Adamu vs Tinubu: NWC’s outrage reopens APC’s fault lines

Forum 1 year ago

Adamu vs Tinubu: NWC’s outrage reopens APC’s fault lines

Jolt for Tinubu/Shettima campaign

The fault lines had always been there. It started from the very day the All Progressives Congress (APC) bulldozed General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) through what could have been a very contentious and life-threatening presidential primary in Lagos. It also featured after President Buhari mounted the saddle and recruited his aides.

However, resolved to ensure the elimination of the common enemy – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its leader, then President Goodluck Jonathan – the promoters patched up the cracks. The be-of-good-behaviour treaty administered on the presidential aspirants that included the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, then governors, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and Rochas Okorocha; helped to bottle up whatever misgivings that propped up.

Ever since, APC was held together by the singular fact of President Buhari’s mandate and the political aspiration of many of its stalwarts, who needed the platform to ventilate their future elective offices.

However, unlike the December 2014 special convention and presidential primary, which threw up Buhari, the June 8, 2022 exercise, which Asiwaju Bola Tinubu clinched, failed to throw a leash not only on aspirants but also on party leaders that had diverse expectations and interests.

Worse, as the winner of the presidential primary, the former Lagos State governor could not drop his beef against certain party chieftains and former underlings which made the ticket very expensive for him.

Many who attended the APC presidential primary at Eagle Square still recall Tinubu’s acceptance speech, which was an admixture of exultation and virulence. But, those who heard the words, ‘now you can go and lick your wounds,’ knew that the victor was tending towards victimisation and vendetta.

Either through the process of nominating his running mate or the telltale reports of what transpired behind the scene, before he won the presidential primary, Tinubu displayed signs of a field marshal preparing to do battle on two fronts: against internal opponents and taking control of his coming presidency.

It is against that hazy background that the imperatives of Senator Abdullahi Adamu’s recent statement to the APC presidential contender could be understood. Yet, there are many sides to the unfolding drama and infighting within the governing party, which has the inbuilt recriminations from the unfinished political contestations.

The party leadership is divided on whether what was sent to the APC presidential candidate, Tinubu, was a draft having not been ratified, or the authentic position of the National Working Committee (NWC) on the controversial 422-man Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).

But, the letter, which started making the rounds in the public domain early Thursday morning, exposed the acrimony between some members of the NWC opposed to Tinubu’s handling of campaign preparations and those who claim to be long-term allies of the presidential candidate.

In the strongly worded letter, the APC national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, had complained about the composition of the campaign council, which was signed off by the Secretary of the council, Hon James Faleke.

It could be recalled that the NWC had raised some issues about the membership of the council and selected three officials from among them, including the National Organising Secretary, the National Legal Adviser and Deputy Women Leader to harmonise the names with the presidential candidate.

In its position, the NWC proposed that Senator Adamu should serve as the Deputy Chairman of the campaign council, while Abubakar Kyari and Emmanuel Eneukwu, Deputy National Chairman of North and South, respectively should serve as Deputy Regional Coordinating Chairmen.

It was obvious from the list of names put forward by the NWC that the committee wanted to play crucial roles in the presidential campaign, even as it complained that the presidential candidate was taking unilateral decisions that suggested an inclination towards a winner-takes-it-all approach.

Insisting that it should be made the central clearing house for marketing the candidate, Adamu told Tinubu: “Perhaps it has become necessary owing to the passage of time, that I should draw Your Excellency’s attention to the agreements that we reached in principle around the final adoption of the PCC list, based on the understanding that it was a work in progress, until such a time that the Joint NWC/PCC Committee that was established to formalise the structure and populate the list, submits its report.”

While noting that the letter represented the NWC’s opinion and position, Adamu said it was being conveyed, “with a view to having a clear understanding about the respective roles and responsibilities of the principal organs of the party charged with the duties of conducting the campaigns in the forth-coming general elections.”

Watchers of APC politics, especially the build-up to the party’s convention could remember that the desire by the North to maintain control of the party structure prompted the conscription of Adamu into the chairmanship post.

Those who pushed for an Adamu chairmanship maintained that being a former governor from the class ’99 governors as Tinubu, the representative of Nasarawa Northcentral could not be intimidated by any of the then-presidential aspirants, particularly Tinubu.

That behind-the-scene power play was not lost in the tone of the disputed letter. For instance, Adamu stated: “This correspondence has become necessary in view of developments that took place over the last few days around the purported appointments into the PCC that was announced precipitately by officials of the council, without making recourse to the NWC for approval