The Rise and Fall of ANPP in Adamawa State

By

Zayyad I. Muhammad

National President, National

Union of Jimeta Students

zaymohd@yahoo.com

The political terrain of Adamawa State is of immense important to political observers and the political class, both within and outside the state; being the home state of the current Vice President of Nigeria and the history of the state of producing many bigwigs in the political scene of Nigeria .

In an ideal democratic environment, opposition is a fundamental institution, therefore the need for strong, vibrant and focused opposition party in the system is indispensable, but the situation in Adamawa State is a case study, as the party expected to play the role, is in a state of disarray.

The All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) Adamawa State, started with humble beginning, with first conveners; like Senator Mahmud Waziri, Dr. Bala Takaya, Chief Medan Teneka, Senator Hamman Bello Mohammed, Barrister Bala Ngilari, Mohammed Koiranga Jada, Alhaji Saleh Michika(former governor of Adamawa state), Alhaji Abdulrahman Adamu jimeta, Comrade Pascal Baiyau, Senator Manasa T.B. Daniel and Barrister Ambros Mamadi, these people are clearly a true reflection of the geo-political balance in Adamawa State.

ANPP has been bedeviled by problem right from it inception in Adamawa State , as the first state executive was appointed by proxy, whereby each of the party convener appoints his proxies to represent him at the executive. The result was incessant intra-party fracas which lead to the removal of the first state chairman of the Party, chief Medan Teneke barely three weeks to the then 1999 local government elections, Teneke was replaced by Farouk Jauro, who was removed a week to the 1999 gubernatorial election, Sadiq Haske took over he was also sacked six months after he assumed office, Sa’adu M.C. Tahir took over, Tahir was in office for only one month, he was forced to resign and Mr. Polycarp S. Kaigama assumed the chairmanship position. The appointment of Mr. Kaigama brought along fierce intra-party battle, as all attempt to remove him prove difficult, this led to the setting up of parallel state executive led by Alh. Rabiu Damina, which factionalized the party; after the end of these parallel chairmanship; Alh. Yayaji Audu Gombi took over the position of chairmanship of the party, he was recently replaced by Ahmed Mahmud, interestingly the party had produced nine chairman while it rival the P.D.P. had only one right from inception to date. Out of the eleven conveners of the party only three are toady in the party and out of the nine chairmen produced by the party, only three are today in the party this situation has lead to the lack of discipline and resources in the party, here resources meant not only finance but also individual with outstanding knowledge, experience and political tactics.

In any organization conflicts do exist, but serious organization have conflict resolution mechanism; conflict resolution mechanisms of any political party are discipline, loyalty and leadership that look beyond today.

As a enthusiast of system thinking, I see political parties as naturally open systems, that accept input and output and build a leadership hierarchy base on parallel subsystem arrangement; whereby the failure of one subsystem in the leadership hierarchy will not affect the entire systems; but the ANPP in Adamawa State is today a closed system with a leadership hierarchy arrange in series subsystem where the failure of one sub system affect the entire system, this resulted in the party to have a stiff narrow entry point into the party and a wide open exist door out of the party; many individual with large followers leaving the party like flying insects scattering, which make the leadership of the party to develop a hocus pocus attitude.

In an ever changing Nigerian politics, where issue oriented and all inclusive politics is overtaking sentiments, for any political party to make an impact on the political landscape of   Adamawa, a strong and wide spread membership in the five political zones of the state is a most. The zones comprise the northern zone, the central zone, Numan federation. Ganye chiefdom and the Mayo Belwa axis, a critical look at the ANPP’s presence in these zones shows a diminishing party followership.

In the northern zone, the party has only two recognizable party bigwig, Musa Kamale and Paul Wanpana, who are new comers to the party, in the Numan federation, only medan Teneke is left in the party and one man cannot make a forest, in the Ganye chiefdom and Mayo Belwa axis, the party presence can be simply describe as at a zero level. The only valuable asset left to the party in the central zone, is the national vice chairman Northeast.

Interestingly, the party made a surprising gain in the central zone during the 2003 general elections, where the party got a member in the House of Representatives from Yola North, Yola South and Girei and two state house of assembly members. But the opposite was the case for the just concluded local government election, as the party swam in a pool of defeats, in Yola North and Yola South. Three things were responsible for these, first the party has lost many party strategist in the Jimeta-Yola axis who play major role in the party hitherto victory, people like Alhaji Yusuf Danumma, secondly the rival P.D.P. had planned well, for the election in armed with today’s ‘Giant of Jimeta politics’Alhaji Danjuma Jalo. Thirdly, five days to the election, ANPP announce the removal of her Youth wing leader in Yola North, these three things couple with the change in support from the people of Jimeta and Yola, and judicial court verdict on the gubernatorial election tussle between Gov Boni Haruna of the PDP and Adamu Muazu of the ANPP, which demoralized ANPP members, adversely affected the party’s fortunes.

For any political party to remain relevant in our today’s Nigerian politics, the party need to be productive, proactive, pragmatic and responding to change, the greatest fall out of the ANPP in Adamawa state, is the party had never had a congress either ward, local or state level, to elect party stewards or candidates, this was the major reason that wound-up the party with hoity-toity compaing in the 2003 gubernatorial election which led to a one man show, for the party to make an impact on Adamawa political scene, it has to go to every valley, push every limit and undergo massive well planned rehabilitation, not a one day or one year rehabilitation but a long term process.

The latest development in any political party can make one to speculate the future of the party, certainly the ANPP will come out with a poor dossier comes 2007 election, as the Adamawa people are gearing toward making one of their own, vice president Atiku Abubakar the president of Nigeria.

In today’s ANPP Adamawa, right seems to be left ups are going downs, things are in perpetual oscillation, the party is today a mosquito legged elephant any move can lead the party to entropy.

Zayyad I. Muhammad

National President, National

Union of Jimeta Students

zaymohd@yahoo.com.