Shortly after assuming office as governor of Nasarawa State in 1999, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, eager to touch the lives of his people , among other things, launched a mass transit scheme which had the slogan, “On The Move.”
The locals, whom the busses were meant to serve however, could not relate with the elitist cadence of the phrase and were lost to its literal meaning.
What to do? They appropriated the slogan to what they assumed to be its homophonic equivalent, which coincidentally, rhymed with the name of the governor.
So, instead of ‘On-the-Move’ they settled for ‘A-da-mu.:
Hence, at anytime they sight any of On–The-Move busses approaching, they would gladly announce to one another, that “Adamu’ ya na zuwa” meaning Adamu is coming.
Last week, the man whose name was replaced with the slogan, a former minister; two term governor of Nasarawa State, three times senator and national chairman of the APC announced his retirement from active politics.
Though at 77, it would be considered normal to retire from any rigorous activity, in politics, there is hardly a retirement age.
This is more so for a national chairman who delivered his party at the last polls, whom one would have expected to stay and guide the new administration he helped put in place to settle down.
But Adamu has always shown that he is a politician cut from a different cloth from the politicians of today and who took his time as national chairman to make the point.
As chairman, he was ready to assert his authority and relive the old principle of party supremacy which does not go in line with present day politics where the chairman of the ruling party is expected to function like an appointee of the President.
As a former leader in the defunct NPN, Adamu must have felt nostalgic about how things were run during the 2nd Republic where the party was supreme and may have wanted to reinvent the APC to stand on that template similar to the structure Adisa Akinloye presided over in 1979.
Two decisions he took while in office support this narrative.
One, he openly supported former president of Senate, Ahmed Lawan to be the presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 elections.
It was about the first time, that a chairman of a party who was supposed to be neutral to all the candidates would take such a decision.
Nonetheless, Adamu did not not regret doing so as he explained later that that was before the primary and that once the party made its choice he worked for the candidate to win in the general elections.
Secondly, even when the presidency decided the Senate presidency should go to the South South and to specifically chose Senator Godswill Akpabio, Adamu as chairman, was of the opinion that the final decision should lie with the senators and should be decided on the floor of the Senate.
Again, this was like saying, the party had not taken a final decision on the matter.
But in case one is in doubt, the Sarkin Yakin Keffi offered later that he would be willing to disagree with the president on any matter because there’s freedom of speech in the country.
It is therefore not a coincidence that most of the 2nd Republic politicians who became national chairmen of ruling parties, from Solomon Lar to Audu Ogbe to Bamanga Tukur and Adamu did not survive to continue in the manner they were used to seeing things done in those days when every member of the party, no matter the political position submits to the party.
With his long years in politics, it would amount to missing the point to assume that Adamu was naive not to have known the repercussions of moving in a different direction from the presidency on any matter.
Having made what was considered a gaffe in the pre-election era, many expected he would have quickly realigned with the president and submit to his demand if only to make up for the original sin of not supporting his candidacy.
But with the benefit of hindsight, his insistence on acting independently many believe, must have been informed by an earlier decision to call it quits with politics after his stint as national chairman has ended and may have been led to take the decisions in order to leave a mark on party supremacy.
Whether he succeeded in doing that, only time will tell.
No doubt Adamu’s exit would create a vacuum in the politics of Nigeria as he has been very active in almost all the administrations since 1999 adding verve and vigour in every area he is involved.
The brinkmanship he brings to every contest is rare such that those on his side usually see him as the best thing to happen to politics while those opposed to him see him differently, from a negative lens.
But both sides respect his political sagacity.
During his first tenure as governor, he faced one of the the most daunting challenges in returning to office when two of the most formidable and dogged politicians in his state, then deputy Senate President, Haruna Abubakar and Adamu’s former deputy, Solomon Ewuga were eyeing his seat.
How he was able to keep the seat at their bay has remained one the most intriguing cases of political brinkmanship and can only be likened to Chuba Okadigbo’s ‘coup’ against Jim Nwobodo and Nnamdi Azikiwe when the duo, then of the NPP, almost seized the glory of Ojukwu’s return from exile but Okadigbo, who was of the NPN, through some political maneuvers, made sure they did not come near achieving that.
That the race for 2027 would be without such an exciting politician would rob it of the experiences that make politics interesting.
This writer wishes Adamu well in retirement hoping however that he will still be on the move in contributing to the development of Nigeria.
