Nyako's Job: Bamanga Tukur's Son,Marwa,Ribadu,Modibo And Others Top TheList.

Following last Monday’s ousting of Murtala Nyako from office as Adamawa State Governor, which thus re-established Peoples democratic Party, PDP dominant group in the state, however,  it may not be smooth sail for the party to return its own to Dougire Government House, Yola as the seat of power is called. There are a lot of inter-mingling factors that would pose high hurdles for the contending parties.

They are as diverse as they are intriguing.

Here are the undercurrents, the permutations and calculations as to which party would prevail at the end of the day.

According to reports from Pilot:

The basics

According to Section 191(2) of the Nigerian constitution as amended 2011,) “when any vacancy occurs in the circumstances mentioned in subsection (1) of this section during a period when the office of the Deputy Governor of the State is also vacant, the Speaker of the House of Assembly of the State shall hold the office of Governor of the State for a period of not more than three months, during which there shall be an election of a new Governor of the State, who shall hold office for the unexpired term of the last holder of the office.”

It is against the foregoing that political parties in Adamawa state have kick-started subtle campaigns to throw up candidates that could rule the state come October this year.

“It is expected; we miss His Excellency Murtala Nyako and feel for him but the state must move on. We can’t cry more than the bereaved. His party is already making similar moves like ours to run for the governorship election, which constitutionally will hold in October,” said a governorship aspirant on the platform of PDP in Yola Thursday.

Nyako’s impeachment Monday, July 14 alongside the sudden resignation of his Deputy Barrister Bala Ngillari had thrown the successorship race open. But beside the PDP, the only other strong contending party that is likely to make impact at the coming governorship election is the APC. That was Nyako’s party.

PDP at crossroads

To state that PDP in Adamawa state is at crossroads, is to understate the temperature inside the majority political group in the north eastern state. Simply put, it is currently at loss as to who can possibly be its gubernatorial flagbearer in the contest even as much as the chapter realises that its national headquarters reckons very much on the positive turn of things there at the poll to increase its hold in the country’s political terrain and calculations ahead 2015 presidential election.

The party’s headaches stem from the fact that in Adamawa state, there are many political generals; tested and passed.

The realisation has caused political pundits to predict that among the over 20 interests shown across the board, a dark horse may just be thrown up from anywhere to pick the governorship ticket.

Inside PDP in Yola, the main problem being sorted out at press time is determining the modalities to resolve the obvious rivalries among its interested members so as to keep “the family as one at the end of the day,” said a Ward leader of the party in Yola midweek. He added that “we must deal with the likely intra-party crisis that will surely come in this matter before we think of beating APC at the poll.”

He said the party has the men, mighty and related wherewithal to thrash any opposition at the election; but that the situation in-house must be right.

Combatants: PDP

At press time, interested aspirants in the PDP fold were many; and they continue to increase. But not just their numbers, their pedigrees, antecedents, connections and curriculum vitae are overwhelming.

Abubakar Halilu Girei

The former Senate Services Committee chairman under the Senator Chuba Okadigbo is a strong PDP loyalist in the state and at the national level.

Girei, a Chartered Quantity Surveyor, Real Estate Developer and a Construction Management Consultant, was born 1954 in Girei Local Government Area of Adamawa State. He attended the famous Barewa College, Zaria for his Secondary Education and Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Quantity Surveying and Masters of Business Administration, MBA.

He is a Fellow of Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management and also a member of the prestigious National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru, Jos where he served as the Monitor General of SEC 31.

After his National Youth Service in Port Harcourt, Rivers State in 1979. He worked for the defunct Gongola State Government as a Quantity Surveyor and rose to the rank of Principal Quantity Surveyor in 1984. He then moved on to the Nigeria Agricultural and Cooperative Bank Limited in 1985 as Manager, Property Division and then became the General Manager, Estate Department, from 1988 to 1996. He resigned to set up his consultancy firm, Premier Association Consultants, which he ran as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer between 1996 to 1999.

Between 1999 to 2003 he contested and was duly elected Senator representing Adamawa Central Senatorial District in the 1st Senate of the 4th Republic from 1999 to 2003. He is a grassroots politician from Adamawa Central senatorial zone that has never produced any governor since the creation of the state. He was a contestant in the PDP primary that brought Nyako to office in 2003.

Umar Ardo

If there was one Adamawa PDP chieftain that battled Nyako all through his stay in office it was Dr. Umar Ardo. The party stalwart and former governorship aspirant in Adamawa state would be easily remembered for his historical declaration that Governor Murtala Nyako and his deputy, Bala Ngilari deserve the impeachment against them by the State House of Assembly.

In a statement last Saturday in Abuja, Ardo said the Nyako/Ngilari administration deserved to be removed because that administration destroyed Adamawa state.

“For the over seven years of its being in power, it brought the state to its knees – economically, politically, infrastructural and security wise,” he said. “The regime also has entrenched the culture of impunity, unconstitutionality, lawlessness, corruption, nepotism, favouritism, discrimination, and self-service in governance. It is killing patriotism and sense of community in our society. No people of good standing should tolerate such a leadership for a day, if they can help it,” added.

Ardo further said Nyako should have been out of office as far back as July 2008, when the first impeachment notice was served the governor.

He is a political scientist and activist. Ardo was once a political adviser to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as well as Director for strategy in Peter Odili Presidential train.

Silas Jonathan Zwingina

The one time Director General of Mashood Abiola’s,” Hope ‘83”, and former Deputy Senate leader is another PDP chieftain that is gunning for the party’s gubernatorial ticket to succeed Nyako.

Zwingina was elected Senator for the Adamawa South constituency of Adamawa State at the start of the Fourth Republic, running on the PDP platform. He took office on May 29, 1999. He was re-elected in April 2003, again on the PDP platform. After taking his seat in the Senate in June 1999, he was appointed to committees on Works and Housing (chairman), Establishment, Internal Affairs, Information, Special Projects, Privatisation and Economic Affairs. Zwingina’s palatial residence in Abuja was demolished in February 2007, allegedly on the orders of Nasir el-Rufai, the Federal Capital Territory Minister.

His ability to network at various level of the party’s hierarchy stands him in good stead. But some party members fear his closeness to former vice president Atiku Abubakar, who could stop PDP from taking the state, which makes it a big minus for Zwingina.

Ahmed Mohammed Modibbo

In the chequered political history of Adamawa state, the former Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, may not be popular; but many are quick to posit that he can use the political structure of his wife, Hon Binani Ahmed Moddibo, a member representing Girei Yola constituency at House of Representatives to actualise his dream.

But against the background of the circumstance that prevailed in his office while he held sway at UBEC, PDP may not look his direction in the contest.

Mohammed Buba Marwa

To many Adamawa youth and women, the former Military Administrator of Lagos and Borno states is one indigene that they have always loved to love. He is a tested politician he contested on the platform of CPC in the 2011 general election and lost to incumbent Governor Murtala Nyako of PDP. He defected to the PDP for reason of alleged imposition of Nyako on the people by the national body of the PDP then.

But he had never relented in his bid to govern the state, which he alongside other contenders, said Nyako “killed.”

Since his return to PDP this year, Marwa has remained calm, calculating and mobilising, a strategy he has intensified since the fall of Nyako.

Awwal Tukur

The son of the immediate past national chairman of PDP, Barrister, Awwal Tukur is also overly interested in picking the party’s ticket in the state.

Early last year the polity was rife with speculations that his father, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur was plotting to to use his office to install him as the next governor of the state. Indeed, that was a major cause of the crisis in the state that precipitated Bamanga’s exit from Wadata Plaza national headquarters of the party.

Besides, Awwal Tukur was once a member of House of Representative for Yola North\South and Girei federal constituency.

Not much had been heard of him until the past few weeks in the twilight of Nyako’s administration.

Aliyu Idi Hong

Political son of Professor Jibril Aminu, the former minister of state for health and later Foreign Affairs is rumoured to be interested in the race. However observers say that his position during the struggle to see to the conduct of fresh congresses for the PDP in Adamawa last year alongside his association “with certain politicians” in the state may cost him his bid.

Put together, PDP members who should know rate him highly on this note.

Bala Ngillari

The immediate past deputy governor in the ousted Governor Murtala Nyako administration is said to be popular among the electorate in the state. He has contested for election in the state for three consecutive times and won. He is a diehard fan of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Some fear that he may use his closeness to Jonathan to his advantage in the expected governorship primaries at the party level ahead of other contestants in the PDP, a reason he was allegedly forced to resign by the party’s stakeholders in the state.

Hassan Tukur

Currently the principal secretary to President Jonathan, he is said to be an astute public servant, who prefers to work behind the scene making things happen. A lawyer by training, Tukur’s dexterity at work and his ability to connect with the lowly of his native Adamawa state stands him in good stead for PDP’s governorship ticket in the state.

Should the race for PDP’s governorship in the state become too intense, a loyalist like Tukur may just be the joker for the party and Adamawa state.

Combatants: APC

The APC too is not lacking in terms of tested politicians who aspire to succeed Nyako. They include:

Nuhu Ribadu

The former boss at the anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, contested the presidential office against the current incumbent and last flatly. He flew the flag of the APC then.

The current speculation that he may run for the party’s ticket for Adamawa governorship may not have been confirmed; but his associates are said to be prevailing on the retired policeman to give it a go as national politics is “too demanding“for him.

Abdul’Aziz Nyako

Not a few Adamawa people would accept the fact or speculation that son of the disgraced immediate past governor, would aspire to succeed his father as chief executive of the state. “At the party level, nobody will touch his application form,” said a former aide of the impeached Nyako.

He said the angst in the state against Nyako is so much that for now, it is not advisable for any person so closely connected to him to run for same office. Thus for now the retired Naval officer may well make do with being a loyal APC member believing God that someday his turn will come.

Others

Also in the APC fold who would jostle for the party’s governorship ticket are Alhaji Dahiru Bobbo, a former Director General of the National Boundary Commission, Barrister Boss Mustapha, Alhaji Abdullahi Abubakar, Alhaji Abdulrazak Namdas, a former secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in  the state, who is regarded as the political son of the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar among a host of others.

Fight within

The battle as usual must first be fought inside the parties before the inter-party muscle flexing between candidates of the two major political parties, PDP and APC.

Along the line, the issue of the godfathers within will play out.

In Adamawa PDP for instance, the former national chairman of the PDP is reportedly goading for his son, Barrister Awwal Tukur, while Professor Jibril Aminu is backing his political son and former Minister of State for foreign affairs, Hong. The likes of Zwingina, Marwa, Girei, Ardo, Modibbo are political heavyweights in their own rights.

Between Atiku’s camp and that of immediate past governor, Nyako, there would be deliberate moves to ensure their trusted men are in the corridors of power in the state.

With exception of Nyako’s son, whose political affiliation cannot be said to be here nor there, many of the APC aspirants as speculated are said to be in Atiku’s camp.

But put generally, a lot of other factors will determine who emerges Nyako’s successor at the poll proper. These include but not limited to the contributions each has made to their respective party and the state, in terms of loyalties, youths and women empowerment and how they were able to reach out to the grassroots.

For now the hustling, jostling and horse trading has just begun.

Source Today.com and The Pilot.