Joel Oladele, Abuja
On the 3rd of August, 2023, the former Governor of Kano State was appointed the 6th National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) while Senator Ajibola Basiru from Osun State emerged the new National Secretary of the party.
The appointments became imperative following the resignation of Senators Abdullahi Adamu and Iyiola Omisore as the party’s National chairman and Secretary, respectively the previous week.
Ganduje and Basiru no doubt inherited from their predecessors, a party battling age long internal rumblings which almost cost it its bid to retain presidency in the last general elections but for opposition parties who failed to put up a united front.
To salvage the situation, the party in September 2021 set up a 9-member National Reconciliation Committee chaired by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu when Governor Mai Mal Buni was still the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee.
While the reconciliation committee was yet to deliver on the assignment given to it, Adamu became the Chairman of the party he was trying to reconcile in late March, 2022.
Consequently, he shifted focus and failed to continue the process of reconciliation, instead, the brewing crises in the party escalated and almost consumed it until the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party insisted on his resignation and that of Omisore.
A lot of analysts have berated the leadership style of Adamu as it was far from that of a democrat and more was expected of him to broker peace amongst the aggrieved members of the parties across the country. His administration was rather fanning the embers of discord within the party.
Since the emergence of Ganduje as the new chairman, there have been questions on whether he’s capable of uniting and stabilising the party.
He must have realised this obvious task ahead of him, which likely informed his quick declaration to prioritise the unity and stability of the party in his acceptance speech a few weeks ago.
“Our main focus will be promoting party unity and defending and increasing the number of executive and legislative seats we currently hold.
“Under my watch, internal democracy will be strictly adhered to with a deliberate policy to engage in wider consultations and making party functional throughout the year.
“More reforms will be carried out in the party in alignment with the current political landscape
“We all agreed that we must unite our members to achieve support for our government to respond adequately, urgently and assertively to the challenges that Nigerians confront on a daily basis,” Ganduje said in his acceptance speech.
He also added that his administration will ensure a level playing field for all party members that want to contest elections under the party’s platform and that the primary election under his watch would be free, transparent and fair.
If only the new APC Chairman can deliver on the promises made in his acceptance speech, he will no doubt be better than his predecessor.
The former Governor of Kano State is being perceived by many as a good administrator and people are keenly watching to know if his administrative skills will come to bear in repositioning APC in the next few years.
Confirming his leadership prowess, the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin who also hailed from Kano State with him described Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje hailed his emergence as the party Chairman, affirming that he has the capacity to bring about a positive turn around in the party.
He noted that with Ganduje as Chairman of the ruling party, it will be strengthened for the benefit of all its members.
“His Excellency is coming on board with enormous experience spanning decades in politics and governance. With him piloting the affairs of our party, internal democracy would prevail. We thank His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, governors and other stakeholders of our party for the endorsement of His Excellency, Ganduje,” Jibrin said.
Lessons to learn from Adamu’s mistakes
One of the major mistakes of Senator Abdullahi Adamu as APC’s Chairman was his one-man show leadership style without little or no due recourse to relevant authorities within the party.
An adage in Yoruba says “omode gbon, agba gbon, la fi da Ile ife” loosely translated as it takes both the wisdom of the youths and that of the old ones to build a community.
This, Adamu failed to do as he was accused of running the party affairs like his personal business.
The immediate former APC North-West National Vice Chairman, Mallam Salihu Lukman in May 2022 called him out for his failure to carry members of the National Working Committee (NWC) and other party bigwigs along in his decision-making.
Lukman warned him to learn from his two predecessors who at a point were also accused of the same mistake as such style could make his leadership snowball into oblivion like Adams Oshiomhole and Mai Mala Buni’s administrations.
It was this attitude that pushed him into making a mistake that can be described as the straw that broke the camel’s back shortly before his resignation.
He publicly disagreed with his party on their choice of National Assembly leadership position without any consultation with the party stalwarts. That was another proof of his one-man show attribute.
If Ganduje will keep to his promise of engaging in wider consultations before making any decision, he may likely make a better leader.
Another mistake of Senator Abdullahi Adamu was what many tagged as undemocratic attitude. He was accused of this on many occasions in his approach to issues.
The most obvious one was his partisan role in announcing the former Senate President, Ahmed Lawan as the “party’s anointed candidate” a few days to the APC Presidential primary election in 2022.
As a party chairman, you are expected to remain as neutral as possible. Otherwise, you will lose the trust and confidence of your party members. A similar scenario played out during Adam Oshiomole’s era.
As long as any party chairman fails this litmus test, he can never win the loyalty of his members.
He would later extend this autocracy to the gentlemen of the press when he angrily ordered security operatives to chase accredited journalists covering the party activities out of its national secretariat in Abuja.
He was quoted saying he was returning to the secretariat to hold a meeting and the place was too crowded.
Ganduje on the other hand has promised to adhere strictly to internal democracy. With this, the party will have less aggrieved stakeholders.
An early sign of his adherence to democracy was the manner at which he attended to a group of protesters who came to the party’s secretariat on Monday. He gave them a fair hearing and promised the party will look into their grievances.
A source from the party later confirmed to Nigerian NewsDirect that for over a year that Adamu lasted as chairman, “I cannot remember a time he came out to attend to protesters.”
Last but not the least of the mistakes made by the immediate former Chairman of APC was his nonchalant attitude towards the welfare of the party’s National Secretariat members of staff.
Before Adamu came on board, the staff enjoyed payment of salary before the end of the month. However, under his control, their welfare went into obscurity as they lamented unpaid salaries.
No leader can enjoy a total and lasting happiness when his followers are not happy. I hope the new chairman will take note of this by taking into consideration, the saying “a labourer deserves his wages.”
Urgent tasks ahead
Besides learning from the mistakes of his predecessor, there are urgent tasks begging for attention in APC which the new Chairman must quickly attend to.
To start with, he must find a way of appealing to aggrieved members across party structure. Many are still nursing the wounds of being deprived of their right in the last general elections in one way or another. From the ward level to national level, APC must swing into action to put his house in order.
The most recent of such rifts is the one created by his emergence as the Chairman of the party. A development some party stakeholders have described as illegality and injustice to the North-Central region where Adamu came from.
They claim Adamu did not complete his term before he was “forced” to resign and in the spirit of fairness, the party was expected to retain the chairmanship position in the region. Instead it was handed over to someone else(Ganduje) from the North-West region on a platter of gold at the expense of other people from the North Central vying for the same position.
Meanwhile, Senator Ajibola Basiru who succeeded Senator Iyiola Omisore is not only from the same South-West with him but also from the same Osun State.
The ripple effects of the leadership tussle at the National Assembly is another issue that needs a swift reaction from the Ganduje-led NWC if at all APC wants to retain his title as the largest political party in Africa.
Another National Reconciliation Committee that will be more strategic in its approach might be needed to achieve a united APC. A house divided against itself cannot stand.
President Bola Tinubu is known for putting a round peg in a right hole. I believe he must have seen the potency of Ganduje’s administrative style before giving a nod to his nomination as the party’s National Chairman and Basiru as the National Secretariat. If the duo can work in unity with other members of NWC, they can together rejig the party and turn things around for the better.
So far, the atmosphere around the party is attesting to the fact that a new dawn has come. At least, the jubilant members of staff at the party’s National Secretariat are optimistic of a positive change.
However, it’s too early to conclude. Time will tell!
Opposition parties must meet a stronger and more united ruling party in the next General Elections. Otherwise, there may be a repeat of 2015. A phenomenon that brought APC into power by unseating the then incumbent President.