RIPPLES FROM THE ADAMAWA GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed Saturday, April 15th, 2023 as the day for the Adamawa State governorship supplementary election in 69 polling units across the state. Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri is going into the supplementary election with a margin lead of 31,249 votes. Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani needs a miracle to dilute this margin from the 37,706 expected votes in the 69 polling units where the supplementary election will be conducted.

Despite the anti-party activities from some members and executives of her party, her disregard for the very important aspect of politics – collaborations with everybody, plus her failure to send an olive branch to some of the APC governorship aspirants who lost to her during the APC governorship primaries, including the indifference to her candidacy exhibited by some stakeholders of the Adamawa APC, Binani has proved a point – she shook Governor Fintiri in a way he never expected.

Candidate Fintiri came to the March 18 governorship election over-confident but with poor calculations and with so many off-the-shelves strategies. For instance, he thought that his 2019 bloc vote was still intact, but he was wrong. Many people in the bloc-vote have realized that they’ve nothing to gain from it. It was mainly Fintiri’s ‘cousins’ and close associates who enjoyed the goodies meant for the bloc vote. Fintiri’s second mistake was the poor deployment of logistics – this is obvious from how he performed in the Adamawa North Senatorial District – his primary constituency. Fintiri got only 53% of votes, losing three of the five LGAs. Though, Binani also performed poorly at her central zone – she got only 45% of the total votes – winning only three of the seven LGAs.

When the controversial Fufore LGA result was announced, the governor was pictured celebrating with his aides. However, a few minutes later, when the final result was declared inconclusive – Fintiri was pictured in a deflated mood. Students of politics and history should study INEC’s declaration of Adamawa 2019 and 2023 governorship elections as inconclusive relative to the man ‘Ahamdu Umaru Fintiri’- it always brings out ‘the punctured man’. In 2019 when the election was declared inconclusive, Fintiri ran to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for help, and equally, in 2023, when his re-election was also declared inconclusive, Fintiri ran back to Atiku for help. In fact, in 2019, it was former governor Boni Haruna that saved the day for Fintiri. Boni in a press conference highlighted the difference and the importance of registered voters and PVCs collected, which today has become a working document for all political parties and INEC itself.

 Fintiri often boasts that he is a man of great political sagacity, he often claims to have retired many people or has ‘shaved’ their heads from politics. But whenever he is faced with an intricate political situation, he suddenly becomes punctured, running to people for help.

As earlier mentioned, Binani needs a miracle to upstage Fintiri’s from a pool of just 37,706 votes. Nevertheless, whoever wins the 2023 Adamawa governorship election, will face a legal tussle, that’s why people were shocked when Fintiri and his convoy were seen going and coming back from Fufore LGAs, in the name of collection of results to the state collation center. It is simply bizarre when a contender in an election turns himself into the collation officer.

 Zayyad I. Muhammad, Abuja