Adamawa Politics: Beyond Tribunal’s Verdict
The decision of Adamawa State Election Petition Tribunal led by Justice Ayodele Akinwarele to nullified the election of Gov. Murtala Nyako of PDP; was long anticipated, these public anticipations were based on judgment passed by Justice Bako Maikeita-led Kogi State Election Tribunal, where the case was similar to that of Adamawa, and, the Adamawa State Election Petition Tribunal had earlier nullified the elections of four members of the State House of Assembly: Mohammed Hassan Turaki of PDP representing Yola-North, for INEC’s wrongful exclusion of Labour Party’s Jonathan Thomas Daniel , Ahmed Mahmud of the PDP representing Yola-South, for INEC’s unconstitutional exclusion of Ibrahim Waziri of ANPP, Audu B. Ngete of PDP representing Shelleng constituency for INEC’s unconstitutional exclusion of ANPP’s candidate , while Gibson Nathaniel of AC, representing Guyuk Constituency, was ordered to vacate office for Wilson Windezibiri of PDP.
The November 15th judgment has once again open the complex Adamawa political terrain, which is to some extend is similar to that of larger Nigeria. Both parties have indicated their willingness to appeal against the judgment. So, it is now clear, the battle for the soul of Adamawa politics will be fought at two battlegrounds: at Court chambers and at ballot boxes. Both sides choose to appeal against the judgment for obvious reasons— Atiku has become a judicial process stickler, and the AC candidate, Ibrahim Bapetel, despite the fact that, INEC had announced his disqualification at the eve of the election, his supporters went on to vote for him, apart from his votes that were not counted in some Local Government Areas, the man had 316,000 votes which were invalidated by INEC, while Nyako was declared winner for having 336,000 votes. So, Bapetel believes, a-court-ordered votes recount would give him the keys to Government House Yola. The PDP and Nyako on the other hand, will use the appeal period to buy time for the elections. And in judicial battle, anybody can a winner or a loser.
Well, apart from the legal battle, the most important battle is the one that will fought at the ballot boxes, and it will be a straight fight between two old arch-rivals, who during the peak period of Obasanjo/Atiku feud, each has a name dubbed to it by ordinary man on the street—The Obasanjo camp led by Jibril Aminu, was popularly referred as ‘PDP mai bindiga’ (PDP by the barrel of the Gun), while the Atiku’s faction, was called (PDP of the people). Well, that was then, now the Nigerian political scenario has completely change— the Obasanjo/Atiku feud is no more; no one will milk from it. The battlefield is wide open; and Abuja support will not be there. Thus, in this current dispensation of complete adherence to rule of law and non-interference, to many politicians, facing the electorates would make them piss in their pants. But how would the battle be fought? As the pre-2007 political scenarios have gone into thin air. How would politicians tackle new issues that will now be major determinant factors of who get what? It appears both sides are ready to use every political-arsenal available to them. To Gov. Nyako, he has the incumbency advantage, while Atiku/Boni/Bapetel side will capitalized on the so many flaws of Nyako Government.
Baba Mai Mangoro (the farmer) as Gov. Nyako is popularly called in Adamawa, is a good team player and, an elderly responsible Gentleman caught in the midst of political horse trading, scheming and deceits. His candidature and government were bedeviled with controversies, crisis, and sentiments since birth, so to speak. It all started on November 23 2006, the day Nyako was drafted to join the Adamawa PDP governorship primaries; this led to a situation where the other nine contestants were denied fair opportunity to contest for the PDP ticket. From then, the public started to watch with keen interest the unfolding events. From the beginning, Nyako’s candidature was surrounded with a certain negative public impression. The best thing Nyako could have done immediately after he assumed the governorship position was to diffuse the negative public impression about his candidature. But instead, his first appointments and actions were characterized with lopsidedness, egoism and sentiments, which seriously tinkered the delicate geographical, ethnic and religion balance of Adamawa. This has led to serious public resentment against his government, which came to forefront at the day Adamawa State House of Assembly was to elect its speaker; the choice of PDP and Gov. Nyako was Hassan Turaki representing Yola-North constituency, but the House rebelliously elected James Barka of Hong constituency, despite the fact that Gov. Nyako and the PDP hierarchy were there present in the House.
Well, as earlier mentioned, Nyako is a man taken in hostage by two men: Former Deputy Governor Bello Tukur—Nyako’s current chief of staff and Senator Jibril Aminu; who, out of desperation to have relevance in Adamawa politics, and secure temporally relief, are all out for what they termed vengeance! Furthermore, the greatest beneficiary of all the politicking is Senator Jibril Aminu , who without remorse, is scheming to consolidate his staying as the most senior person from Adamawa at the Centre— when the slot for the Secretary to the federal government was allocated to the northeast, the idea was to compensate Adamawa state, but Jibril Aminu presented Saidu Ahmed a former Director in PPMC and Gidado Tahir a former provost of FCE Yola, who were squarely defeated by Baba Gana Kingibe from Borno state; then came the ministerial slot, Senator Jibril Aminu smuggled the name of his Personal Assistant Dr. Idi Hong, who can only muscled a portfolio of Minister of State in the Culture and Tourism Ministry; this is the first time in the history of Nigeria, Adamawa was allocated slot of a Minister of State.
If election is be to held today, in Adamawa, an interesting high-wired political drama will come to play, which will put the Nyako government in horns of dilemmas and put Jibril Aminu and his group in catch-22 situation: there will be internal power and supremacy struggle within the PDP, as political blocks such as the ones control by Senator Jonathan Zwingina, Koiranga Jada, Pascal Bafiyau, Adamu Modibbo, Senator Abubakar Girei, Dahiru Bobbo, Col Aliyu Kama and Joel Madaki were either denied government patronage, schemed out of party activities or entirely driven out of the party, the hardest hit was Gen Buba Marwa, after he lost his bid to become President of Nigeria, he was later given northeast PDP zonal presidential campaign coordinator, which was later taken away from him, then came ministerial appointment, which he was also schemed out of , the man has to struggle from day to night and crawl from one pole to another for him to get ambassadorial screening from Senate Committee on foreign affairs, despite the fact, senator Jibril Aminu is the Chairman of the Committee.
Now that the political space in Adamawa is wide open, many old political bigwigs would like to make their mark. For sure, Bamanga Tukur will put to action his 1983 and 1992 political machinery— the Kontigi Movement, which was instrumental to his becoming the Governor of Former Gongola State. Mahmud Waziri would like to ‘ strike the shepherd so as to scare the sheep’, likewise David Juta, Bala Takaya, Saleh Michika and many others. Another important point is, the Fulani socio-cultural-economic organization, the Kautal Pulaka, which controls over 80% of Adamawa economy and constitutes 28% of Adamawa population, for thousands of years it has built a strong cultural and social relationship with other minority ethnic groups who collectively constitutes nearly 70% of Adamawa population, it will seriously frown at a situation where someone, in ‘one evening’, will destroy this its strong tied with other groups. Apart from all these political groups threats, the one that will be a big nightmare to Nyako/Jibril Aminu political grouping is, Atiku Abubakar political dynasty, in Adamawa, Atiku is like what Italians called: politico capo di tutti capi —political boss of all bosses. As events continue to unfold in Adamawa, for sure, Nigerians will be treated to threads of high-wired politics full of horse-trading, deceits, shear politicking and of course big losers and winners.
Zayyad I. Muhammad wrote in from Jimeta, Adamawa State
zaymohd@yahoo.com