How Abdullahi Ganduje lost out in APC game of musical chairs

After months of intrigue, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s 22-month reign as the national chair of Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ended on Friday.

He resigned from the position, citing health reasons.

However, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report that his capitulation followed a tense 24 hours after he met a group of influential party and government officials who demanded his resignation.

The officials had concluded that with President Bola Tinubu entering the second half of his term and preparations for the 2027 election cycle underway, it was time for the ruling party to reconfigure its leadership.

Mr Ganduje told the officials that while he understood their concerns, he needed to ascertain President Bola Tinubu’s position on their demand before acting.

However, when he could not secure an appointment to see the president, the embattled party leader submitted his resignation letter to the APC national secretary, Ajibola Basiru, on Friday afternoon.

Three months after serving out his second term as Kano State governor, Mr Ganduje was appointed the APC national chairman by the party’s national executive committee following the resignation of former Nasarawa governor, Abdullahi Adamu, from the position.

The appointment, believed to be at the instance of President Tinubu, was met with disapproval by the North-central wing of the party to which the departing Mr Adamu belongs.

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The zone insisted on retaining the position in line with the party’s power-sharing arrangement, more so because it was not holding any of the other four top political positions – president, vice president, Senate president, and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Many party leaders also considered the appointment an affront, arguing that the allegation of corruption he faced made Mr Ganduje a bad advertisement for the ruling party.

In 2017, Daily Nigerian online newspaper exclusively published a video showing the then-Kano governor stuffing his agbada pockets with bundles of dollar notes he allegedly collected as a bribe from a contractor.

Since he left office in 2023, the Kano State Government has been trying to prosecute him over the scandal, but the federal anti-corruption agencies have shown little interest.

Mr Ganduje has since lost the support of more party leaders, including some state governors who backed him because they felt that was what the president wanted.

Last year, there were speculations that the president planned to name him ambassador to China to assuage his removal from the office of national chairman.

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In February, Mr Ganduje was saved from the sack by Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma, who moved a vote of confidence on President Tinubu and the party chairman at an APC NEC meeting.

However, the protest against him did not abate, culminating in the sudden Thursday confrontation with the party and government officials in Abuja.

After the meeting, Mr Ganduje reportedly moved his personal effects out of his office at the ruling party’s national secretariat in the Wuse 2 District of Abuja.

A few weeks ago, Mr Ganduje was caught in a storm at an APC North-east zonal meeting when he called for the endorsement of President Tinubu for renomination by the party for the 2027 election without asking for the same favour for Vice President Kashim Shettima, who is from the zone.

Security aides escorted him out when Mr Shettima’s irate supporters violently protested the omission.

It is not clear if that incident in Gombe at the Northeast zonal meeting of the APC hastened Mr Ganduje’s fall.