The unease in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership has continued to gather storm as two members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), on Tuesday again knocked the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, accusing him of dictatorship.
The two NWC members — the National Vice Chairman (Northwest), Salihu Moh. Lukman and the National Vice Chairman (Southwest), Isaac Kekemeke — in a memo sent to other NWC members on Tuesday in Abuja, raised alarm that Adamu now runs the NWC as a one-man show.
The memo by the two National Vice-Chairmen of APC, The New Diplomat reports, is coming in less than a week to the party’s presidential primary scheduled for 6-7th June, 2022. The processes and schedules leading to the primary had been changed, with activities postponed severally before the party settled for this latest date for the exercise and commenced the screening of its presidential aspirants only yesterday.
The New Diplomat had recently reported that Lukman, in a leaked letter dated May 27, 2022 and titled ‘Rebuilding APC: Need for new initiatives’ had raised alarm about a looming leadership crisis in the party. He accused the National Chairman of taking decisions without the consent of party members.
The Vice chairman said Adamu is toeing the path of his predecessors like Adams Oshiomhole and Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state, a development he said could spell doom for the party.
In another memo issued on Tuesday, Lukman and Kekemeke said Adamu has been using the name of President Muhammadu Buhari to blackmail the NWC members to have his way in the party.
The duo said they were compelled to make this statement following serial postponement of the scheduled NWC meetings, twice within 48 hours.
The memo partly reads, “Within just two months in the lifespan of the new leadership of our great party, APC, led by His Excellency, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, the NWC, organ of the party 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 the APC Constitution, has been rendered redundant.
“The National Chairman takes decisions unilaterally. When it suits him, he invokes the name of our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari to blackmail NWC members into accepting his decisions. Every effort to get the Chairman to respect the authority of the NWC as elected by the March 26, 2022 APC National Convention is proving very difficult, if not impossible. Note that NEC’s donation of its powers was to NWC and not to the National Chairman or any individual.
“The National Chairman must be properly reminded to recognize that the business of managing the day-to-day affairs of the party is the responsibility of the NWC as provided in provisions of the APC Constitution.
“He is free to consult any party leader(s). Such consultations will not represent decisions of the NWC or any organ of the party unless and until it is adopted by a properly constituted meeting of the NWC or organ in question according to the letters and spirits of the APC constitution.
“As a party, we have suffered enough judicial embarrassments arising from clearly avoidable leadership breach of our party’s constitution and spelt out rules. As members of the NWC who have the mandate of our members, we hereby serve notice to His Excellency, Abdullahi Adamu, and through him to all APC leaders that henceforth, any decision taken by the National Chairman or any other party functionary, which require the approval of the NWC as enshrined in the APC constitution, will be considered as illegitimate and an infringement on the jurisdictional scope of the NWC, unless otherwise confirmed as validly approved decisions of the NWC or any other legitimate organ of the party.
“No NWC member is elected at the March 26, 2022 National Convention to warm seats or offices in the National Secretariat. We therefore call on all our colleagues in the NWC to rise to these challenging situations by joining hands with us to save our great party and return it to its founding mission of moving Nigeria forward based on honest, fair, just and selfless commitment to party building. God bless our party!”.
