By Ibrahim Mada
From all intents and purposes, the incumbent governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri has concluded all finishing touches to sweep brooms out of Adamawa State in order to consolidate the grip of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.
The near total victory of the PDP in the just concluded presidential and national assembly elections in Adamawa State is a pointer to the rising popularity of PDP under the able and committed leadership of governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.
The governor through purporseful leadership coupled with the political wizardry and sagacity of the former vice president Atiku Abubakar who incidentally was the PDP’s presidential flagbearer have shown the world that Adamawa belongs to PDP and PDP belongs to Adamawa State.
Under the able leadership of the duo, PDP was able to capture the reins of power from APC which hitherto held sway as the ruling party in 2019. Since then the party has been waxing from strength to strength because of its ebbullience in carrying the people along in its programs and policies.
The good posture and purporseful leadership it has bequeathed to the people has warmed the party into the hearts of the people to the extent it has almost pulverized its major opposition political party the APC in the state.
A glimpse of the 2023 result will convince even the most ardent naysayer that Adamawa has become the base of the Peoples Democratic Party in Nigeria due to its meteoric rise, grip and influence on the lives of the masses of the state.
In 2019 when governor Fintiri recorded an overwhelming victory from the then ruling party, the APC, he made one categorical and critical promise to the effect that he will banish APC in the state and make Adamawa, a one party state.
Although his traducers and other elements dismissed that promise with the wave of the hand saying it was a tall dream, the valiant governor did not only walk his talk, he has done it forcefully through distinction and leadership excellence.
The reality of APC’s total extinction from Adamawa State polity should be gleaned from the fact that out of the positions contested in the last presidential and national assembly elections, PDP has made a mince meat of its rival and has supplanted it from the minds of the populace.
An insight into the massive failure of the APC should be seen from the failure of her Gubernatorial candidate Sen Aishatu Ahmed Dahiru Binani to make an atom of impact in the last election. The APC gubernatorial candidate was woefully trounced right from her own unit.
It is curious to note that despite her inflated popularity, Binani in a rather bizarre show of incapacity failed to deliver her Mbamoi polling unit to the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the election.
That is not all, after her woeful failure to deliver her polling unit, the APC guvernorship candidate also conceded her Yola South local government to the presidential candidate of PDP, Atiku Abubakar.
That crass and shoddy performance is least expected from a woman with a feeling of self worth and an overrated popularity.
One of the dubious credentials she always flaunt to promote her self styled and undeserved promotion is the populist inclination under the borrowed garb of philanthropy.
But as it is now, the facade she is using to deceive the gullible minds has melted at the slightest litmus test. With such a very dubious and wobbly base, how can she think of supplanting a sitting governor who enjoys the trappings and perks of office and moreso an undiluted popularity and acceptance of the people like Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri?
With this overrated and hyped popularity, it would have been condescending for Binani to loss even her senatorial zone to the PDP especially considering the huge war chest the presidential candidate provided for her in the run up to the 2023 presidential polls.
With such a woeful showing, one can hazard a guess that Binani is not really at home with her people to deserve such humiliating snub at a time when they ought to have rallied round her.
Again one can say such mistreatment may be a function of her unforgiving and unreliable posture as she has been at daggers drawn with real and percieved enemies despite eyeing the most coveted job in the state.
Despite being the guvernorship flagbearer of APC, she has been spending considerable energy and man hour fighting needless wars against real and percieved enemies in her won party from her ward to the state level.
Such tendencies to pick quarrels with real and percieved enemies sometimes without any form of provocation made her to sideline a number of party officials from the ward to the state level without any justification.
She was said to be the brain behind the aborted suspension of Mutapha Atiku Ribadu, the organizing secretary of APC in Adamawa State and the zonal vice chairman of the APC in the north east, Comrade Mustapha Salihu.
Such quarrelsomeness and intolerance made a lot of people at various levels to loss confidence in her. It is also the major ingredient behind her suspension from the party. That is why everything seems to be falling apart for the touted most popular politician at the twilight of a general election.
But while his rival is fighting a needless war against her own party men and women, Fintiri was busy consolidating and uniting his party to become the most potent and strongest political force in Nigeria.
Such informed his overwhelming victory at the presidential and national assembly elections which made the presidential flagbearer to win the state by an unprecedented margin.
It is also responsible for the victory of the party in the senate and house of representatives election which led to the emergence of two senators and seven members of house of representatives out of eight slots from the state.
With this glaring facts, can anyone in his right state of mind doubt the overwhelming victory of PDP in the coming Gubernatorial and state House of assembly elections? Only the undiscerning political neophytes can hazard such a guess.
Mada, a political analyst writes from Kaduna
Middle-Belt Times 