Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has broken his silence on his dramatic exit from the ruling party, declaring that he dumped the APC for the African Democratic Congress because the party had abandoned its founding ideals.
Adamu, who was formally received into the ADC on Thursday in Keffi, Nasarawa State, said his decision was driven by principle, conscience, and deep dissatisfaction with the direction of the APC. The former senator told party faithful that the ruling party had lost its moral compass, sidelined experienced members, and weakened internal democracy through intolerance for dissenting voices.
The 79-year-old politician, who served as APC national chairman from March 2022 until his abrupt resignation in July 2023, described the party he once led as a shadow of what it was at inception. According to him, the APC no longer practices the inclusive and consultative politics it promised Nigerians, choosing instead to marginalise senior figures and impose decisions from the top.
Adamu’s resignation as APC chairman came less than two months after President Bola Tinubu was sworn in, a development that fueled widespread speculation of internal power struggles. Though officially described as a resignation, many party insiders and political analysts have long argued that he was forced out due to his frosty relationship with Tinubu before and during the 2023 presidential election.
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In the buildup to the APC primaries in 2022, Adamu had openly declared former Senate President Ahmad Lawan as the party’s consensus presidential candidate, a move that angered Tinubu’s camp. Tinubu eventually defeated Lawan and 12 other aspirants to clinch the APC ticket and went on to win the presidential election, deepening the rift within the party’s leadership.
A former two-term governor of Nasarawa State between 1999 and 2007 under the Peoples Democratic Party, Adamu later represented Nasarawa West in the Senate after his election in 2007. In 2014, he was among the PDP senators who defected to the APC during the political realignment that led to the party’s rise to power.
Since leaving office as APC chairman, Adamu had largely stayed out of the public eye, with the circumstances surrounding his exit remaining controversial. His move to the ADC is now seen as a significant boost for the opposition party, especially amid growing political realignments ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Political observers say Adamu’s defection underscores widening cracks within the APC and signals deeper battles over ideology, leadership, and control of the party machinery. For the ADC, his entry adds weight to its claim of becoming a serious alternative platform for disaffected political heavyweights.
