Tunde Abatan discusses ADC Leadership : Between Logic And Emotions
Towards the end of last week,a friend and colleague gave me an unusual call.
The essence of the message he passed on to me is not to join the so- called chorus of those celebrating African Democratic Congress,ADC leaders plight in the face of INEC decision to de-recognise its leading lights following the Federal High Court ruling.
He averred further that rather than joining those mocking ADC,I should pause and ask myself whether the ruling government is doing well by discreetly killing opposition.
To him,INECs decision to act on a court judgement which ADC actually instigated through its action against INEC is pregnant and points in one direction-the incumbent governments penchant to kill opposition and practically foist a one- party state on the nation.
He believes that voices of opposition is being surreptitiously silenced by behind- the- scene actions of the ruling government.
He also pointed out the gale of defections by state governors as abnormal.
I saved my breadth.
Since the INEC is still the recognised electoral umpire, it is not out of place for it to be under watch for any slight sign or demonstration of favoritism or pandering to the government of the day .
It is left to INEC leadership to prove otherwise.
In the early 90s late jurist and one -time Chief Justice of Nigeria, Taslim Olawale Elias, declared that the biggest problem of our democracy is that the ruling elite or rather politicians are impatient with democratic principles.
They wanted things done in a jiffy without following due process forgetting that the judiciary remains the final interpreter of whatever they do either before,during election or while in office.
As I observed last week in my column,the biggest problem of latter day politicians and office seekers is that they are not only inconsistent, they are in a hurry to climb the rope to the top even when it is clear to all and sundry that the rope may either be too tender to climb and sustain them or rather the foundation on which it is fastened is rather weak.
While the ADC leaders are eager to consummate a marriage with ADC after ‘ejecting’ from the PDP sinking boat,it is now apparent by the turn of events that they only use their big status and name to ‘purchase’ the ADC from an outgoing Chairman who obviously was also in a hurry to sell the party to the highest bidder without considering his lieutenants especially his deputy ,Nafiu Gombe, who watch in dismay as the new big men tenants led by Abubakar Atiku,two term Senate President David Mark and former Governor and Minister,Rauf Aregbesola ride rough- shod on the small but technically consequential men in ADC who have piloted its affairs for years before being ‘sold’ to new owners.
In other words,Atiku and co only bought the engine of the political party without considering the body which holds the parts together.
There is a Yoruba saying that there is no way a person will walk without the head shaking-ko si bi a se le rin ti ori ko ni mi.
The head of the ADC is shaking now because the rest of the body is vibrating.
Even in corporate world,buyers of old companies often do due diligence before deals are sealed and they assume leadership.
One of such bad deals taken in the early 20s was during the privatization exercise.
It was the sale of African Petroleum,AP, to Atikus surrogate company Sadiq petroleum.
The bad debts swept under the carpet when the deal was sealed came popping later and today the rest is history.
Another company bought back APs shares in Sadiq Petroleum.
Today, hell has been let loose over what observers perceive as ruling governments move to stifle opposition.
But then,the ruling of the Federal High Court gave a window for the ADC to return to status quo ante-the situation that obtained before the appeal by the ADC to Federal High Court.
For now,the ADC has an opportunity to appeal the courts ruling while at the same time it had the opportunity of reconciling with the forces and or faction in the party which it ignored in the hurried ‘purchase’ of what has become a Special Purpose Vehicle by its supposedly experienced leaders to achieve its individual and corrective ambitions.
Former Vice President Atiku is not new to wheeling- dealing in politics having been a veteran of the game since the SDP and NRC days prior to the botched Ibrahim Babangidas political transition programme
Hence, one expects him to have envisaged that intrigues and schemings by forces within and without parties could rear its head in ADC more as it did over 30 years ago.
To have ignored the other tendencies in ADC before consummating its ‘purchase’ amounts to sweeping the problems under the carpet.
This is imperative because Nafiu Bala Gombe -who is the arrow head of the opposition within ADC and who claim the right to step into Ralph Nwosus shoes, is waiting to take over the affairs especially since the latter’s notice of resignation is not yet over when Nwosu handed over to Mark and co.
Again, is it mere anger that Presidential candidate of ADC in 2023, Dumebi Kachiku accused Nwosu of selling the party to new stalwarts who by now are now weighing new options to move forward.
That Kachiku claimed that the ADC claimants failed to resolve the internal conflicts in the Party they purchased, to realise the leaders individual and collective ambitions?
Could a house divided against itself stand?
Why did it take new ADC ‘buyers’ four clear months from July, when Nwosu stepped down to September 2025 to write INEC of new leadership?
If the ruling APC lost opportunity to contest election in Rivers,Bayelsa in 2023 why should ADC not run away from such open pit dug for itself by its leaders eagerness to build a house on nothing ?
Why should ADC leaders repeat the mistake committed by the Turaki faction of the PDP by organising the ‘Christmas Carol’ of a convention in December last year only for it to wait for INEC big hammer to fall.
On this issue, Josiah Amupitan,INEC Chair advised the ADC to wait for court processes or if it likes it can opt to continue with its planned convention processes starting April 7 and end on April 14.
Amupitan justified INECs position to derecognise Atiku,Mark and co adding,”We didn’t just take a decision,we didn’t just wake up one day and took this decision.
So if they are going ahead with their convention it’s left to them.”
In all modesty,is Amupitan not going the extra mile to help the ADC leaders not to fall into same pit which their parent party fell to earn it its present comatose condition?
Maybe one is being immodest by expecting something different from the same tactless leaders who killed PDP by changing rules of engagement within the party and drove it aground for selfish motives.
Or could it just mean that the ADC leaders are willfully playing into the hands of the ruling government for some other unexplained reasons?
But then,is its decision to write ‘love’ letters to some foreign countries like United states,United Kingdom,France on what they described as suppression of democratic rights in Nigeria not just an exercise in raising emotions and sympathy when the law court is there to lodge their complain?
Since Nigeria is a sovereign nation, there is little the letter could achieve.
All politics is local.
Or could it mean that the judiciary too is suspected of having been compromised in the Electoral processes before the race opens.
Interesting days ahead for the ADC and politics of succession in Nigeria as the nation moves closer to next year’s elections.
