The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently entered into an agreement with some Adamawa state governorship aspirants under its platform, including the Acting Governor, Ahmadu Umar Fintiri not to contest the seat in 2015 as the position has been zoned to the Central. SAMUEL OGIDAN writes on the agreement and whether the acting governor and flag bearer of the party would breach the agreement if he wins the bye-election scheduled for October 11
Agreement breaches are not strange in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Several gentleman agreements have been broken in times past. Reneging on agreements has brought serious acrimony to the party to the extent that suspicions reign supreme in the ranks and files of the party till date.
Founded in 1998, PDP it was learnt had an agreement to rotate presidency between the North and South with two term tenure of eight years per region. This gentleman agreement, however, suffered a setback when former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a southerner nursed the ambition of third term, which helped to polarise and erected a bridge of discord in the party.
As if that was not enough, when former President Musa Yar’Adua died, his Vice, Goodluck Jonathan through the doctrine of necessity upheld by the Senate, became the President and not only completed Yar’Adua’s tenure but started a new one in 2011.
Controversy has been trailing his administration on the ground that there was an agreement that he would only complete the tenure of Yar’Adua and handover to the North to complete the remaining four years, according to the PDP rotational agreement, but Jonathan has allegedly stuck to his gun to complete his eight years with his posters and jingles everywhere in the country to also contest the 2015 general election. Even though he has not formally declared his ambition, about 8000 campaign organisations with members running into 80 million have been rooting for him, while stakeholders from the six geo-political zones have also been calling on him to declare his intention.
The agreement to rotate positions according to the party was also to be replicated in the state governorship within the senatorial districts, this has also suffered a setback and polarised the state across population, religion and ethnic divide. Some of the districts that believed they have the population always find it difficult to give way to the lesser ones to have a shot at the governorship even though it was an agreement in the party to rotate the position.
This crisis of interest may been re-enacted in the coming months as Adamawa prepares for its bye-election scheduled for October 11 and by extension 2015 general election.
When Adamawa state House of Assembly impeached Governor Murtala Nyako and his deputy, James Ngilari, the Speaker of the House, Ahmadu Umar Fintiri assumed the position of Acting Governor and when Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared a date for bye-election, Fintiri indicated interest to run for the governorship with the submission that he would complete the tenure of Nyako.
The leadership of PDP had declared that in 2015, Adamawa governorship would be zoned to the Central zone and Fintiri, who is from the Northern district of the state attested to the fact that the position has been zoned to the Central and as such would only complete Nyako’s tenure and would not contest in 2015.
“It is my wish I will not contest in 2015, but if the Adamawa people insist, I will contest. We are contesting for 2014, section 191 (2) of the Constitution says whoever emerge will serve the remaining period of the last administration,” Fintiri said.
He however acknowledged that for equity and justice it is the turn of the Adamawa Central senatorial zone. But two Wednesdays ago, Fintiri, who was on a courtesy visit to the PDP National Chairman, Ahmed Adamu Muazu, at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, when asked about the zoning arrangement and his agreement not to participate in the 2015 governorship election said “only God will tell.”
The statements “if the Adamawa people insist, I will contest,” and “only God will tell,” are pregnant with meaning and political analysts were already foreseeing a scenario whereby the acting governor, if he emerged as the winner of the October 11 bye-election may breach the agreement with the party.
The leadership of the party, it would be recalled, had held a meeting chaired by Senate President, David Mark at the Villa with the 14 aspirants vying for the governorship ticket where about eight stepped down so as to participate in the 2015 general election.
The meeting was attended by Governors of Gombe and Bauchi States, PDP Deputy National Chairman, Political Adviser to the President, Principal Secretary to the President, Chairman and Secretary of Adamawa PDP.
Those who stepped down were: Nuhu Ribadu, Auwal Tukur, Aliyu Idi Hong, Andrawas Sawa, James Barka, Aliyu Kama, Markus Gundiri and Abubakar Girei and those who contested the primary were: Ahmed Gulak, Buba Marwa, Ahmed Modibbo, Umar Ardo, Acting Governor Umaru Fintiri, and Jerry Kumdisi.
Addressing journalists at a press conference in Abuja, the National Secretary of PDP, Prof. Wale Oladipo had said that a consensus has been reached with all the 14 aspirants, with eight agreeing to withdraw, while six voluntarily stepped down. He added that whoever wins under the party’s ticket in the October 11 poll would not contest in 2015. He revealed that the already completed and submitted nomination and expression of Interest forms paid by those who have voluntarily withdrawn from the 2014 race remain valid for the 2015 contest.
According to him, “the present contest is about the completion of the tenure of the impeached governor (Murtala Nyako) of the State. Only six aspirants chose to contest in 2014 and forfeit their right to contest in 2015 should they win the 2014 race.”
Prof. of the 14 aspirants who signed the agreement was coerced to do so, adding that Fintiri voluntarily signed the document which agreed that the next governor of the state in next year’s poll would emerge from Adamawa Central Senatorial District.
On Fintiri’s insistence to contest against the wish of the party, Prof Oladipo said: “No, no, no, he will not. Whoever wins now will not insist. I can assure you of that”.
He averred that as Secretary of the Committee that brokered the agreement with the contestants, they won’t go back on their words. The PDP chieftain explained that ‘safeguards’ have been put in place to ensure that none of them renege on their promise not to contest next year’s election.
He said: “We didn’t force any candidate to step down. I was the Secretary of the Committee that met with them and what happened was we pointed it out that whoever wins now, it will be morally wrong for whoever wins now to contest the 2015 election.
“Meaning that such a person will only rule the place till the expiration of original term of Murtala Nyako (in 2015). And eight of them voluntarily withdrew that they would prefer to wait and contest the 2015 election. Nobody was forced. We don’t have a class captain in PDP. The agreement was robust, solid and voluntary.
“The person himself was the one who said ‘If I win, I will not contest,’ so nobody is taking anything away. And in PDP, you should know that we are family. And we don’t have any domineering dictator here. We all discussed, we reached agreement and we move out as a team and that is what we are going to do in Adamawa State.”
Responding to a question on the ‘pact’ allegedly signed in 2010 with President Goodluck Jonathan, he said: “Unfortunately, you know I was not Secretary then, so I was not privy to whatever agreement. But now, I’m the National Secretary and I was also the Secretary of the Committee that brokered that agreement. We have put in place safeguards whoever wins – I’m telling you, you can quote me on that – will not contest for 2015. And in any case, the primary for 2015 will take place in a month.”
Going by the experience of past events where politicians find it difficult to stick to agreement, Nigerians would not be surprise if Fintiri agreement with PDP is breached in the coming months because power it is said intoxicate and if Fintiri won the bye-election and knowing the glamour and grandeur that is associated with power would he not back out of the agreement and when pressurise decamp to the opposition party?
Fintiri has been accused of being a card carry member of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). A group under the aegis of Concerned Youths for Good Governance in Adamawa state had petition the Chairman, Adamawa State Governorship Screening Committee.
The group had said the acting governor is a card carrying member of the APC and did not seek waiver from the party to make him eligible to contest the election. In the petition signed by the group’s leader, Ahmed Ya’uba said, “The fulcrum of democracy is observance of law and order and respect of laid down rules and regulations. It is also the basis on which our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) commands a lot of respect and popular acceptance in this country. It is therefore for this that whenever we see the party being misled to act in contempt of its own spelt out rules and regulations, we as loyal members of the party would have to act quickly to abort subversion of the cherished democratic credentials of the PDP.
“It is therefore for this reason that we write to draw the attention of the Screening Committee and other organs of the party’s leadership to the imminent swindling of the party by the acting governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri who is legally not qualified to vie for the governorship, or any other position for that matter, being a returnee who has not been granted a waiver.
“Mr. Chairman, the said Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, like many other officials of the last administration of the state, had decamped from our party, the PDP, and subscribed to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“Ahmadu Umaru had actually registered with the APC during its membership drive in February at his Kirshinga unit of K/Wuro Ngayandi ward of Madagali Local Government, with the following details: Name: Umoru Ahmadu, Reg No: 05009281, Tel: 08058536087, Gender: Male, Age: 44 Yrs
“To our knowledge, Ahmadu Umaru, having purportedly returned to the PDP, had not applied for waiver to contest for any position, thus he was never granted same by any organ of the party. He has also not returned his APC membership card to his Ward chairman, thus keeping one of his legs in that party. We are also aware that he has entered into a discussion with some APC elements to immediately dust up his membership card if he did not win the scheduled primaries of our party, the PDP.”
But in a swift reaction to the petition by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor Fintiri, Solomon Kumangar, the governor said that he was never a member of the APC and has remained a loyal PDP member hence there was no need to seek for a waiver.
The statement states, “It has come to our attention a faceless group under the aegis of Adamawa concerned Youths has wrote a petition challenging the right of the Governor to seek the ticket of the PDP in the Oct. 11 Gubernatorial Bye-election for lack of waiver. It is pertinent to state here that the whole idea is not only ridiculous but completely untenable.
“It is also uncharitable to the man whose doggedness made it possible for the PDP to reclaim its stolen mandate in the first place. We dismiss the petition as spurious and without substance because it is the handiwork of those who are afraid that Fintiri stands firmly between them and the ticket.
“Fintiri has never been a member of APC because he has always been a member of PDP. And therefore does not need waiver. If he did not need waiver to impeach ex governor Nyako then, why should he need it to seek His Party’s ticket?”
Fintiri added when he came to face Appeal Panel at the party national headquarters that “the name that was mentioned was not my name because the it started with o and mine starts with u. The gentleman that was quoted is 43 and I am 47 years. So by all ramifications, that is not my person. But you know mischief makers can always go extra mile to do what they think can give them success.”
Few months from now there will be new primaries in the party for 2015 general elections and it’s on record that INEC registered more than 40 political parties, would Fintiri breach the agreement with the party and dump PDP when the time come?