The embattled National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, is facing a fierce onslaught from party members who are determined to see him ousted from his position. Fresh strategies are being devised to remove him from office at the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting scheduled to take place at the Presidential Villa on Monday.
Adamu has been plagued by various crises since his election last year, with some members of the party’s National Working Committee openly calling for his dismissal. The current troubles stem from disgruntled members of the NWC, particularly those from the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and certain South West party leaders who have not forgiven Adamu for his unsuccessful attempt to undermine the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the APC candidate in June 2022.
The problems for the APC chairman began a few weeks before Tinubu’s presidential inauguration. Contrary to established practice, where the APC NWC is responsible for zoning leadership positions in the National Assembly, Tinubu took control and publicly endorsed his preferred candidates. The Adamu-led NWC, playing a subordinate role, hastily released a statement aligning with the president-elect’s stance.
Furthermore, after Tinubu assumed the presidency, Adamu was reportedly sidelined in the selection of presidential aides and the appointment of members to the Federal Executive Council (FEC). The new leaders from the ACN faction of APC took over these responsibilities, essentially sidelining the party chairman.
The final straw came with the appointment of principal officers in the National Assembly, a duty traditionally falling under the purview of the NWC. Instead, APC leaders in both the Senate and the House of Representatives were chosen by the Presidency without consulting the APC’s NWC, and the appointments were announced on the floor of both chambers.
Following this incident, which clearly demonstrated Adamu’s diminishing influence within the party, the chairman has been scrambling to garner support ahead of the upcoming NEC meeting at the Presidential Villa. However, his meeting with President Tinubu to seek understanding reportedly did not go as planned, with some NWC members moving against Adamu and calling for his removal. These aggrieved members are mobilizing for the NEC meeting, where Adamu’s fate will likely be decided.