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Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, a governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa state, takes his campaign to his original base, Adamawa Correspondent Chapel, where he started his journalism career as Daily times’ correspondent, before he joined politics. MUAZU ABARI writes.
Genuine humility which most uplifted people in the society fail to uphold was demonstrated last week when Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, a frontline APC gubernatorial aspirant in Adamawa in his characteristic manner visited Adamawa State Correspondent Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
In retrospect, it was at this chapel that Hon Namdas started his journalism career and reported for Daily Times, before destiny came calling and he was appointed press secretary by the former governor, Boni Haruna, which subsequently launched him into active politics.
Namdas and his journalism history
From the views of his contemporaries at the chapel, Hon Namdas was a vibrant, determined, focused young and highly respected professional journalist of repute who rose to fame through sheer dint of hard work, commitments and dedication to duty.
He was known for his love and passion for journalism leaving him with no option than to take up appointment as Adamawa state correspondent of Daily Times after his graduation from the University.
His appointment as press secretary marked a turning point in his life and provided him with a golden opportunity to prove his political mettle in journalistic skills which earned him the trust and confidence of his former boss who saw him as a trusted and dependable ally in the services of the state.
Consequently, during his tenure as a press secretary, he was brought in close contact with so many politicians of repute in the state, especially, those close to that administration where he learnt a lot of political the rudiments which altered his destiny for the better.
Upon leaving government as press secretary Namdas decided to venture into active politics and registered as a card carrying member of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) but not at the detriment of his professional calling as he continued to combine politics and journalism profession which saw him floating his own newspaper “The viewer.”
His political journey
Namdas meteoric rise in Adamawa politics within the shortest time of his appointment as press secretary, represents a subtle efforts by professional journalists seen as the mirror of the society, to go beyond mere reporting of events and hold leaders accountable to the real task of taking charge of governance to bring changes to society and have their names clearly and boldly written on the pages of history.
On leaving government as press secretary, he continued to contribute greatly to the successes of ACN in the state and subsequently vied for the House of Assembly seat of Ganye constituency under the party without success.
However, his sacrifices, loyalty.and commitments to the party did not go in vein as he was subsequently picked as the party deputy gubernatorial candidate to Engr.Markus Gundiri.in 2014 unfortunately they couldn’t make it.
Since then, he never looked back again politically until the merger that gave birth to the All Progressives Congress (APC)where he contested for the state secretary of the party and lost but he later emerged as Director General Atiku support groups from where he resigned to contest for the House of Reps seat of Jada/Ganye/Toungo/Mayo Belwa federal constituency and emerged as the party flag bearer and later won the general election which saw him to the National Assembly where he is currently in his second term.
Gubernatorial journey
Having done well in his almost seven years of stewardship in the National Assembly, Namdas decided to move to the next level of his political career by declaring his intention to vie for the gubernatorial seat of Adamawa state under APC.
Since then, he continued to criss cross all the nooks and crannies of the state with his candidature receiving the blessings, support and endorsement of various individuals, group, party members and stakeholders across the state.
It is in view of this and in his characteristic manner of always standing with his friends and colleagues that he decided to take time out of his busy schedules to storm Adamawa state correspondent chapel, his former home before his elevation as press secretary to re-unite and interface with his former colleagues.
He used the opportunity provided by the visit to engage them on his aspiration, his vision for the people of Adamawa state if elected among many other issues
Message of hopes and encouragement
“As i always said the Adamawa correspondent chapel is one of the most vibrant chapel in the whole country i always see breaking news. I always read interesting features, stories. Sometimes, I ask where are you people getting the news from because Adamawa is always in the news and mostly for good reasons. This is very commendable. By God grace, I know that the sky will be the limit of this chapel, we will work together to upgrade this chapel.
“As a professional, I will not want anybody to say lies about me, I want you to continue your coverage with high sense of professionalism. Whenever there are issues that require balancing, we should be contacted to give our side of the story. It is my belief that a lot of people in this chapel will come out of this chapel more than me and what I’m doing.”
“Infact, I want to encourage all of you to always discuss with your colleagues. Journalists are always good politicians. As a journalist, you have interacted with the high and the mighty, with the low, so nobody will intimidate you with any big office. You have visited so many people and since you have experience of associating with a lot of people and sometimes you keep on interviewing people that ordinarily if given the opportunity in politics in your area, you would have done better than them”
“I think it is time that once in a while, you can also offer yourself to serve this country in various capacities. It was one of the reason why i went into politics. When i was here, i was a member of the correspondent chapel but as a locally-based person, i had the opportunity of interviewing people representing me at that time. If i look at them and myself, i said look, i should also do better if given the opportunity. Today this is where I’m.”
Why he decided to vie for the gov’ship seat
“As you are aware, by the special grace of God, I’m contesting for the office of Governor of Adamawa State under the platform of APC. I think it should not surprise you that I’m contesting for this office. I was a deputy gubernatorial candidate some 11 years ago and the natural thing to do is to contest for the office of the governor. So it is very much time for me to come and administer this state given the experiences i have garnered over times.
“Adamawa is a civil service state, so we require a leader that will change the economy of the state, we required a leader that have programmes, that will come out with a blueprint for the development of the state. We don’t want to have an accidental leader that will not be good for Adamawa. Adamawa is blessed with so many high ranking public office holders and great politicians so we require a leader that can bring all of us together to be on the same page and work towards bringing the state to a level that will be seen different from where it is. So I require your support in this direction.
“For me as a person, PDP is not my problem at the moment. My problem is to get the ticket. I want to flag the party’s ticket before i face whoever that is in PDP. So if my attention is drawn to what PDP is doing, i will lose tract of what I’m looking for. So for now, I want to get my ticket..I’m working hard with my colleagues that are aspiring and some members of this party to see that we are talking to ourselves because even if you emerged at the end of the day, as the party flag bearer, you will require the people you defeated to work together.”
“So you cannot start to think that you are already the boss because you have gotten the ticket. A lot of people have gotten the ticket but the ticket have ended up as ticket for going to cinema not Government House so my ticket, if i got it, is not for watching football in a stadium or watching cinema, the ticket i’m looking for is the one that will take me to Government House.
“And the only visible way is to respect whoever is aspiring and stakeholders that are in this party so that, at the end of the day, we will bring them together and show them that look i have the wealth of experience and as the Chairman House Committee on Army, today insecurity is the major issue in Nigeria so if given the opportunity, Adamawa being one of the states that is regarded as having security challenges with Borno and Yobe states”
“And now that i have gotten the experience, i can assure you gentlemen that if i take over this state, I know what to do to solve the issue of insecurity, to bring lasting peace. Of course, you won’t do it alone. Anybody who want to be a leader must understand that you don’t have monopoly of wisdom ,you don’t have monopoly of knowledge and you cannot be the only one that is intelligent. The day you think you know it all, it is the day you lose it all. i need your support 100 percent not 99 percent.
Even as he tasked his former colleagues on professionalism and the “need to separate themselves from quacks, especially, now that we are inching towards party primaries where all manners of fake news will be on the increased”.