The preferred candidate of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for the position of the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, was ratified as the new party chairman late Saturday night.
Checks by The PUNCH showed that Adamu was removed as the Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum in 2018 for alleged “financial mismanagement and maladministration”. He had since denied the allegation.
Here are 10 things to know about Adamu, who emerged as APC national chairman after six other aspirants stepped down.
1 – Adamu, the first Governor of Nasarawa State, was born on July 6, 1945, at Keffi. He started his education at the age of 7 at Abdu Zanga Primary School, Keffi and completed it at the Laminga Senior Primary School in 1959. His Post-Primary education started at the now Government Secondary School, Makurdi from 1960 to 1962, from where he proceeded to Government Technical College, Bukuru from 1963 to 1965.
2 – He proceeded to the Kaduna Polytechnic where he read and obtained a National Diploma in Building and Civil Engineering and graduated in 1968. He went for Higher National Diploma at Kaduna Polytechnic and completed in 1970. He obtained a Law degree from the University of Jos in 1992.
3 – His stint with politics began in 1977 when he was elected into the Constituent Assembly, a body that drafted the country’s Second Republic Constitution of 1979. Thereafter, he became a pioneer member of the National Movement which later metamorphosed into the National Party of Nigeria. He was the Secretary and later Chairman of the NPN in Plateau State and also a member of the National Executive Committee of the party.
4 – In 1980, as a result of his enormous contribution to society, he was honoured with the prestigious title of SARKIN YAKIN KEFFI by His Royal Highness, the Emir of Keffi, Alhaji Chindo Yamusa II.
5 – He was appointed a member of the National Constitutional Conference convened by the General Sani Abacha Administration for the drafting of a constitution for a new democratic government.
6 – In March 1995, he was appointed a Minister of State in the Ministry of Works and Housing of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where he served up to November 17, 1997. During his tenure, he actively participated in the UN-sponsored programme for urban, housing, and environmental development known as “habitat II”. He led the Nigerian delegation to the conference in Istanbul, Turkey, in June/July 1996.
7 – He became a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party and contested for the position of the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State on its platform. He won the elections conducted on 9th January, 1999. He was subsequently sworn in as the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State on May 29, 1999.
8 – After the end of his two-term governorship, he was the PDP candidate for the Nasarawa West Senatorial seat in the April 2011 elections and was elected with 121,414 votes, while his closest rival, retired General Ahmed Abdullahi Aboki of the Congress for Progressive Change, polled 93,050 votes.
9 – On January 29, 2014, he and 10 other PDP senators joined the APC.
10 – In the Senate, Adamu was appointed the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture. He also chaired the Northern Senators Forum but was removed in 2018 for alleged “financial mismanagement and maladministration,” according to a letter from the Forum signed by its then spokesperson, Dino Melaye, and read on the floor of the upper chamber by the then Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
The letter read, “This is to inform the Senate that majority of members of the Northern Senators Forum have removed Senator Abdullahi Adamu as the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum for financial mismanagement and maladministration. We announce his replacement with Senator Aliyu Wamakko immediately. Find the attached names and signatories of members.”
However, Adamu had since denied the allegation, saying that he was removed for rejecting the passage of the election sequence by the senate.
