General News
All is really not well with the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa state. This is because the forces in the party in the 2023 elections are fighting each other. Those behind the forces are the present National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, former Senator Abdulazeez Murtala Nyako and the political Amazon of the state former Senator Aishatu Ahmed Binani.
The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the APC’s primaries for the 2023 gubernatorial election where Senator Binani clinched the ticket and became the governorship candidate of the party by defeating Nuhu Ribadu. Nyako, who was the party’s candidate for Adamawa central senatorial zone, was defeated at the election by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate who was the Speaker of the State House of Assembly now Senator Iya Abbas.
Since then, the gladiators failed to shift ground as their foot soldiers went on the offensive trying to outdo each other. The foot soldiers went on rampage disparaging their leaders on the conventional broadcast media almost on daily basis. The irony is that the party at the national level did not wade into the conflict or crisis in order to broker peace between the gladiators.
No genuine reconciliation has taken place since the election. What is currently happening is that each of the top gladiators is trying to outwit one another for the 2027 ticket for the governorship of the state. In fact, before the 2023 elections, it was Ribadu who personally visited Nyako, who was then in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and invited him and his followers to come back to the APC. He also backed him in getting the party’s ticket for the governorship of the state in the 2023 elections.
Today, the party’s structures in the state are being controlled by Ribadu. Binani is not on the same page with the party and there is the likelihood that she may pitch her tent with one of the new generation political parties to contest for the governorship again in 2027.
The centre can no longer hold for the gladiators to live under one umbrella in the politicking of the state as one formidable family. This was accentuated by the interest of each of the gladiators, especially Ribadu and Binani’s desire to become the next governor of the state.
Until and unless the gladiators come to terms with the reality and forge a common understanding, nothing will come out of the party now or before the elections of 2027. There is a great deal of distrust among members of the APC in Adamawa state.
Though the party is under the full grip of Ribadu, because his loyalists are now piloting the affairs of the APC, the other gladiators, especially Binani, are pulling the strings behind. And if there is no genuine reconciliation, the alternative ,as was roundly explained by Nyako, is to quit the party.
But Binani, in a meeting with her loyalists, emphatically told them, that she will remain in the APC and slug it out no matter the odds. It remains to be seen how Ribadu will get out of the storm in his ambition of getting the party’s ticket for the 2027 elections.
Even in the 2023 elections, the camp of Ribadu didn’t support Binani as the party’s candidate. Instead, they supported the incumbent governor of the state who was also the PDP’s candidate despite the backing of the then President Muhammadu Buhari for the APC’s candidate Binani, and the overwhelming support of the National headquarters of the party for her.
The party is in a quagmire because of the interest of the gladiators, who are aiming for the party’s ticket for the 2027 elections to slug it out with the party in power in the state. The spate of attacks on each gladiator by their foot soldiers is tearing the party apart and there is no effort on ground by the national headquarters to amicably resolve the crisis rearing its ugly head right from the conduct of the gubernatorial primaries.
The in-fighting among the gladiators in the APC cannot lead the party to success in the 2027 elections in the state. It’s an issue that demands the immediate attention of the national headquarters of the party and it’s imperative for the leaders of the party to put their act together and not allow themselves to be swayed by the in-fighting among the gladiators in the state.
To truly connect with the people and leave a lasting solution in the party, it’s crucial that the APC establishes a genuine and meaningful reconciliation with the gladiators, listen to their concerns, and involve them in the decision-making process.
Usman Santuraki,
No 2, Santuraki Close, Demsawo,
Jimeta, Yola, Adamawa state
08032333546, 09123490602
[email protected]
