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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
In the perception of many party members, chieftains, stakeholders, and the national secretariat staff of the All Progressives Congress (APC), there is a question mark on the leadership style of the ruling party’s national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
Specifically, for most of the Chairmanship aspirants during the party’s elective National Convention in March this year, Adamu came through the back door to wrest the position from them.
To many of them, though how he emerged the party’s chairman is now history but they will not forget in a hurry that while they spent their scarce resources and precious time on consultations, visits to all the major and minor stakeholders from the grassroots to the zonal and national levels, Adamu patiently waited to take advantage of the efforts of the stakeholders.
He did not only succeed in seizing the ticket without dissipating so much energy and deploying resources but also left the main aspirants to nurse the wounds of their aborted ambition and financial losses in tears, sorrow, and pains. And if actually they have forgiven Adamu, it is yet to reflect in the level of their commitment and participation in party activities ever since then.
To add salt to their already painful wounds, Adamu is yet to carry out the presidential directive to refund the expenses of the aspirants that voluntarily stepped down; especially the funds they spent to purchase the expression of interest and nomination forms, almost five months after the elective convention.
The victims have petitioned relevant authorities, threatened physical showdown through protest and even legal action to compel their party’s boss to honour the directives from President Muhammadu Buhari and the gentleman agreement but they all fell on Adamu’s deaf ears to date.
The former Nasarawa State Governor is also in the bad books of the party members drafted into committees to carry out certain responsibilities during the elective convention and the all-important party’s presidential primary.
Daily Sun gathered that he has bluntly refused to respect the agreement of settling their financial obligation despite the heavy financial war chest the party raked in through the sale of forms and other sources. And to date, those involved are still threatening fire and brimstone without getting any desired attention and result from their party’s boss.
Also on the receiving end of what they call Adamu’s draconian leadership style are members of the national leadership, the National Working Committee (NWC). From the inaugural meeting with members of the then newly-elected national leadership on assumption of office, Adamu made it abundantly clear that he won’t tolerate any disobedient member of the NWC.
“As for those of you who just received your certificates just like me, I have told you during our first committee meeting that I am a team player. As much as possible, I want to carry everybody along but to work with me not because I am the best; you have to be loyal.
“That you are loyal to me is not loyalty to me as a person but loyalty to the party. You have to recognize the authority of the party in all that we do and the interest of the party, which is paramount,” he had warned them.
The crisis over Adamu’s leadership style almost boiled over during the eve of the party’s presidential primary when he openly disagreed with the members of his leadership over the choice of the party’s candidate.
While he autocratically claimed and forcefully announced to them that President Buhari has endorsed Senate President, Ahmad Lawan as the consensus candidate, his lieutenants, in a chat with newsmen, immediately opposed him openly.
Confronting him and denying that the NWC ever endorsed Senator Lawan as a consensus candidate for the 2023 election, the National Organising Secretary, Sulaiman Arugugun, said: “we were fully briefed by our national chairman. And he told us that Lawan is our consensus candidate for the APC presidential candidate.
“The endorsement of Lawan was the information he gave us but it was not an issue deliberated on the floors of the NWC. It was just information he gave us and all of us are entitled to our opinions as democrats.
“The NWC is in agreement with the resolution of the 11 Northern governors that the presidency must shift to the South in 2023 after the tenure of President Buhari. The decision to support a power shift to the South is in the best interest of the country,” Argungu, flanked by almost all the NWC members, had announced to newsmen at the party’s headquarters in Abuja on the eve of the presidential primary.
Adamu was eventually pressured to submission, resulting in all the presidential aspirants going into the open contest when the consensus arrangement option collapsed as a hard sell.
Recall that in the build up to the presidential primary, Adamu had entered into the bad book of the now presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, when he threatened to unleash sanctions on the former Lagos State governor over his unguarded utterances against President Buhari in his Ogun State popular outburst.
He said: “He went as far as saying how Buhari went to him, citing instances of even prostrating in tears, begging him to endorse and support him for the presidency. His utterances were very insulting. It is unbecoming of a person of that standing to do what he did to the sitting President, produced by the votes of the APC.
“It is amazing how a fellow APC person would make that kind of comment in that kind of circumstances about the President. We take exception to this. It has shown that he does not show any appreciable level of respect for the office of Mr. President.
“Therefore, we want to make it public that we are saddened by what we saw in the video, and we condemn it in the strongest of terms. We do hope that he would never say such a thing again. Yes, we saw some parts of a retraction but that effort was not adequate. It is not sincere and in-depth enough. It didn’t wipe off the impression the event left in our minds.
“He said he has the greatest respect for the President. What he said was not an apology. It is just like trying to retract and say I didn’t mean this. It is a problem of misinterpretation. It is not regret. If there is a need to penalize any member of the party, not just Tinubu, anybody, we will bring him to book as we watch events unfold.” Many believe it strained his relationship with the party’s presidential candidate to date.
The gulf between Adamu and the party’s leadership had continued to widen, resulting in some NWC members openly moving against him. They had warned that henceforth, any violation of the party’s constitution would be considered as illegitimate and an infringement on the jurisdictional scope of the NWC.
In a statement titled, “APC and the need for vigilance: Urgent call for intervention”, jointly signed by the National Vice Chairmen, North-West and South-West, Salihu Lukman and Isaacs Kekemeke, respectively, the NWC members lamented that Adamu had unilaterally taken critical decisions about the affairs of the party just few months into its lifespan.
“Under Adamu-led APC, NWC, the organ vested with the power of managing the day-to-day affairs, including implementing decisions of the National Executive Committee (NEC), as provided in Article 13.4 of APC Constitution, has been rendered redundant.
“Adamu takes decisions unilaterally. When it suits him, he invokes the name of our leader, President Buhari to blackmail NWC members into accepting his decisions. Every effort to get him to respect the authority of the NWC has proven very difficult, if not impossible. NEC’s donation of its powers was to NWC not to the National Chairman or any individual,” they warned.
Adamu did not also spare the secretariat staff. There are endless complaints and grumblings over his failure to meet up their contractual financial obligations. Their perception is understandable. Apart from monthly salary payments gradually becoming epileptic, the usual enthusiasm and convivial atmosphere around the national secretariat that usually translates into tangible rewards are now in complete oblivion.
For the first time in the history of the leadership of the ruling party, the secretariat staff now leave office in droves while the national chairman is still in his office. The level of disaffection has become so worrisome. Most of the staff complain endlessly of their discomfort with him for constantly embarrassing them with interrogations of their status as secretariat staff each time their path crossed.
“We have really entered a one-chance vehicle. Every time he comes across any staff, it will be the same question, ‘are you a staff of this party? We are gradually getting used to it but one infuriating and frustrating thing for every staff member is how our salary payments have become epileptic. On resumption, he had complained of an over-bloated workforce and threatened to downsize”, many of the secretariat staff complained endlessly.
However, the secretariat staff are not the worst hit since his resumption of office. His relationship with the media correspondents covering the party has been frosty. Webbed between his warnings in his inaugural acceptance speech after his emergence and their professional ethics of holding leaders accountable, the media correspondents have struck a balance in reporting the good, the bad, the ugly, and the most beautiful happenings in the party.
Perhaps, infuriated by denying them their operational Centre in the secretariat on assumption, the media came out with a report on the difficulties he usually encounters accessing the third floor where the office of the National Chairman is located. The media report had blamed it on Adamu’s old age and health challenges. That was the worst the frosty relationship degenerated to until reduced their bad working condition with a brand newly built media centre.
As if the hostilities were not enough, speculations are becoming rife of the gang up by certain elements and interests within the ruling party, including the Progressive Governors to perfect his removal.
Justifying his unsuitability for the position, a member of the national leadership, who does not want his identity in print, during a chat with Daily Sun, expressed concerns over the possibility of his coping with the rigours of presidential campaigns when it resumes next month, September.
“You see, I have strong doubts on how our Chairman can cope with travelling to the 36 states of the federation for our presidential campaign, considering his health status and age. It will certainly be too hectic for him.
“Truth be told, considering the multiplicity of challenges facing our party like the Muslim-Muslim joint ticket, the unending debilitating factors confronting our presidential candidate and the perception of an average Nigerian against our party, we may need a healthier, ebullient and more vibrant national chairman during our campaigns to convince Nigerians on why the APC is still the party to beat and trust. For now, if we should be honest to ourselves, those qualities are lacking in our chairman,” the NWC member argued.
His position coming under threat since the party’s resolve to fly Muslim-Muslim presidential joint ticket is understandable. Many have suggested that the party should sacrifice him for a Christian for religious balancing of the political equation.
Nigerians have shown high-level discomfort with the ruling party for parading a religious biased leadership at both federal and party levels, frowning that nothing could have been more disgusting than the President, National Assembly headship, and the National Chairman of the party coming from the same religious extraction.
“Since it will be impossible to sacrifice those occupying other positions like the President, the NASS headship, it will be easier to affect such a change in the leadership of the party. Therefore, since Adamu endorsed the single faith joint presidential ticket, he should be ready to pay the price by either stepping aside or facing impeachment as a way of assuaging angry Nigerians against our party,” a chieftain of the party argued in confidence during a chat with Daily Sun.
Joining the clarion call to sacrifice Adamu, National President, APC Initiative for Good Governance, Musa Mohammed, had urged the NWC to switch positions to enable the party to have a good outing in the 2023 general elections.
According to him, “there is no gainsaying that the party has indeed found itself on a crossroad. We are all Nigerians and we all know that we need each other to make good whatever desire we seek to achieve especially in party politics. I, therefore, hope that the party should rethink and switch positions.
“I am not saying that Kashim Shettima should step down, no. He has been a good party man and demonstrated unequal contribution to the growth and stability of the party. By his stance with Tinubu, he has shown everyone that cares about the party that when he takes the decision to stand with Tinubu, he remains the last man standing and stands to victory.
“The party should immediately switch Adamu’s position with a Christian and move him to the position of National leader, which Tinubu is currently occupying. Other positions should also be looked into to balance the party along religious lines, very important at this critical time,” Musa said.
However, dismissing and denying the speculated plot against Adamu’s position, the party described it as opposition-sponsored media reports. In the statement signed by the APC National Publicity Secretary (NPS), Felix Morka, the party, claimed that; “the reports are based on the imagination of its sponsors, ostensibly unnerved by Adamu’s remarkable achievements since assuming office as the National Chairman.
“Our party and leaders are currently focused on the important task of building a strong and vibrant electoral campaign ahead, and will not be distracted by boring chirps of idle speculators. The opposition PDP is quite welcome to continue to dissipate its energy on innuendoes and chasing after phantom plots in APC rather than concentrate on mending its broken and acrimonious house.
“The NWC of our party stands united under Adamu’s leadership as National Chairman with the singular commitment to winning the next general election,” the statement from APC read
However, whether he survives the hostilities now, what looks certain is that Adamu’s position has now become precarious to the point of just waiting for the impending doom. His current situation is not whether he will be shoved aside now or later but where will a man, who has never been out of power for years be after his stepping down.
