…Minister behind “consensus candidate kite”
Governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are reportedly angry with a former governor of Nasarawa State Senator Adamu Abdullahi for claiming that he was adopted as the consensus candidate for the position of APC national chairman.
Reports emerged last week that
President Muhammadu Buhari had adopted Abdullahi ahead of the party’s national convention slated for March 26, greatly upsetting critical stakeholders of the party such as governors and fellow aspirants.
The reports, it was gathered, had heightened the embarrassment suffered by the governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule who maintained that his predecessor, Senator Tanko Al-Makura, and not Senator Abdullahi Adamu is the Nasarawa State nominee for the position.
The Authority reliably gathered that, sensing that Adamu Abdullahi stood little chance, an influential minister from an oil-rich state interested in succeeding President Buhari in 2023, and a ranking senator from the Northeast, decided to fly the “Adamu Abdullahi consensus candidacy kite.”
The minister, senator, and their candidate are said to be working on how best to contain the backlash their story is generating.
One governor from one of the North central states told The Authority that his colleagues considered Adamu Abdullahi’s reported adoption as disrespectful to the forum of APC governors, assuring, “I promise that we won’t let it slide.”
He said. “To begin with, I guess you read the statement by Mr. President’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, that we are still consulting. Mr. President, we all know, is a very principled man. He likes due process.
“In as much as we would love to reduce rancour to the barest minimum by, if possible, adopting a candidate, such candidate however, would never emerge through subterfuge. We know the minister and the senator he used to fly this destructive kite. Sadly, a section of the media collaborated with them. I assure you that we would deal with them in due course,” pledged the governor.
He continued, “We seek to make APC better, not worse. That was why we removed Adams Oshiomhole. Last September, we appointed Senator Abdullahi Adamu to head a national reconciliation committee. We also appointed eight other eminent Nigerians into the panel.
“The panel submitted it’s report late January. Hardly had we sat down to consider their report than news began flying around that Adamu Abdullahi, the man we begged to help reconcile aggrieved members was seeking to become the party’s national chairman. This is the most absurd thing I ever heard in a long time. So dishonourable!
“Aside from greatly embarrassing the Nasarawa State governor we all know has been in full support of Senator Tanko Al’Makura the plot casts our great party, the APC, in very bad light; as a party without scruples.
“Some people are making allusion to the photos we had with Senator Abdullahi last week. That’s ludicrous. If you invite us to your house, and we have the time, we would visit. If you decide to fete us to a banquet and call all the paparazzis, that’s your problem. You call that an endorsement? Tough luck!” he declared.
