In Defense of a Record: Fintiri Is Not the Villain of Adamawa’s 2027 Story
By Mada Ibrahim
Adamawa’s 2027 field is unpredictable. That is democracy, not manipulation — and nothing in the public record shows Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri bending the process.
The commentary “Adamawa State in 2027: Another dark horse again?” is a serious piece of political writing, and its central historical claim deserves respect. Adamawa voters have humbled favorites before. Abubakar Barde emerged in old Gongola against formidable opposition, Abubakar Saleh Michika in the Third Republic, and Fintiri himself in 2019 against a sitting governor. Where the piece overreaches is in its closing insinuation — that the Governor may yet be tempted toward imposition, manipulation or rigging, and that his legacy hangs on resisting a temptation he has given no evidence of entertaining. A warning owed to the whole field should not be dressed as a caution aimed at one man.
A primary conducted in daylight
Start with what happened in May. The All Progressives Congress ran its governorship primary across the state’s 226 electoraIn Defense of a Record: Fintiri Is Not the Villain of Adamawa’s 2027 Storyl wards in all 21 counties, and the chairman of the national election committee, Professor Innocent Barikor, declared the exercise peaceful and conducted in line with the party’s guidelines and regulations. (YouTube) The results were announced before representatives of the Independent National Electoral Commission, the appeal committee, party officials and other stakeholders — Tijjani Galadima polling 414,444 votes against Abdulrazak Namdas’s 86,004, with Abdulrahman Haske third. (PM News Nigeria)
Half a million ballots passed through that contest. An imposition does not require half a million votes; that is precisely the number a manipulator would not need. And the man best placed to describe a fixed process did not describe one. In his acceptance speech, Galadima praised the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, for his role in promoting fairness and stability, and said the ground had been level. (Adamawastate) He thanked Governor Fintiri and Ribadu for their commitment to the party’s unity and success. (YouTube) Fintiri received him at Government House, called the outcome a demonstration of members’ confidence, and urged stakeholders to close ranks. (Thetrumpet)
One may dislike the winner. One may argue, as the original piece does, that Galadima does not fit the Governor’s grassroots mantra. That is a legitimate political judgment. It is not evidence of a rigged ballot.
The complaints, named and answered
A rejoinder that pretends there were no complaints is not worth reading, so let the complaints be stated. Protests accompanied Galadima’s emergence. (TG News) A group calling itself the Central Senatorial Zone APC Elders held a press conference in Yola asking President Bola Tinubu to hold Fintiri accountable if the state is lost to Atiku Abubakar in 2027, its spokesman Mohammed Song alleging that moves to impose a senatorial candidate on the zone could damage the President’s chances; the group said the zone had endorsed Aliyu Abbati, noting that Yola North has never produced a senator while the other four counties in the zone have. (Adamawastate) In the south, aspirant Peter Fwa withdrew and left the party alleging imposition, the Adamawa Central primary was suspended over late-arriving materials, and the Governor’s Commissioner for Health, Felix Tangwami, took the southern senatorial ticket. (Daily Post Nigeria)
Each of these deserves an answer rather than a dismissal.
The Central Zone grievance is a zoning argument, and a reasonable one — a county that has never sent a senator to Abuja is entitled to press its case loudly. But a zone preferring one aspirant is not the same as a governor rigging against another, and the elders’ own statement offers no ballot, no figure and no named act of interference. It asks the President to apportion blame in advance for an election not yet held.
On the suspended Central primary, the party’s own explanation was administrative. The APC spokesman in the state, Victor Dogo, said materials had not reached parts of the zone in time and that it would have been improper to poll some counties and not others; Abbati himself welcomed the postponement as being in the party’s interest, saying it gave aspirants more time to reach areas they had not covered. (Daily Post Nigeria) That is the opposite of a fix. A governor bent on imposition does not hand his opponents extra weeks of campaigning.
As for Tangwami, a commissioner winning a primary is not the same as a commissioner being installed in one. He defeated a former senator, Grace Bent, and a retired federal permanent secretary, Ismaila Numan (Daily Post Nigeria) — two candidates of standing, in a contest whose result nobody has yet overturned. Public service under a governor is not a disqualification from public office.
The distinction the original commentary blurs is the one that matters: between disappointment and misconduct. Aggrieved aspirants have an appeal committee, a party leadership, INEC and the courts. Until a petition succeeds somewhere, an allegation remains an allegation.
A governor leaving, not a godfather digging in
The godfather thesis requires a motive, and Fintiri’s own plans do not supply one. He has taken the APC ticket for the Adamawa North Senatorial District, after the incumbent senator, Amos Yohanna, declined to seek a second term. (ThisNigeria) A man assembling a puppet regime does not vacate the seat of power for a legislative chamber in Abuja. He stays close, keeps the machinery, and quarrels over control.
His party move should be read the same way. Announcing the defection in February, he cast it as a decision taken in the developmental interest of Adamawa, citing closer alignment with the federal government as a way to fast-track projects. (TheCable) He said it followed wide consultations with traditional rulers, community leaders, youth groups and party members. (Alexa News Network) Addressing party leaders afterwards, he described the move as partnership rather than takeover — an alignment, he said, for the good of the people of Adamawa. (TrackNews NG) Cynics will read ambition into it. Citizens who have watched federal-state friction stall projects elsewhere in the North East will read something more practical.
The legacy is made of concrete
The original commentary concedes that Fintiri has performed creditably. That concession deserves detail, because it is the strongest answer to the charge of self-interest. A governor whose legacy sits in the ground does not need it guarded by a hand-picked successor.
By the state government’s account, 111 primary healthcare centers have been constructed, remodeled or renovated across the 21 counties. (Statehouse) Three mega science secondary schools and 21 model schools are under construction; a 60-bed cottage hospital in Demsa has been commissioned; a free dialysis center serves kidney patients in Yola; the Yola Town Modern Market holds close to 1,000 shops; the Jimeta ultra-modern stadium and an international conference center are rising. (Adamawastate) The Yola flyovers, the first in the state’s history, sit alongside hundreds of kilometers of rural roads that have opened remote communities to markets and public services. (Daily Trust)
The endorsement has not come only from the Governor’s own information ministry. Visiting Yola, President Tinubu commended him for deploying allocations to the benefit of the people through roads and educational institutions, and praised his investment in the education of children. (Ad) The state has also announced his recognition as best performing governor in infrastructure development. (TG News)
This is what the Governor means when he speaks of handing over to a grassroots politician. He is describing a standard of delivery, not endorsing a particular name on a ballot.
On the fault lines
The commentary raises zoning, faith and ethnicity, and it is right that these will shape the vote. Here too the record cuts in the Governor’s favor. The administration’s own seven-year account points to infrastructure across all 21 counties, equitable distribution of resources across ethnic and religious lines, and the creation and restoration of seven chiefdoms and emirates intended to correct historical imbalances. (Adamawastate) Whatever grievance exists over who has and has not occupied Government House since 1999, Fintiri did not manufacture it, and he has spent state resources trying to soften it.
Where we agree
The dark horse may well ride again. Adamawa’s voters have earned their reputation for confounding permutations, and every contender — Galadima, the PDP’s flagbearer, and whoever the ADC ticket finally settles on — should campaign as though nothing is decided. On the substance there is no quarrel: the election must be free, fair and credible, and the Governor has every reason of legacy and self-interest to ensure it is.
But let the caution be addressed to the whole field. Fintiri’s stated mission — a better, more prosperous Adamawa where citizens enjoy what is due to them — does not require a rigged succession. It requires roads that hold, clinics that open, schools that teach, and a result nobody has to litigate. On the evidence available, that is the state he intends to hand over.
