APC NEC: Adamu faces sack
Embattled National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, is currently battling to retain his position and survive the ongoing onslaught against him by aggrieved leaders and members of the party.
Party leaders and members who have not hidden their desire to see the chairman vacate his office at the party’s National Secretariat, Abuja, are mapping out fresh strategies to sack the APC chairman at the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting holding at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday.
Adamu, who was elected last year, barely a few weeks before the presidential primaries of the APC, has since been engrossed in one crisis or the other, with some members of party’s National Working Committee (NWC), which he heads, openly calling for his sack.
Adamu’s latest troubles, Saturday Sun gathered, are being fuelled by aggrieved members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC, predominantly drawn from the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and some South West leaders of the party who have yet to forgive him over his failed attempt to frustrate the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the candidate of the APC in June 2022.
Trouble actually started for the APC chairman a few weeks before the inauguration of Tinubu as President. Contrary to the established practice, where the NWC of APC zoned the different leadership positions in the National Assembly, Tinubu took charge of the role and openly endorsed those he wanted.
Playing a second fiddle, Adamu-led NWC hurriedly released a statement, aligning with the position of the then president-elect.
Again, as soon as Tinubu took over as President, Adamu was reportedly snubbed in the selection of presidential aides and appointment of members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Instead, the new alternative leaders of APC from the ACN bloc were said to have assumed the responsibilities of the party’s chairman.
The last straw was the appointment of principal officers of both chambers of the National Assembly, which is the established responsibility of NWC of the political parties.
Instead, APC leaders in the Senate and In the House of Representatives, were reportedly picked by the Presidency and without recourse to APC’s NWC. They were announced on the floor of both chambers.
Apparently embarrassed at the development, the Adamu-led NWC released a statement, disowning the action taken by the leadership of the National Assembly in alleged connivance with the Presidency.
Since the latest incident, a clear evidence of Adamu’s waning influence within the party, the APC chairman has reportedly been scouting for support ahead of the NEC meeting of APC, holding at the Presidential Villa on Monday.
Adamu’s meeting with President Tinubu on Wednesday, where he had reportedly gone to solicit understanding, might not have gone according to plan, sources familiar with the development told Saturday Sun.
Instead, some members of APC NWC have reportedly moved against the chairman and asking for his ouster. The aggrieved NWC members are mobilising ahead of the NEC meeting, where Adamu’s fate might be decided by the highest organ of the APC.
With a divided National Working Committee, and with Adamu’s allies out of office, it is unclear if the former governor of Nasarawa State will survive the coming tsunami that had long been predicted.
APC spokesman, Felix Morka, said he would not comment on the issue when Saturday Sun contacted him on Friday.
But Adamu’s harshest critic, National Vice Chairman, North West, Salihu Lukman, is insisting on Adamu’s ouster.
Chronicling Adamu’s sins, including deliberate refusal to convene meetings of relevant organs, especially NEC for over one year, Lukman claimed that Adamu had contravened and violated the ruling party’s Constitution.
According to Lukman, “the sad reality is that the APC as constituted today is only a shadow of itself with a National Chairman that is highly unaccountable and running affairs of the party more as a garrison commander. He relates with his colleagues in the NWC just like his appointees.
“In their name, he meets other leaders of the party and seeks to manipulate the party’s decisions to suit personal vested interests that is only known to him.”
Sources said Tinubu might not have taken a position on Adamu’s issue, though his allies are mounting pressure on the president to take charge of the party, ahead of key governorship elections coming up later in the year.
One of the sources said it is difficult to predict Tinubu, but assured that Adamu’s days as National Chairman of APC were numbered.
He said with the possible appointment of APC Deputy National Chairman (North), Abubakar Kyari, an emergency congress of the party may be held to elect new leaders
