By: Inuwa Bwala
Now that the battle seems to be over in seeking for the soul of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, the new National Working Committee, under the leadership of my boss, Senator Abdullahi Adamu must have awaken to the realities of the war tomorrow.
The party does not need a soothsayer to know that the actual war is still ahead and it promises to be as daunting as never before.
With over seventy officers returned as members, the perceptions that came with each of the new hands must give way to a new realignment and narrative with equally new tact.
Pre-convention alliances presuppose that, each of them carried the burden of particular interests and each with seeming idiosyncratic mannerisms and psyche: but against the expectations from Mr President, party stakeholders and Nigerians, Adamu needs a thorough sift from the motley crowd in selecting his first eleven.
The circumstances of Adamu’s emergence make his assignment more of a task, than it is of leadership only.
This is more so, when there is little time to address all issues before facing the primary assignment ahead.
It is not impossible to go with everybody, but it is not possible to carry the views of everybody in this quest, seeking for party’s survival.
I know Abdullahi Adamu fairly well, just as I know Abubakar Kyari, the Deputy Chairman, North well, and can vouch for their individual capabilities.
I also know as a matter of fact that they have also worked together very closely and must have clearly defined their targets as team players. Bringing them together in the National Working Committee of the party at the top level is a compatible combination, with very high potentials for good results.
I have always advocated for the emergence of a highly intellectually studded leadership for the APC, which could be the antidote for the challenging combination in the opposition People’s Democratic party, PDP.
With Adamu and Kyari, combining with others who I might not known well, I think every party will be given the run for their money; including the emergent third force.
Reasoning together between Adamu and Kyari could be the best end of the seeming leadinrship quagmire of the APC, which is still smarting from months of internal wranglings. While Adamu brings forth the the benefits of his age and wisdom, experience and dogdeness to combine with Kyari’s youthful dynamism, vibrance, pragmatism and capabilities, the party ends up with a kind if triumph, that could beat the permutations of skeptics.
Adamu has been long enough on the national political circles, and one does not need to go and tell Nigerians what he is capable of doing. Those who dismiss him as a spent force did so at a very expensive cost, as those of us who know him can say, that Adamu is the type that will die standing.
I have followed him through the thick of his battles to know, that, Abdullahi Adamu never call it quits, rather, he pursues that which he believes in, even if he finds out that he is the only one left fighting that cause.
That he was given the title of Sarkin Yakin Keffi, before he was elevated as the Turakin Keffi, presupposes that Adamu is a fighter, as such titles are not conferred on cowards.
Many people may not have known Abubakar Kyari, though they may have heard about him and his exploits.
I may not have much to add to Kyari’s introduction, more than what former Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda said of him while mounting the podium to announce his withdrawal from the race for the office of the Deputy National Chairman, North and to endorse the candidature if Senator Abubakar Kyari.
He described Kyari as his younger brother: young, dynamic, pragmatic, vibrant and capable. Short as that remark was, I am sure even as a tall man, Kyari could not have gotten a concise resume, than this.
Those who monitor happenings in the Senate could attest to the fact that, Abubakar Kyari has been visible in debates, moving motions and passing of bills. But for the necessity of his service to his party, the people of Borno North would have been reluctant in allowing Kyari to go.
The days ahead will put to test President Muhammadu Buhari’s thesis of bringing this two gentlemen into the leadership of the APC, in the party’s drive to reposition for the the war tomorrow.
