APC Convention: How Amaechi Drafted Abdullahi Into Race
Daily Times
28th February 2022
Facts have emerged on how the Minister of Transport, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi drafted the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) national reconciliation committee, Senator Adamu Abdullahi into the party’s national chairmanship race.
Adamu had on January 31 submitted his committee’s report to the APC leadership. However a few days later, in a surprise move, he announced his intention to vie for the office of the APC national chairman.
Checks revealed that the minister, who is believed to be nursing a presidential ambition, reportedly approached the former governor with a proposal to contest for the position of the APC national chairman.
Sources close to Senator Abdullahi disclosed that he pointedly rejected the proposal on the ground that it was morally wrong for a man who was appointed to reconcile a party to turn around to seek to become it’s national chairman.
He was also said to have complained that he didn’t have the resources to pull a campaign through, but that Minister Amaechi provided the funds through a ranking senator from Borno State penciled down to head the minister’s presidential campaign whenever it kicks off
The minister was also said to have assured Senator Abdullahi that he would use his contacts in the Presidential Villa to ensure that he gets the support of President Buhari.
In return. Abdullahi was to ensure that he used his position as national chairman to ensure Amaechi got the APC presidential ticket later in the year.
“Adamu Abdullahi pointedly told Amaechi that even if he had the energy to contest, he lacked the financial muscle considering that he is heavily indebted to some banks,” offered a source close to the ministry.
The minister, in tow with Senator Ali Ndume, who has been reportedly penciled down to head the Amaechi campaign organization.
Worried by the unending crisis in APC state chapters, the party had in February 2020 appointed a former interim national chairman Chief Bisi Akande to head a 12-man reconciliation committee. Interestingly, the crisis heightened.
Following the sack of the Adams Oshiomhole-led party executive, the caretaker committee in mid-September 2021 appointed a nine-man reconciliation committee to mend the cracks. APC elders, who held that the previous panel failed because of Akande’s “weakness”. They suggested “a stronger personality” like Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
“The stronger personality like Senator Abdullahi has now turned out to be an albatross. The consensus kite flown by the Amaechi camp has set the party’s wheel of progress back. APC governors are meeting today to see how they can salvage the situation. We’re going to come out of this confusion stronger,” a party chieftain declared.