Adamawa guber race: Haske’s delisting, popularity contest and matters arising
By Mohammed Ismail
A chorus of anxiety, deep seated melancholy and a sense of revulsion over a seeming collusion to deprive Abdurrahman Bashir Haske, a fair chance to participate in the forth coming governorship election is stealthily building in the minds of the Adamawa electorates drawing attention and even sympathy to the youngest Adamawa governorship candidate.
Haske’s name which prominently featured amongst the governorship candidates when the electoral commission released it’s first list of successful candidates, was conspicuously missing in the new list further asserting hushed speculations about a conspiracy to deny him the chance to participate in the general election.
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Many are of the opinion that the fear of Haske’s growing popularity especially among the youth population, his strong grassroot network, strategic deployment of digital assets and a huge war chest are the strongest reasons why his traducers are working round the clock to sabotage his participation.
Haske, a critical financier of Adamawa APC before the bubble burst has pitched tent with the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) after the controversial governorship primaries of APC left him sulking, angered and politically bloodied.
The governorship contender who by his own calculations and projections believed he won the election with wide margin occupied a distant third place when the party finally pronounced it’s results. Following the failure of the party to resolve the imbroglio and the after shocks of the party primaries, Haske decided to find a refuge elsewhere.
His sojourn for a new platform led him to the APM where he was welcomed with open arms as the governorship candidate of the party, Bello Babajo decided to willingly surrendered his mandate to the new entrant.
But Haske’s major political baptisma arrived after the supreme court’s seven-man panel led by Justice Adamu Jauro, reversed the July 16 Court of Appeal ruling and restored the May 5 Federal High Court, Abuja decision that dismissed the ZLP’s suit.
The court validated Sections 77(5), 77(6), 77(7), and 84(2) of the Electoral Act 2026, which govern party membership registers, submission timelines (at least 21 days prior to primaries), candidate eligibility, and direct primary or consensus nomination methods.
The supreme court judgement reincarnated the rested debate about the eligibility of some candidates to contest the general election including Haske himself following his participation in APC governorship primaries.
But the electoral umpire decided to settle the case in favour of Haske on October 10, 2026 following his inclusion in the list of successful governorship candidates. Many analyst were of the view that INEC’s action was right because the electoral body has no premise to deny any candidate the constitutional rights to participate in elections.
But it is curious that out of the 18 names previously given the nod to participate in the governorship election, only Haske’s name was omitted sparking serious concerns of impropriety and partisanship against the INEC.
This concern in Adamawa has gained currency given the fact that INEC has cleared Professor Isa Pantami former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy and the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) governorship candidate in Kano State, Aminu Abdulsalam Gwarzo, following a review of petitions ahead of the February 6, 2027 general elections. Therefore if all those associated with similar issues facing Haske or even worst were cleared why was Haske’s name ommited?
The growing posers on the lips of many confused electorates in Adamawa remain that was INEC doing a hatchet job in Adamawa? Whose interest does that serve? And what happens to the proclaimed independence of the electoral body?
Recently, INEC has come under the kleigh light following the discovery of strange AI generated images and records in its data based sparking serious doubt about the integrity of the electoral body to conduct a wholesome election that meets the test of time.
In the spirit of our democratic sustainability which requires every action to be explained, INEC should come clean on the removal of Haske’s name otherwise it risked undermining not only it’s name but every election it may conduct in Adamawa and even beyond. It is apt to recall a popular democratic parlance which says an injury to one is an injury to all.
As I have said, our nascent democracy can only thrive when justice and fair play take the lead. And silence in the face of injustice is itself a huge disservice. Let INEC fulfil all electoral righteousness and explain it’s actions. Anything short of that is unacceptable. Justice is always on the side of the oppressed.
Ismail, the editor in chief of Fact-checknews writes from Yola.
