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The
scenarios in the final lap of the race to Government House Yola can best
be likened to the American book series- the X-factor.
All charaters featured in the X-Factor are spin-off of the
popular five X-Men: Angel, a millionaire heir who flew by means of two
feathery wings extending from his back. Beast, who possessed ape-like
strength and agility. Cyclops who emitted powerful "optic blasts" from
his eyes and was the leader of the X-Men. Jean Grey who possessed
telepathic and telekinetic powers, and Iceman, who could generate ice
and cover his body in a layer of ice for protection. The X-Men
recruited a group of young wards: Artie, a pink-skinned, mute child who
could project hologram-like images of his thoughts. Boom Boom who could
create "plasma bombs", Rusty Collins, who could create and control fire
, Leech a green-skinned young boy, who dampened the mutant powers of
those around him, Rictor, who produced powerful shockwaves, and Skids
who projected a protective force field around. In a real life
situation, no One can win a battle against the X-Men. However, former
Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako, has found himself in catch-22
situation similar to that of facing the X-Men in a battlefield.
Nyako
found himself in the difficult situation for quite some reasons: The
battle for Adamawa Governorship seat will not be between Action Congress
(AC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), but rather between one
small clique and a colossal of different political interest groups.
There are serious internal squabbles in Adamawa State chapter of the PDP.
This is due to the sidelining of some notable party members; it all
started when other nine governorship aspirants were disqualified and
Nyako was imposed as the party candidate. The structure of Adamawa PDP
can best be describe as a kith and kin thing- the state party chairman,
Mijinyawa Kugama is Nyako’s neighbour at their village, the party
chairman in Mayo Belwa- Nyako’s Local Government Area, Yusuf Hamman Yaro,
is Nyako’s blood brother. These, including the fear that the small
clique would loss their grab on the party’s structures are the reasons
why no PDP congresses were held in Adamawa, despite the fact that the
tenure of the party executives has ended. Though, recently a Federal
High Court in Yola has ordered the party executive to stop parading
themselves as leaders of the party in Adamawa state.
Second on
the list of odds against Nyako was his fight against the traditional
institution; their monthly allocation was drastically reduced. One of
the most amazing things that happened during Nyako’s nine months stay as
Governor was the issuance of a query to Ganwarin Ganye, a highly
respected first class traditional ruler, the reason for the query was
for some ridiculous political reasons, not worth mentioning.
Another
factor that would be an impediment to Nyako’s comeback bid is; his
government was hijacked by third-rate politicians, who painted it with
monumental corruption, nepotism, arrogance and absolute disregards to
the cultural complexities of Adamawa State- in short, Nyako’s nine
months tenure was characterised by ‘we’ and ‘they’ impression.
A big
burden to Adamawa PDP and to Nyako is Senator Jibrin Aminu. The Senator
is well-read, but highly controversial and chauvinist. His ways of doing
things at all times are in contrast to the characters of leaders that
are just, and his politics are at poles-apart with the wishes of all
Adamawa people. Though, the senator’s proclivity to controversies is no
more news, it is his nature. One can recall that, he boldly wrote on his
office desk, ‘DO IT MY WAY’ during his
controversy-ridden tenure as Vice Chancellor of University of Maiduguri.
With
these heaps of impediments against Murtala Nyako’s comeback bid, the man
has centred all his hope on the expectation that President Yar’Adua will
use the instruments of the State to install him as Governor, as it was
done in the 2007 elections. But would President Yar’Adua
enthusiastically interfere? The most interesting part of Adamawa
Governorship race is, the end-game would involve high
wired-politics, scheming, settling of old scores, and outright
deception. It would be to political gladiators a weapon for future
political negotiations and response to several accusations.
Going
back to the earlier question whether President Yar’Adua will interfere
or not; Yar’Adua has three options: first not to interfere, to allow for
free and fair elections so as to score a political point both nationally
and internationally. Secondly is to interfere to settle an old political
score with Senator Jibrin Aminu – Senator Aminu had on several occasions
betrayed late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua; from his walked-away on the
General at their Katsina meeting, to his backstabbing of the General
during the Abacha organised constitutional conference; which led to the
arrest of the General and to his eventual death.
The third
option Yar’Adua has is to play ‘politics’ with Adamawa governorship
elections, so as to use it as an instrument for negotiation with Atiku
and also as a weapon in responding to AC, especially at the Supreme
Court. This is the end-game Prof. Maurice Iwu will love most – the man
would for certain say ‘Now I supervised an
election and you won, why not accept the previous one I did supervised
’.
As the
April 12, 2008 Adamawa governorship election draws near, former Gov.
Murtala will continue to have sleepless night, as the odds against him
are enormous and high-wired politics will be part of the determinant
factors of the election results, though the Adamawa people will have the
final say.
Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Jimeta, Adamawa state
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