By Omeiza Ajayi
On Friday, June 27 2025, staff of the national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC resumed work at the “Buhari House”, with many of them not having an inkling of what the day had in stock for them.
What started as a rumour in the morning later gained traction by noon as media reports emerged that the fifth substantive National Chairman of the party had thrown in the towel.
Just like its older brother, the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, APC has a history of changing its chairmen like diapers. In the PDP which has existed since 1998, only Senator Barnabas Gemade and Uche Secondus lasted nearly four years.
APC’s less than impressive record
Formed in 2013, the APC has often times been enmeshed in one leadership crisis or the other.
At its formation, it appointed an Interim National Chairman in the person of a former Governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande who steered its nascent ship from 2013 to 2014.
APC then had a proper national convention where a former Governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun was elected as National Chairman. He was in the saddle from 2014 to 2018. Towards the end of his tenure, his handlers convinced him to seek either a tenure extension or a reelection but the bid suffered woefully and he had to pack his things quietly and leave. He is on record to have been the only National Chairman of the APC to have served out his full 4-year tenure. Today, he is with the African Democratic Congress ADC, working alongside other opposition leaders to send President Bola Tinubu back to Bourdillon.
Then came another former Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole who nearly caused a revolt within the National Working Committee NWC. Apart from coming to the secretariat with his own chair, a beautiful white piece of furniture, he literally moved the national secretariat to his Aso Drive residence. He performed several official functions from his private residence, including holding the weekly NWC meetings in the apartment – a development which fueled resentment among some of the NWC members. He “reigned” from 2018 to 2020, when some stakeholders, including governors moved against him in the aftermath of his altercation with his protege and state governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki.
The governors who, at every point, had maintained a firm grip on the party decided it was time to send one of theirs to clean the augean stables. That was how a former National Secretary of the party and Yobe state governor, Mai Mala Buni was appointed Chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee CECPC.
What was meant to be an interim arrangement for six months or at most, 12 months, became some sorts of an organ, assuming a life of its own.
Like a former Governor of Cross River State, Mr Clement Ebri told Vanguard then, “the most annoying part is the fact that the party organs (most particularly the National Caucus) that ought to look over the shoulders of the National Caretaker Committee to ensure that its actions are in tandem with democratic ethos have been frozen out since the emergence of this body”.
While the CECPC kept deploying all the tricks in the books to defer its terminal date, it was however, literally forced out in 2022, having held sway since 2020.
There are reports that Buni sublet the running of the party to his political protege, the Kogi state-born Murtala Yakubu Ajaka who had no specific office but ran the affairs of the party for him.
Then came Senator Abdullahi Adamu, another former governor (of Nasarawa state). He came with a lot of promise but he did not last on the throne due to his attempt to outplay the godfather, now the president, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who didn’t waste any time in ousting the Sarkin Yakin Keffi on assumption of office as president in 2023. Adamu was on the seat from 2022 to 2023.
In August of 2023, Tinubu’s political associate and former Governor of Kano state, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje was named National Chairman of the party pending his ratification by the National Executive Committee NEC.
He came with a lot of enthusiasm but on June 27, 2025, he left with a broken spirit, even though his resignation letter said he was living with a broken body – to take care of his health. He resigned few days before the date he was ordered to leave.
Since then, the Deputy National Chairman, North, of the party, Ali Bukar Dalori has been acting as national chairman pending a meeting of NEC fixed for July 24.
Who is next?
Since Dalori cannot act in perpetuity, the July 24 NEC meeting of the party is expected to name a substantive replacement for Ganduje.
However, speculations are rife that the powers that be are ready to oust the entire NWC and in its place, set up a caretaker committee. The NEC had spared the current NWC when it removed Senator Abdullahi Adamu. It may not survive this time.
Following Ganduje’s exit, many of those who had vied for the office in the past are already dusting up their credentials and activating hitherto unknown support groups to run their advocacies.
Since the office was originally zoned to the North Central, many of those whose names are being touted as replacements are from the zone.
They include a former Governor of Nasarawa state, Senator Umaru Tanko Almakura; a former Governor of Benue State and Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Senator George Akume and Niger East senator, Mohammed Sani Musa, also known as 313. There is also a former Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.
Almakura is of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change CPC bloc in the APC.
Recently, there were grumblings by some members of the bloc who claimed to have been marginalized by the Tinubu administration.
If the president wants to assuage such concerns, he could be thinking in Almakura’s direction.
Senator Akume served as Governor of Benue State at the same time the president served as governor of Lagos State. Just like the president has done in Lagos, Akume has been able to control Benue politics since he left the Government House and has been instrumental to the emergence of all successive governors after him.
But that is not just it. Akume has a solid relationship with Tinubu which dates back to their days in the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria ACN founded by the latter.
Akume had left the PDP and was re-elected as a Senator for Benue North-West in the April 2011 elections, running on the platform of the ACN. He also served as the Senate Minority Leader while in the ACN. The ACN later merged with other parties to form the APC.
Senator Musa, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance is also seen as a close ally of President Tinubu. Like Almakura, Musa had earlier indicated his desire to lead the party at the highest level.
Bello, the former Kogi governor is said to also be in contention. However, his handling of his faceoff with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC and allegations by some of his loyalists accusing the president of being behind his travails could affect his chances.
‘Abiku’
In Yoruba cosmology and literature, Abiku which literally means “born to die” is often a significant but haunting concept. It refers to a spirit child who is believed to be caught in a cyclical pattern of birth, premature death and rebirth to the same mother.
Abiku are spirit beings who have made a pact in the spirit world called “Òrun” with their “kindred spirits” – often called Emere or Ẹgbẹ́ Orún Àbíkú, the society of children born to die. The pact dictates that they will come to the physical world known as “Aiyé”, only to die young and return to their spirit companions.
This has been the situation with APC – birthing a new leadership with great enthusiasm like the birth of a new baby, only to return the way of those before it.
There are speculations that President Tinubu might want to depart from the tradition of having former governors lead the party by looking elsewhere, perhaps the Legislature – whether serving or former. This could well be the appeasement needed to break the cycle of its “leadership Abiku”.
-Omeiza Ajayi, is an Abuja-based journalist.
