As the Adamawa State House of Assembly tightens the impeachment noose around Governor Murtala Nyako’s neck, the governor’s camp is not relenting in its survival game, wide negotiations and reconciliation to abort the plot. Group Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU writes.
Murtala Nyako, retired Chief of Naval Staff and governor of Adamawa State, is in the eye of the storm. He is fighting the battle of his life. Impeachment is not a conventional war, which a General like him is prepared for. In a battle of this nature, weapons of war are inferior to negotiation skills, persuasive talents and political inducement.
Survival game
Nyako’s supporters woke up to this reality last week. The governor and 25 legislators who want to sack him from power are operating on the slippery field. Therefore, pro-Nyako forces decided to exploit the weakness of the impeachment process to weaken it. After it was set up, the seven-man panel chaired by Alhaji Baba Kaigama could not sit for two days because of lack of venue. Thus, Nyako’s men intensified their lobby of the House and party leaders to give him a soft landing. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains have alleged that the governor was highly inflexible. Nyako’s foot soldiers promised them that, if the plot is stepped down, the governor will henceforth be more condescending.
A source said that the governor also reached out to some traditional rulers in the multi-ethnic state to save his political career. “Emissaries were sent to monarchs to help talk to the legislators from their domains. As at the weekend, the governor was still opening networks of contacts,” he said.
Traditional rulers led by the Lamido of Adamawa, Alhaji Mohammed Musdafa, who are concerned about peace, have appealed to the actors in the impeachment saga to embrace truce in the interest of the state. The Council of Pastors, led by Rev. Victor Ordinan, urged the aggrieved lawmakers to sheathe their swords.
However, prominent PDP chieftains, who had already gazed at the future, rose swiftly to keep the lawmakers on their toes. A member of the PDP Elders and Stakeholders’ Forum, Dr. Umar Ado, warned the legislators against retracing their steps. He described the impeachment as a party assignment, stressing that only the PDP has the power to discontinue it. He emphasised that the party had no intention of backing out.
Last week, Nyako, who was at the Council of State meeting in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), also, approached his old constituency for assistance. Sources said that he appealed to former military Heads of State Generals Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar to speak to President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene in the crisis.
Conditions for truce
Many stakeholders agree that only a political solution can save the governor from the looming tragedy. But, the conditions are not easy.
The President, said the source, received pleas from the former rulers. But, Dr. Jonathan was said to have complained to them that the dust stirred by Nyako’s letter to the Northern Governors’ Forum has not settled. He lamented that the governor has refused to withdraw the memo or apologise. But, Nyako’s men had ruled out the possibility of withdrawing it. In fact, the governor has insisted that he would not compromise the security of Adamawa State. In his controversial letter, Nyako complained that a full-fledged genocide was being committed against the Northern Nigeria in the name of fighting the Boko Haram sect. He alleged that ill-trained soldiers were drafted to curb the menace. ‘‘They are being poorly trained, totally ill-equipped, given only uniform and are killed by their trainers in Nigerian Army training centres as soon as they arrive in the Nigerian Army camps being used by the so-called Boko Haram insurgents. Virtually all the Nigerian soldiers killed or murdered in these operations so far are of Northern Nigeria origin. The administration has also hired militia men from across the continent, especially North Africa, who have been deceived into accepting to come because they were made to believe that they would be fighting infidels,” Nyako added.
Another condition for truce offered by the House is that the governor should render accounts properly to avoid being impeached like the Second Republic Kaduna State Governor Balarabe Musa. The House led by Speaker Umaru Fintiri accused the government of illegal deductions from the allowances of the civil servants totaling N142 million. Nyako has also been asked to submit bank statements showing income and expenditure and pay the withheld salaries of teachers who had embarked on strike. In addition, the legislators frowned at the meddlesomeness of the governor’s wife, Halimat, in state affairs.
Nyako’s real offence is that he has defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP. The prospect of his return to the party is dim. But, last week, he hurriedly inaugurated the chairmen and secretaries of 37 Development Areas Authorities (DAA). Many of them were nominated by the lawmakers. The move was to appease them.
The last option, said a source, is the informal demand that Nyako should resign. But, since the option may jeopardise the chance of the APC it may not be considered.
Faulty procedure
As the governor’s men continue with the reconciliatory moves, efforts are also made to discredit the impeachment process. Nyako and his deputy, Bala Ngilari, have shunned the panel, claiming that it was not properly constituted. They did not send any aide or counsel to represent them. Already, the panel has 22 exhibits against the governor and six against his deputy. But, two issues are being raised by the embattled governor and the deputy governor. The panel was not inaugurated by the Chief Judge because the Acting Chief Judge who set it up had to retire immediately. Also, the impeachment notice was not served on the governor. It was pasted on the wall of the state secretariat. Thus, one of the governor’s aides. Peter Elisha, submitted that the procedure is wrong. “The panel was not properly set up. It was not properly constituted. It was not inaugurated,” he added.
The APC Publicity Secretary in Adamawa State, Phineas Padio, also faulted the process, saying that it has violated the law. He said it was strange that the acting chief judge, who highlighted the guidelines for the impeachment, set up the panel when it was clear that the procedure had been breached. The Publicity Secretary pointed out that the method used by the lawmakers to serve the impeachment notice on the governor and his deputy was unconstitutional. “The acting chief judge had ruled that the notice of impeachment must be served through personal means. He even quoted a Supreme Court ruling that said it could not be served through the pages of newspapers as the House did. Yet, he went ahead to constitute the panel, although the notice was not properly served,” he fumed.
Nyako’s spokesman, Ahmed Sajoh, defended the refusal of his boss to appear before the committee. Echoing Padio, he said: “It is an illegal body, which has no basis in law.” Sajoh said that the House should have served the notice directly, instead of pasting it. “They are supposed to serve it. Besides, the panel was illegally constituted because those behind it ignored a subsisting court order. The composition of the committee itself is faulty. Card-carrying members of the Peoples Democratic Party are among the panelists,” he stressed.
At the weekend, the panel concluded its assignment on a controversial note. It only sat for two days.
Forces against Nyako
The forces against the governor are many. During the crises in the PDP. Nyako was accused of personalising the troubled chapter before he called it quits. Even, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is now in the APC with him, loathed his approach. Abubakar and former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman Mallam Nuhu Ribadu are the only notable politicians trying to pacify the Abuja forces to have a change of heart.
However, PDP leaders are adamant. For partisan reasons, many of them want the governor to go to maintain a clean break from the past. Former PDP National Chairman Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has not forgiven Nyako for opposing his leadership. When Awwal, his son, unfolded his interest in the governorship, the governor rejected the aspiration. For a different reason, Joel Madaki had also fallen out with Nyako since 2011, following the primaries. Also up in arms against Nyako are his predecessor, Boni Haruna, former Education Minister Senator Jibril Aminu, former Lagos State Military Governor Buba Marwa, former Minister of State for Health Dr. Idi Song, former Presidential Political Adviser Ahmed Gulag and a governorship aspirant, Makus Gundiri.
Deputy governor versus Speaker
Analysts have predicted a spilt in the anti-Nyako camp. Now, there is a struggle between Ngilari and the Speaker, who are from the same local government. If Ngilari is spared by the House, he will succeed the governor. He is a Christian. According to sources, Ngilari may be disposed to the choice of former federal legislator Awwal Tukur as the next deputy governor. This will nullify Fintiri’s chance of becoming the acting governor, if Nyako and Ngilari are impeached. In 2006, Ekiti State House of Assembly Speaker Hon. Sunday Aderemi became the acting governor when Governor Ayodele Fayose and his deputy, Biodun Olujimi, were shoved aside.
Litigation
The governor is also strengthening his base at the home front. In Yola, the governor received many people on solidarity visits at the weekend. He was calm. A source said that, at the weekend, APC leaders were brainstorming over the likely outcome of the investigation by panel. A source said: “Initially, the governor ran to the court. He will return to the court again to challenge the process. In Adamawa, there may be a repeat of the impeachment saga in Oyo State during the time of Governor Rashidi Ladoja. He was not properly impeached. So, the court reinstated him to office.”
