Comrade Yohanna is the substantive Adamawa ADC chairman – Calculate
• Dismisses Arabi leadership claim, says its contrived, supported by enemies within
By Mohd Ismail
In this interview with newsmen, an African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain in Adamawa, Mr. Umar Bello Jada also known as Calculate has affirmed that Comrade Shehu Yohanna is the substantive chairman of the party.
His submission came on the heels of a renewed leadership crisis which he said was contrived by some fifth columnists who want to use the ADC platform to further their primordial and ulterior goals.
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Calculate who goes history lane to buttress his point noted that unlike other political parties that are smeared by prejudices, injustice and non compliance with the rule of law, ADC is a political party grounded on law, justice and fairness and will not condone the theatrics of bigots or selfish politicians who are out to attain their personal whims willy nilly.
Excerpts:
There are concerns that the ADC coalition which is the brainchild of the former vice president Atiku Abubakar is going through some teething challenges and currently embroiled in leadership crisis. With this wobbly start, do you think the party in Adamawa State will go far in view of the fact that it will face dominant parties in the state?
I want to assure you that there is no cause for alarm as far as ADC Adamawa chapter is concerned. There is no way a mega coalition like our own will come into play without some hiccups but we’re on top of the game. I want to also say that ADC is a party rooted on democratic principles of rule of law, equity, fairness and justice. And as a budding political party whose intention is to reset Nigeria, we will not toe the footprints of dominant political parties who have earned notorious reputation in circumventing all known democratic principles. The new ADC coalition is founded on the alter of law, order and respect for democratic norms and I promise our party will continue to tread that path.
But there are worries that even before it took off, the party is now balkanized between the Arabi Mustapha and Comrade Shehu Yohanna leadership. Are you saying that no such division exists in the party?
In Adamawa ADC we have only one substantive leadership. And that is the leadership of Comrade Shehu Yohanna. It is the substantive leadership recognized by the national secretariat of the party and the one currently in charge of Adamawa State affairs. The leadership crisis you are hearing is being instigated by some fifth columnists who want to introduce religious and ethnic crisis but we have told them in very unambiguous language that their shenanigans will not fly.
ADC is here for all and sundry and it symbolizes unity, law, order and respect for the rule of law. Atiku Abubakar’s intension to mobilize like minds to float the coalition did it with the intent to foster justice, unity and respect for constitutionality. And we shall ensure that spirit is respected against all odds especially in Adamawa as a sign of respect to the struggles and toils of the former vice president. We intend to religiously protect this lasting legacy put in place by our revered leader Atiku Abubakar and will not allow political vagabonds and urchins to tinker with it. This I promise we will do with all our might.
But while you are here insisting that Yohanna is the substantive chairman in Adamawa, the other group recognized Arabi as the substantive chairman. We learnt that this issue even led to confrontation during one of the party’s meetings in Abuja. What is your take?
In order to prove my point, it will be pertinent to go history lane so that you can understand the underlying politics behind the emergence of Comrade Shehu Yohanna leadership.
The party which was formed by some political allies of Obasanjo was first brought to Adamawa State by Sen. AbdulAziz Nyako following irreconcilable differences with governor Muhammad Umaru Jibrilla Bindow in the lead to the 2019 general elections.
At that time Yahaya Hammanjulde was the party chairman. It is a fact that ADC under the leadership of Sen AbdulAziz Nyako garnered about 140,000 votes during the governatorial election which is the reason why APC lost. After the election, APC did an introspection and a little arithmetic and came to the conclusion that had AbdulAziz remained in it, it would have surely won the election. So based on that, the party appealed to him to go back to its fold. After he was satisfied with the assurances, AbdulAziz Nyako together with his structure goes back into the party.
But Muhammad Shuwa who is a former adviser to governor Nyako refused to follow AbdulAziz back to APC. He remained in ADC on whose platform he contested the governorship election in 2023. But after AbdulAziz’s departure, ADC was left with no officials and based on that Shuwa ran to the party’s national secretariat and pledged to revive the party in order to pursue his gubernatorial ambition.
The national secretariat gave him the green light to form the protem exco but gave him three names that will feature as the protem chairman, secretary and youth leader. The national secretariat appointed Arabi Mustapha as protem chairman and Comrade Shehu Yohanna as the protem secretary, I forgot the name of the youth leader. They then gave Shuwa the mandate to complete the rest of the exco.
But a major fracas between Shuwa and Arabi erupted leading to irreconcilable differences which made Arabi to dump the party and moved back to APC. But while Arabi left, Shuwa and Comrade Shehu Yohanna soldiered on. So before general election, Shuwa went back to the national secretariat and told them that Arabi has dumped the party to APC. After confirming the veracity of the claims, the national secretariat appointed Shehu Yohanna as the protem chairman because of his loyalty. I could remember that Barr. Hassan Har was the legal Adviser of the party. So with that arrangement, the party conducted election across wards, LGAs and State where new substantive officials emerged with Comrade Shehu Yohanna as the chairman of the party.
It is on this strength that all correspondences between INEC and the national secretariat of the party were done by the Comrade Shehu Yohanna led exco ahead of the 2023 general elections. Comrade Shehu Yohanna led exco participated in the electoral process leading to the emergence of the zonal chairman of the party and the national chairman of the party in Zaria.
I’m surprised that all these years of agony, hardship and pains no one claimed to be the party chairman until the new coalition was midwifed. So anyone claiming that someone other than Shehu Yohanna is the chairman of Adamawa State chapter is day dreaming. I have told one of the leaders of that agitation to bury that ambition as it is dead on arrival. I told him in black and white that the labour of former vice president Atiku Abubakar in mobilizing this coalition will never be in vain. I told him internal party democracy must thrive in Adamawa ADC.
