Abdullahi Ganduje emerges new Chairman, APC

Former Governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has emerged as the new APC Chairman.

The new APC Chairman is not a stranger to politics having been involved in the domain since the second republic when he was elected as assistant secretary of the then ruling party in the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) of Kano State from 1979 To 1980 after he had lost elections to the House of Representatives in the general elections in the 1979 transition.

For the next decade largely under military rule, he was deeply involved in the development of the Federal Capital Territory from 1984 to 1994, engaged with the FCTA before he became the Kano Commissioner for Works, Housing and Transport in 1994.

As the fourth republic was ushered in by 1998, he joined the Peoples Democratic Party and contested and lost the gubernatorial primaries but later emerged as the deputy candidate to Rabiu Kwankwaso who served with him from 1999 to 2003, and again from 2011 to 2015 between which he served as a special adviser to his principal at the Federal Ministry of Defense from 2003 to 2007, and later as executive secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission in Ndjamena.

It was at the formation of the All Progressives Congress, when he defected alongside his then principal – Rabiu Kwankwaso to the new party away from the then ruling Party in 2014 that he began to build his own political platform. After emerging as the new party’s candidate and later the Governor in 2015, and winning another term in 2019 he was regarded as a serious player in Kano politics.

During his tenure in Kano, he was known for very controversial policies and statements, including his historic dethroning of the then populist Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as well the partitioning of the emirate of Kano into five constituent emirates that have since succeeded the ancient throne. He was further known for giant strides in infrastructure development in the state, as well as being political savvy even when he faced critical challenges.

His emergence as the new chairman of the ruling party under President Tinubu can be traced to his early and bold support for the President before the primaries and after, and his ability to deliver a decisive margin in Kano state for the ruling party against its closed competitor in the PDP despite losing to the upstart party formed by his former principal with whom he had already fell out.