A new phase of crisis is brewing at the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) between the party’s national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu and members of the National Working Committee (NWC). Some members of the NWC are already complaining in hushed tones over alleged highhandedness of Adamu.
The former Nasarawa State governor is being accused of inaccessibility and arrogating to himself final pronouncements on critical issues that affect the party without recourse to the NWC.
The National Vice Chairman, North-West of the APC, Salihu Lukman, wrote a letter to Adamu to express strong reservations about the perceived excesses of the latter.
In the letter dated May 27, 2022 and entitled, “Rebuilding APC: Need for New Initiatives,” Lukman pointed fingers at Adamu for “managing the affairs of the party very casually, leading to constant shift in dates for screening of aspirants and composition of relevant committees and the postponement of the presidential convention.”
While insisting that Senator Adamu has made himself inaccessible and unwilling to take suggestions from other members of the APC NWC, the immediate past Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum demanded that critical responsibilities must be handled with deserving urgencies.
Copies of the letters were sent to President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President, Professor YemiOsinbajo, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, other members of the APC NWC.
It read in part: “Under your leadership, the current NWC is gradually snowballing into similar circumstances whereby decisions taken are allowed to lay bare and, in some instances, changed without necessarily taking needed steps to carry members along.
“No doubt, given all the challenges inherited and coming at a time when it’s extremely difficult to control events and almost everything would appear to have been set against the party and its leadership, we need to take every measure to avoid past pitfalls.
“The other challenge is how as NWC we seem to be handling very critical responsibilities of managing affairs of the party very casually. The case of appointing screening, primary and Convention committees is a good example.
“In fact, presidential aspirants are yet to be screened. The official explanation is that you are awaiting final consultation with President Buhari. At the risk of sounding agitated, this is unfair to President Buhari because to the best of my understanding it is an attempt to use the president’s name to give excuses for failure, if it happens, which should not be the case,” he said.