Fintiri, Mustapha Salihu, GPF and a passing infatuation
By Mohammed Ismail
It is surprising how Fintiri the political enigma and master strategist par excellence is swapping positions and becoming a master kite flyer and a deep seated rabble-rouser towards the end of his two term tenure.
Take it or leave, over the years, Fintiri has established himself as a political phenom, one who has written his name in gold in the annals of Nigerian politics. Apart from his success at leadership, Fintiri is one man blessed with a deep and intrinsic knowledge of political brinkmanship and excellent understanding of the tapestry of politics enabling him to maneuver the political landscape with calculated ease and precision. In recent history, Fintiri emerges as the only governor who ran a stable government culminating in his solid track record of accomplishments.
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These qualities, coupled with exceptional luck made him almost the most successful politician in Adamawa history.
It was therefore, no surprising Fintiri was able to rise from obsecurity to the pinnacle of politics, and governance in the last 25 years of our democratic journey, a feat that is both outstanding, miraculous and awe inspiring. But his recent actions in embracing divisive politics, betraying pacts and covenants and aligning with strange political bedfellows constitute serious cause for concern.
Take for instance his recent romance with Comrade Mustapha Salihu who is by every standard an accomplished, urbane, independent minded, shrewd and exceptionally brilliant extrovert who may even nurse a sinister plan against Fintiri after securing the office of the governor.
It is a common practice by politicians especially second term governors to choose from their long term allies the most loyal, reticent and introverted successor who they will keep at their beck and call after departure and to maintain control and proximity with power which is essential in after office years.
Although Fintiri has the right to support a successor, the choice of Mustapha Salihu is nevertheless seen as a strategic blunder because of the fact the two politicians share nothing in common politically and for most times they have been working at cross purposes and from different political divides. But as I pointed out earlier, choosing who to support is Fintiri’s prerogative which no one should lose sleep over.
But what should make one lose sleep is the recent actions and utterances of the governor which betrayed the calculative and shrewd mind that represents the Fintiri persona. Many including this writer admire Fintiri for his boldness, resilience and sharp wit.
Fintiri, a strategic thinker and witty leader is not known for frivolities and leadership shenanigans. He may have his own frailties and weaknesses as a human being but even his critics can’t associate him with vainglorious political endeavors. That is why his recent statement suggesting that he is being threatened and under persecution hit the polity like a thunderbolt.
As if those statements were not combustible enough, Fintiri added that he is ready to let his blood spill while at the same time vowed to use his vantage position as a governor to impose a candidate on the people like his contemporaries do. If I have not seen video evidence of Fintiri making such statements, I will have simply dismissed them as fake news meant to deride the man. To say I’m disturbed by such drift at a time when Fintiri should make peace with people is to state the obvious.
His actions and utterances as expected have overheated the already tense and fragile Adamawa’s political firmament which was already saturated with anxiety and speculations. At this time when Fintiri is rounding up his eighth phenomenal years of governance, he should be seen to be a rallying point for all not a divisive element.
Whipping up sentiments and deliberately raising the political temperature will only compound the already pensive political terrain in the state. In all these, my concern about Fintiri statement is on account of his avowal to impose a candidate like his peers do in their states because the word imposition is a misnomer in democracy and unless if Fintiri intends to destroy APC in Adamawa state, he should never contemplate such a dangerous endeavor.
Already the vituperation has exerted serious strain on the polity as many people have started conjuring up perceptions and meanings into the statement.
One of them is that the governor wants to destroy APC so that PDP which from all intents and purposes will propel a Christian candidate will have an easy sail. This perception aligns perfectly with the theory that the governor may be doing the bidding of the Gongola Peoples Forum (GPF) so as to fulfill a purported vow not to allow Fulani to lead Adamawa State.
Although this is just a mare perception, the governor should not allow it to gain traction because any move to exclude a certain group because of their leaning is a dangerous premise that the governor should avoid like a plague. A stich in time saves nine.
Ismail, the editor in chief of Factchecknews writes from Yola.
