Ganduje’s Earlier Headache As APC Chairman
Umar Ganduje would not have considered himself at the helm of affairs of the All Progressives Congress. He would have expected the president, Bola Tinubu, to appoint him as a minister in the cabinet. The president seemed to have a better plan.
Mr. Abdullahi Adamu, the erstwhile chairman of the ruling party, was asked or forced to resign from the office. The reasons were obvious: he didn’t show maximum loyalty to the new president. And without any hiccup, he left office for Umar Ganduje, Kano former governor, to take over.
Ganduje would have expected the dollar scandal to haunt him in his new office, but Nigeria appears to have moved on. The headache he has will now be totally different from the ones his predecessors suffered from. The power tussle at the state level often consumes the chairman of the party.
Governors are often exceedingly powerful. They are like emperors, they determine almost everything that happens in the party and they are the main headaches of the party’s chairman. Mr. Ganduje himself was not different when he was leading Kano State. Now less than two months to his leadership of the party, the governors have started giving him problems.
A bloc of the party has asked the chairman to empower other members apart from the governors who hold the party structure. The bloc argued that the governors take it all leaving nothing for others in the party at the state level. Would Ganduje listen to the bloc and withdraw the influence of the governors? Of course, he won’t want to be on collision with the governors even though he doesn’t have allegiance to them.
The past chairmen of the party went down the drain as a result of collision with the governors. Ganduje’s headache would be how to deal with the excesses of the governors.
Mr. Yahaya Bello, Kogi State governor, stormed the residence of the party chairman Ganduje to protest the purported appointment of party’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary-designate, Duro Meseko. Mrs. Florence Ita-Giwa was also there to protest . Bello didn’t welcome the appointment, hence, he protested.
Pressure will continue to mount on the new chairman. Leading a party as APC is a tedious job because lots of interests are conflicting. His headaches may not likely come from Rabiu Kwankwaso, his known political rival. The headache would come from within the party.
