Adamawa: How APC Can Regain Control In 2023 (Part 1)

By Tom Garba

The political hues in Adamawa have never been sharply pronounced. Usually, it is the right-of-centre kind of politics since the present dispensation began in 1999.

Another remarkable feature of politics here is the audacity of its opposition. Incumbency cannot be guaranteed to favour a party in power.

Despite this delicate balance, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held the Government House, Yola, until Governor Murtala Nyako, a naval admiral elected on the PDP platform, jumped ship to All Progressives Congress, an alliance of hardline, pro-North and South-West-inclined persuasions that later toppled PDP from a 16-year rule.

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Nyako’s remainder tenure as governor was mostly turbulent, as he played the cat-and-mouse game with the state parliament that eventually impeached him. He was succeeded, not necessarily in that order, by the deputy governor and the parliamentary speaker, who happens to be the incumbent governor, Rt Hon Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.

That game of musical chairs played and that era passed. Once bitten, twice shy but not for APC which launched a daring bid to recapture the gubernatorial seat and succeeded with Muhammad Umar Bindow. He ruled for one term only and crashed out due to a concert of forces from within and outside Adamawa.

No doubt, Nyako’s cross-party adventure must have gone a long way to embolden the opposition in a state where the seat of power can be anybody’s game. How and why gubernatorial power shifted from APC back to PDP will be considered in this analysis.

Truth be told, a large part of APC’s woes was caused by intraparty squabbles arising from avoidable selfish motives. This ugly state of affairs led to stakeholders willfully refusing to buy into the stake of their party. That was how electoral victory went to PDP. I hope it has dawned on everybody now in the buildup towards 2023. No doubt, PDP is oiling its guns for a second term bid.

History is bound to be repeated in a theatre where actors on the political stage neither learn nor are willing to learn the lesson taught by history. Have APC stakeholders learned anything? I doubt it but time will tell, so goes the cliché.

If indeed they have not learned, the apparent advantage of the president’s wife, Aisha Buhari, hailing from Adamawa will be a monumental waste to APC. I think her state of origin is the reason the scramble for the APC ticket to 2023 is arousing a do-or-die war in the party.

Another reason, stunning though, is the alleged plan by the Buharis to politically annex Adamawa for a soft landing for the first lady to remain relevant in post-2023 politics. If it is true, I daresay that it need not be so, for Mrs Buhari can still back a popular party and or candidates and still peddle weighty political influence after her days as the first lady at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

No political party succeeds well if it is fragmented or has a disunited membership. It is said the application of breakthroughs is carefully planned in wisdom when applied at the right time. I write in the firm belief that the internal party democracy is the best tool to stabilise politics in our nation.

I believe in fair play among political players, including the juggernauts who are capable and all the time able to break the hegemony of other players in and out of power. Any repeat of what happened in 2019 that led to APC losing is playing out again.

Why is it so? Why are negotiations and compromises not working in the Adamawa APC? Internal democracy, fair play, and unity of purpose will strengthen our democracy. Please, APC, be one, be the broom you all told the people of Adamawa that you are. You told Nigerians one undivided broom is what will sweep a dirty room or environment well. I would like to see the Nyakos in a sweet political romance with the Bindos, Marwas, Ngilaris, Modis, Gunduris, Ribadus, Binanis, Abbos, Bintas Babachirs, Bosses, Emma Bellos, the likes of Madawakis, Namdas, the likes of outspoken Abdullahi Ahmed Musa (Speaker) and even Wafaris holding a single sword of defence against eternal aggressors.

I think it is time to set aside egotism and primordial sentiments and work to win together. All power belongs to God and He gives it to whom he pleases.

Why not learn from the Ubuntu principles of corporate existence? By the fact that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.

My elders and the good people of the APC family, everyone amongst you needs to play a part, regardless of how small one may think it is. We all have a role to play and it’s of vital importance that our actions inspire others to want to be a part of a better and brighter future.

I want you all to have Ubuntu as a justice inclined principle, and particularly, justice for all people. As much as we must look after each other, it is also just as important that you exercise fairness and equality for all people regardless any differences.

Other than these, it’s still a gloomy and a dark cloud of total failure for the party in the coming 2023 election.

Tom Garba, Political Opinion writer
writes from Jimeta-Yola,
Adamawa state.
He can be reached through
08172570959