It is not an easy task positioning your feet in two opposing camps. Ever heard of the saying that a friend of my enemy is also my enemy? That is the situation I have found myself since Prof. Iyorchia Ayu became the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I was warming up to meet with Prof. Ayu when, out of the blue, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu emerged as the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), all within a spate of one year.
In this clime and as far as politics is concerned, you are not supposed to be running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.
Now, let me give you a little background about my relationship with the two political heavyweights. Prof. Ayu and Sen. Abdullahi Adamu are both Jos folks. I knew Sen. Adamu as far back as when he was Secretary, BEPCO. BEPCO was a dwarf of Benue-Plateau Construction Company Ltd., Jos, established by the first Military Governor of Benue-Plateau State in the mid-70s or thereabouts.
As for my erudite friend, our paths crossed when I was editing the Sunday title of the Standard Group of Newspapers in the early 80s. Ayu was one of the many don friends I had at the University of Jos contributing to my paper. But Ayu was the most fearless and I always had the feeling that one day, he would put himself and my paper in trouble with his mordant pen with which he crafted his articles and press releases from the Unijos Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of which he was the Chairman.
It was Dan Agbese who once referred to the ASUU as a belligerent acronym. But what about Ayu (or is it Ayuu)? A combination of ASUU and Ayu (a dyed-in-the-wool Marxist) became too combative for the government of the day to handle.
It was with mixed feelings that I received the news of Ayu’s ministerial appointment into the cabinet of President Ibrahim Babangida in the mid-80s or thereabouts. On the day he was appointed, we drove in opposite directions around the Hill Station Hotel T-Junction in the afternoon and wove to each other only to hear of the news of his appointment on the 9pm NTA bulletin.
There were no cell phone services at the time. But I was able to catch up with him in his residence in Jos before he left to take up his new job. Prof. Ayu joined politics and became the Senate President between 1992 and 1993.
Curiously, our paths did not cross much when he began to climb up the political ladder. Presently beleaguered by the PDP G5 led by Governor Nyesome Wike, I do not expect a combative Ayuu to back off just like that. The Tiv nature in him would not allow him to do so! I tell you.
As for Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, his political trajectory began when he was picked as the Plateau state Secretary of the opposition National Party of Nigeria (NPN) when the military handed over power to a democratically elected government in 1979.
The ruling party in the old Plateau state was the Nigerian People’s Party or NPP with Chief Solomon Lar in the saddle. Abdullahi Adamu almost singlehandedly kept the ruling party on its toes. It got to a stage that any decisions to be taken by the state government would be preceded by “What will Abdullahi Adamu say?”
The Sarkin Yaki Keffi (War Commander) held the state government accountable to the people of the state. But some government officials were not comfortable with being kept on their toes when they were not into boxing! If Ayuu had a mordant pen, Abdullahi Adamuu could also boast of a mordant tongue. Adamu was so fearless and he constantly spoke truth to power. It was not for fun that he was given the war commander title. Adamu and I were very close buddies. I was like a brother to him.
However, his friendship with my Editor at the Standard Newspaper, Dan Agbese, did not go down well with some folks in the ruling party.
They wondered why the editor of a paper owned by the government in power would be so cozy with the man giving them sleepless nights. They needed to get Dan out. A sack letter was prepared and sent to Governor Lar for his signature. Dan was highly regarded by the governor and he did not see any reasons to relieve him of his position.
The pressure was still mounted on the governor when his counterpart in Benue, Aper Aku, got wind of Lar’s dilemma. It was such a huge relief for Lar when Dan was appointed as the General Manager, Radio Benue, in the early 1981 or thereabouts.
No one in government perceived any threat as far as my friendship with the Sarkin Yaki was concerned.
However, I was circumspect with my coziness with the war commander until the military took over power on December 31, 1983, and politics was forced to flee the scene. I lost contact with Adamu until Abacha named him as Secretary of State for Works and Housing. I was a regular caller at his Jos residence anytime he breezed in from Abuja. It was a happy reunion for both of us.
Again, we drifted apart and I missed the opportunity to meet him again when he became the first Executive Governor of Nasarawa state. I had gone to see my two bosom friends, Prof. Onje Gye Wado, who was Adamu’s Deputy, and Hon. Labaran Maku, the Commissioner for Information.
One thing that bogged my mind when politics returned in 1999 was how Adamu got his guber ticket to contest for the election in Nasarawa state on the platform of the PDP under the watch of its pioneer National Chairman, Chief Solomon Lar, who was Adamu’s political arch-foe.
In Solomon Lar and Abdullahi Adamu, I saw the immiscibility of oil and water. How did the duo come under one political roof?! I found no answer till date. Indeed, in politics, there are no permanent foes but permanent interests – p-o-l-i-t-i-c-s!
Lately, I have been seeing the Jagaban and the Turakin Adamawa exchanging banters and back-slapping each other in the open… not the belligerence of Tinubuu and Atikuu! And with what is happening between the two presidential candidates, I believe Sen. Adamu will not be extremely suspicious if he sees me in coziness with Sen. Ayu; neither will Ayu be so uncomfortable sighting Adamu and I in a bear hug, shimmying.
