Chamba Simeh
More than any other state in Nigeria, Adamawa state has arguably dominated the nation’s political discourse for the better part of 2014. Events playing out in the state’s political arena – from former governor Murtala Nyako’s ‘toxic’ letter to President Goodluck Jonathan on Boko Haram insurgency, the governor’s defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), his impeachment alongside his deputy Barrister Bala James Ngilari, Fintiri’s brief reign, to Ngilari’s legal triumph and the impending impeachment of Fintiri – offer some classics to political scientists.
But the main actor in the drama that almost brought darkness to the Sunshine state seems to be Ahmadu Adamu Fintiri. Fintiri has been going forth and back as speaker of the state House of Assembly, acting governor and speaker of the state House of Assembly. This sudden vicissitude in fate is probably traceable to the ignoble role played by Fintiri in the controversial impeachment of Nyako and the purported resignation of his deputy.
The mystery shrouding the impeachment process and the disrespect for constitutional provisions in ousting the erstwhile deputy governor gave away Fintiri as doing the hatchet man’s job for selfish consideration of becoming governor of Adamawa state. Unfortunately, the episode turned out to be a pyrrhic victory for Fintiri, who had to swallow the humble pie by reverting to his position as speaker from being the state’s acting governor.
Fintiri, for all intents and purposes, had stepped on sore toes in his roughshod voyage to the government house in Yola. Apparently acting out his master’s script to punish Nyako for his dare-devil assault on President Jonathan as well as reclaim Adamawa state from APC, which has posed serious threat to the domineering PDP, Fintiri over-stepped his bounds. The speaker, who felt threatened by the inevitability of Ngilari succeeding Nyako as governor, orchestrated the then deputy governor’s exit from power by political and legal subterfuge.
Ngilari’s emergence as governor would have altered the zoning arrangement and power sharing formula in Adamawa state. This is because both Fintiri and Ngilari hail from the same town of Michika in Madagali local government area of the state. The implication is that the duo cannot hold the offices of governor and speaker simultaneously; a situation that is repugnant to the spirit and letter of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the PDP’s constitution.
In what could be described as a democratic coup, Fintiri had his way in toppling both Nyako and Ngilari, albeit temporarily, but the political activism in Fintiri robbed him of his sense of rationalism; he could not keep his cool. He allowed his accidental rise to power to get into his head, making reckless remarks and upstaging the status quo and political landscape of Adamawa state. Basking in the euphoria of his breakthrough, Fintiri, of the minority extraction in the state, sarcastically made a statement to the effect that he had broken the Fulani Calabash in Adamawa politics, implying that he had finally broken the jinx of the Fulani political hegemony in Adamawa state.
Expectedly, this unsavoury innuendo drew the ire of the majority Fulani ethnic nationalities in Adamawa state who vowed to see to the fall and political asphyxiation of Fintiri. Consequently, the gates, as it were, were firmly shut against Fintiri’s campaign train in places like Maiha, Toungo, and Ganye. Sensing the ominous signs of losing the state to the APC candidate Senator Jibrilla Bindo who, though hails from the minority Jaiye speaking tribe of Mubi North local government area of the state, was loved among the Fulani because of his linguistic and cultural affinity with them, the PDP leadership began to plot to get Fintiri out of the way.
PDP’s apprehension over Fintiri was amplified by his seeming unfaithfulness to the agreement that gave him the party’s gubernatorial ticket for the botched October 11 bye election in Adamawa state. It was agreed that Fintiri should run for gubernatorial bye election and quit the stage for a new candidate in 2015. But the party fears he may not honour this gentleman’s pact.
It was in this milieu of political calculus that the Federal High Court, Abuja came to the aid of the PDP leadership. The court had on October 8, ruled that Ngilari’s resignation prior to the impeachment of Nyako by the state legislature was unconstitutional. The court ordered that Ngilari be immediately sworn in as the fourth chief executive of Adamawa state since its creation in 1991.
Fintiri, who had to return to his former office as speaker, is however facing a new hurdle of the threat of impeachment. 17 lawmakers in the Adamawa state House of Assembly are warming up to begin the impeachment process of the former acting governor of the state. The lawmakers accuse Fintiri of having failed to fulfill his part of the agreement held prior to the impeachment of Nyako, and the impromptu resignation of Ngilari to pave the way for him to rule the state.
The planned impeachment is also necessitated by the imperative to adhere to the spirit of spread of political offices as enshrined in the party’s constitution as Fintiri and Ngilari are from the same town, Michika. How the cookies crumble!
