Fintiri and the exigency of a compelling political shift
By Mohammed Ismail
Adamawa’s political terrain renowned for its exuberant dynamism is currently in the realm of national attention over speculations about governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri’s possible shift to the All Progressives Congress (APC)
As expected of a politically sensitive state, the news of the proposed move has revved up conversations, rave reviews, speculations, anxiety and heated exchanges between proponents and opponents of such move.
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A non-romantic classical dissection of the lethal consequences of Fintiri’s defection to APC
As 2027 election draws closer, political permutations and realignments are evolving across the length and breadth of Nigeria with handful of opposition governors, senators, and house of representatives members shifting to the ruling party in what observers called Nigeria’s impending drift to one party state.
In most of the states, the shift usually occurs seamlessly without much fuss.
Apart from the phenomenal defection of Kano State governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf from the NNPP to APC, none of the previous defections of sitting governors is generating the kind of interest the rumoured defection of Fintiri is generating.
While a lot of APC chieftains and power brokers are anxious of Fintiri’s entry into the APC for its impending portents, hence plotting to drown it, the governor’s supporters, on the other hand, are projecting the move as an altruistic one aimed at aligning with the center in order to curry favours in line with the developmental blueprint of the governor.
On one side of the conversation is the fear that some APC stalwarts who have remained faithful and loyal to the party for years and invested huge resources to ensure it’s survival against the inclement and scorched earth hostilities of the PDP government led by Fintiri may be robbed of their positions. To this group, allowing Fintiri to take total control of party structures upon coming is a great disservice which they vowed to forcefully resist.
Before APC becomes the latest political bride, Fintiri has exuberantly dismissed it as a dead party in numerous public spats and vitriolic screeds. He then promised to ensure the party’s eternal burial in the state. His latest detour in romancing the party is therefore seen in the realm of attempts to secure a life-line. His sojourn into APC will also compel him to work with people with whom he had divergent political or real life ideologies and inclinations.
But while dismissing such arguments as rantings of political eunuchs devoid of logic or weight, proponents of Fintiri’s defection are of the view that the governor’s entry is an open blessing to the APC as he is coming into the party as a seismic force backed by a robust and invincible political structure.
They claimed that Fintiri is coming into the party from a position of strength, powerful structure and goodwill of Adamawa masses that enabled him to contest and won the guvernorship election on two previous occasions.
They also claimed that the governor is coming with a huge political capital including the support of the three senators, six house of representatives members, 21 local government chairmen and 246 councilors as well as the huge compliment of the state government bureaucratic juggernaut.
A candid and truthful assessment of the subject must however, take cognizance of Adamawa’s complex political context and the precarious position of PDP in the neo-political dynamics of Nigeria. A simple, candid and unbiased assessment of the political scenario will reveal that PDP is a party in a prolonged comatose state with a near zero hope of survival.
A number of the governors and other political office holders of the party left it for APC not because of love or principle but because of the susceptible nature of their party knowing too well that it cannot accommodate their political interests and aspirations.
In Nigeria, it is a settled matter that one can only hold a political office through the instrumentality of political parties. It is on this premise that the defection of the PDP political office holders becomes a matter of exigency to chart new political roadmaps for themselves before it is too late.
And APC becomes their preferred destination not on impulse but because of the immense advantages it provides to them. One of the fundamental push for the choice of APC has to do with the fear that in 2027, Tinubu, a master political strategist will use all his might to capture the non-APC states into his fold. That fear informed the rationale why most of the first time governors moved into APC. And for the second term governors, the need for soft landing and secured political future is the major push factor behind their defection.
With the above elucidation and clarification, it is pertinent to ask, between Fintiri and APC whose utmost interest will this purported defection serve?
APC as a party in Adamawa State has established itself as a strong force capable of winning any election in the state. Sequel to 2019, the party was in control of levers of power following a landmark and comprehensive victory of its flag-bearer Sen. Umaru Jibrilla Bindow in 2025 general election. It must be stated here that Fintiri’s election feats in both 2019 and 2023 general elections came as a result of the widespread and intractbale infighting in APC which made a number of the APC chieftains to openly engaged in anti-party activities.
Despite the open anti-party, in 2019 general election, Fintiri managed to secure a slight margin of victory by polling 376,552 votes against Bindow’s 336,386 votes. In the highly disputed and controversial gubernatorial election of 2023, Fintiri again secured another slight margin of victory by polling a total of 430,861 votes to defeat Sen. Aishatu Dahiru Binani who got 398,788 votes. So with the previous performance of APC in past elections, one can only dismissed its strength at his own peril.
Since the return of democracy in 1999, PDP, has won every gubernatorial election in the state except in 2015 when internal rancour made the party to secure a distant third place. So considering the role of party stability and internal cohesion as critical tools for electoral success, the defection of governor Fintiri to APC may be inimical to its poise, grandeur and winning capacity if his coming into the party robbed it of stability and internal cohesion.
One critical decider that will settle the question of who lead the party in the event of Fintiri’s defection is justice. By that I mean, stakeholders should be treated based on the strength of their followership.
As it is, APC under the leadership of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu in Adamawa State has just concluded its e-registration attracting into its fold no fewer than 450,000 members. That figure is glaringly more than the numbers that gave Fintiri victory in 2019 and 2023.
In the spirit of fair play, it will be apt for the party to extend its e-registration in Adamawa State to allow Fintiri the opportunity of bringing his supporters on board. This will indicate his actual strength and settle the anticipated rhetorics and power play that may ensue in the event of his arrival.
As I have indicated above, power of incumbency is not enough to give any party victory in the absence of unity and cohesion. If Fintiri’s coming into APC will result in a new wave of internal strife, disloyalty, struggle for control and anti-party, then his coming will surely become a huge minus for the party.
Adamawa APC stakeholders should know that this is not a time for rhetorics, public spat and vociferous mudslinging, it is a time for sober reflection and concessions if they really have the party in their hearts.
A stitch in time saves nine.
Ismail, the Editor-in-chief of FACTCHECKNEWS writes from Yola.
