In this piece, SAMUEL OGIDAN examines politics in Adamawa state as regards the alleged plan by the leadership of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to cut off Governor Bala James Ngilari from contesting the 2015 governorship election, on the premise that the position has been zoned to Adamawa Central and that there was an agreement entered by the party and some aspirants from the state before the bye-election that was cancelled by the court. The pertinent question is whether the agreement is binding on the governor who was not on ground when the agreement was entered
Since the impeachment of the former governor of Adamawa state, Murtala Nyako, the politics of the state has been moving in vicious circle. There is no doubt that the state has experienced so much crisis, the latest being the atrocity of insurgency ravaging the land.
When Governor Nyako was impeached, the political situation was charged, but when the Speaker, Umar Fintiri, who took over in acting capacity and indicated interest to run in the bye-election, some political analyst expressed their reservation.
But however, the issue of Nyako and its attendant crisis today is history, as the court had pronounced the deputy governor, James Ngilari the governor in the place of his impeached boss.
One would have thought that with the court pronouncement, whatever the agreement made previously before the emergence of Ngilari by the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the national, the state or stakeholders from the state would have been nullified or declared null and void.
But the stories emanating from the state is a different thing today, political analysts were of the view that the stories were not commensurate with what ought to be in the state.
Before the bye-election scheduled for October 11, 2014, which has however been cancelled by Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, the party leadership entered into agreement with some of the aspirants, the agreement was that the governorship position has been zoned to Adamawa Central and as such, the aspirants from Central should step down and allowed others from other zones to contest so as to complete the tenure of Nyako.
But now that the bye-election did not take place, it should therefore be interpreted that all agreement entered before the bye-election that was cancelled should be null and void and should not be binding, because, in the first place Governor Ngilari was not in the picture and so whatever decision and agreement that was entered before the present Governor emerged should not be bidding on him.
And the questions that should be asked at the moment are that when the PDP resolved to zone the governorship position to Adamawa Central, Ngilari was not in office as governor neither was he part of the meeting and decision.
And following the court’s ruling that quashed the resignation of Ngilari as Deputy Governor and directed that he should be sworn in as governor, the Court equally quashed the scheduled governorship election in which Hon Umar Fintiri was the party’s candidate.
From every logical reasoning, it was clear that the zoning arrangement was predicated on the cancelled election and thus cannot be used for the net election with Ngilari now as governor.
Since other first term governors on the platform of the PDP were being given the ‘’Right of First Refusal,’’ why is the case of Ngilari different. A case of different rules for same set of people.
However, a coalition of communities and Youth groups on the aegis of The Adamawa Collective (TAC) has kicked against the position of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP over what it described as tilted and unacceptable zoning of the governorship ticket of the state to the Central Senatorial District.
TAC which stated its position on the zoning of the governorship ticket in Adamawa State at a press conference in Abuja last week Sunday, noted that the PDP NWC’s position was not only unjust but smacks of double standards in the policy drive of the party.
National Coordinator of TAC, Mr. Eli Gamaniel, and its Secretary Dr. Panny Boga, said it is absurd to compel someone that was not part of a meeting to accept a decision that was not known to law but taken as a form of exigency to solve a particular situation that has now been overtaken by events.
Gamaniel said: “It’s important to state in very clear and unmistaken terms that when the decision was taken to zone the governorship of Adamawa to Central Senatorial District, Governor Bala James Ngilari was not in office neither was he part of the meeting.
“The Doctrine of Necessity that brought President Goodluck Jonathan to office during the illness and later death of Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua remains a good reference point for the PDP. It was in that same spirit of the doctrine of necessity that Late Governor Patrick Yakowa continued in office and contested in 2011 and won.
Speaking in the same vein, Secretary of TAC, Dr. Boga said the new twist in the PDP is being orchestrated by the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Muázu and the Principal Private Secretary to the President, Alhaji Hassan Tukur, all in an effort to foist a particular ethnic group and a candidate on the majority of Adamawa people.
He said: “It is on record that Muázu and Tukur have mounted tremendous pressure on Governor Ngilari to drop his governorship ambition in 2015 for the Senate, with the excuse that it has been zoned and reserved for the Fulanis.
“Yet, it is on record that impeached Governor Murtala Nyako, who spent almost eight years in office is of the Fulani ethnic extraction. We are not shocked by the stance of these hegemonists because this was the same stance the likes of Professor Ango Abdullahi took when he insisted that President Jonathan should not contest in 2011 or the heavens will fall.
“We therefore insist that since Governor Ngilari was never a party to the agreement that zoned the governorship to Adamawa Central, it can therefore not be used against him in any material particular.”
Nigeria is full of different stories and interpretations, what interpretation would be given to Governor Ngilari if the party refused him contesting the 2015 governorship election? Nigerians are waiting to see the scenario playing out in Adamawa state.
