Inuwa Abdulkadir and emerging dark cloud over APC

Penultimate week, the APC National Working Committee, NWC, took a decision to uphold the purported and contentious expulsion by the Sokoto state chapter of the party, of Barrister Inuwa Abdulkadir, the National Vice Chairman. The Adams Oshiomhole led NWC’s decision came to majority of our party members as a devastating blow against our ongoing strenuous efforts at reviving and refocusing the party in states where the APC is being plagued by a plethora of varying forms of crises.

Before going into specifics of the subject matter, let’s begin by scrutinising some pertinent questions and issues regarding the powers of local chapters of the APC over national officials. For example, can a national officer of the stature of a national vice-chairman, deputy chairman or national chairman be removed from office or subjected to varying degrees of punitive measures on allegations of misdemeanour by the local chapters of the party from where such officials come from? Can, for instance, Comrade Oshiomhole be suspended, expelled or meted out or, similar severe punitive measures merely on allegations by his local chapter back in Edo state? In which case, your guess is as good as mine that, Governor Godwin Obaseki would have since instigated the removal of his now, bitterest political foe!

To say the least, the APC latest action has finally brought out the painful fact that the party, especially in Sokoto state, is in disarray! We are perilously at the precipice and unless by some miracles, we may soon be at point of Chinua Achebe’s immortal lines: “The falcon can no longer hear the falconer”. The details of the situation illustrate this observation of the gloom and doom enveloping APC in Sokoto and, I am afraid, almost elsewhere in the country. In other words, there is so much to be desired in the way and manner the leadership of the party at the centre has been grappling with resolutions of critical issues of conflicts, grievances, impunity and other tendencies with potential of negative consequences on the party.

In the instant case of Barrister Inuwa Abdulkadir, here we see the national body of a political party arriving at a significant decision such as the expulsion of a member of the party’s NWC, a national vice-chairman without a modicum of investigation into the allegations of antiparty activities levied by some elements within a state chapter. To avert the judicial sin of “subjudice” as the issues in question are presently in court, I will for now, avoid going into too details.

However, to those of us members of the party, the allegations are not only unfounded, baseless and vindictive, they are, pure and simple, the concoction of a motley few under the supervision of individuals on a self-serving mission. If the NWC under the chairmanship of Oshiomhole had done the needful by going beneath the thin veil of the so-called party interest, it would have discovered the lies, the grandstanding and deception of the desperate, intolerant megalomaniacs. Deceptively, they give the impression of altruism but, beneath such a grandeur, is a murky, puerile unedifying narrow-centered agenda.

Our national vice-chairman, Abdulkadir, incurred the wrath of the self-acclaimed Lords of the Manor of politics in the zone because he has been the leading light against their imperial, despotic and undemocratic posturing and machinations. Only their clique of servile yeomen will deny this observation. Abdulkadir incurred the wrath of those who believe that they are the essence and absolute embodiment of politics, political leverages and patronage.

While those who could not stand the shenanigan, the noxious and insulting antics have since changed over to opposition camps in all the seven state chapters in the zone, Inuwa Abdulkadir is among the few leaders of the party who have refused to run away, by way of intimidation, blackmail and other political subterfuge, the house he laboured to build. Of course, the political absolutists, the egoists and their hangers on, do not give a damn if the entire house is abandoned for them, or, ruined they are contented, for as long as APC controls the centre and they are, therefore, guaranteed all the lucre and material benefits that come from Abuja. By its action, the APC NWC has, unfortunately, become tacitly and inadvertently, complicit in a scheme of personal aggrandisement, leading to disarray and inevitable collapse of our great party.

The travails of Abdulkadir started from the moment he stood up against impunity and insisted that the APC primary elections must be conducted in accordance with the rules of democracy. No more, no less. All the balderdash about his anti-party activities, his association with the opposition, sponsoring and campaigning for candidates of other political parties against those of the APC, are, at the best, to be explained as a gimmick to give a dog a bad name in order to justify hanging it.

To those who went into the trenches during the last campaign in all the states of the zone, we can vouch for the immense contributions and efforts of Abdulkadir towards the electoral fortunes of our great party. It will not be surprising that, blinded by hate, mischief and a fixated mind, his adversaries deliberately refused or were oblivious of such struggles and sacrifices.

       At the end of the day, the purported “expulsion” has thrown some pertinent questions begging for answers. For instance, why was the NWC so much in a hurry to throw its weight on the side of the petitioners of Sokoto, without listening to the other side of the story? The NWC was well aware that the issues at stake were already subject of litigation in the court of law. Why then the insistence to constitute an investigative panel which tantamounts to prejudice? In arriving at the verdict of guilt as NWC has done, isn’t it a travesty of justice, in fact, outright injustice that such decision was taken without speaking with other stakeholders in Sokoto? As the leader of the party in the North-west zone, did the NWC receive similar complaints against Inuwa Abdulkadir from any of the other seven states?

       Be that as it may, there is no gainsaying the fact that the sad decision and action of the APC against the North-west national vice-chairman has raised a heavy, dark, ominous cloud over the APC in Sokoto. There is the saying “what goes around can comes around”. It is Inuwa Abdulkadir today, who knows who is next? Only those who want to play the ostrich will not believe that the party is being pushed dangerously to the precipice.

Umar Funtua writes from Sabon Layi, Funtua, Katsina state 

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