government. While in BEPCO, he was also appointed a member of the Board of Directors of the NTA Zone D in 1976 and served up to 1978. Between 1980-83, he served as the Chairman of Benue Cement Company, Gboko.

At the demise of the 2nd Republic in 1983, he went back to the academics and in 1987 enrolled in the pioneer class of the part-time Law degree of the University of Jos. By 1992, he added yet another feather to his academic cap with an LLB (Hons) from the University of Jos. He enrolled into Nigeria Law School, Lagos, where he obtained his BL and was called to the Nigerian bar in December 1993 as a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

He was appointed a member of the National Constitutional Conference convened by the General Sani Abacha Administration for the drafting of a constitution for a new democratic government (the Fourth Republic). AlhajiAdamu participated in the writing of the Nigerian Constitution twice (1979 & 1999 constitutions).

In March 1995, he was appointed a Minister of State in the Ministry of Works and Housing of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where he served up to November 17, 1997. During his tenure, he actively participated in the UN-sponsored programme for urban housing, the environment and sustainable development. He led the Nigeria delegation to all the Habitat Preparatory conferences at the United Nations and the main Habitat II conference in Istanbul, Turkey, in June/July 1996. He was in 1996 elected Chairman of Shelter Afrique (an OAU Umbrella for housing development in Africa). He represented Nigeria at the United Nations heads of state and government conference to review the charter of the Earth Summit in June1997 in New York.

Senator Adamu has been honoured with the keys to the cities of Harlem in New York, 1981; Hamburg in Germany, 1982; Soweto in South Africa, 1995 and the Plaque of Los Angeles in USA, 2000 by the Los Angeles County Council.