The Adamawa State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress is set to witness a political rumpus of seismic proportion, as the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Kabir Mijinyawa, and the immediate past chairman, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, Barrister Aliyu Wakili Boya, are set to dump the ruling party. Ibrahim Mistaali reports from Yola.
The gale of defections currently rocking the political environment in the country is already hitting Adamawa State, as Mijinyawa and Barrister Aliyu Wakili Boya are set to dump the ruling All Progressives Congress along with their followers. The move, which is part of the on-going political realignment in the state ahead of the 2019 general polls, is considered as a fresh challenge to the ambition of the state governor, Jubrilla Bindow, for a second term in office.
The two APC chieftains are believed to have decided on the move as a survival strategy, because of the looming threat to their political future and as a way of remaining relevant, politically, in the politics of the state.
A source closed to the speaker and the past ALGON chairman also disclosed that the duo may have resolved on dumping the ruling APC to enable them achieve their political dreams and may have perfected all arrangements to defect to the Advanced People’s Democratic Alliance (APDA).
Sources in the state revealed that, though, the two politicians have varying political interests and ambitions, they are, however, united by the fact that they had a common political benefactor in the oil baron, Abdullahi Bashir Haske, who has allegedly promised to bankroll their various ambitions .
Insider sources close to the plan revealed that Haske’s vast connection and network with the mainstream Nigerian elite, including the incumbent Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Maikanti Baru, is believed to have placed him among the few Nigerians that can get their bid done without much ado .
Also, Mijinyawa and Boya have been long-time associates of Haske who was ascribed by various commentators as the life and soul of their political emancipation having contributed so much to their success in politics.
The two Adamawa state politicians have really benefitted from the largesse of the rich young oil magnate who controls vast resources and tremendous war chest to the extent that they always receive him whenever he landed at the Yola International Airport and similarly accompany him to the airport whenever he was leaving the state.
Reports also have it that immediately after the ‘Not too young to run Bill’ was signed into law, Haske allegedly approached the national chairman of APDA, Shittu Mohammed and requested to be promised the presidential ticket of the party ahead of 2019.
Shittu was alleged to have expressed some reservations about the request because of the fact that even with the passage of the Not too young to run Bill, Haske is still too far below the minimum age of 35 that will qualify him to contest the presidential office as he was still below 30 years.
Despite this, Haske again allegedly approached the national chairman of APDA with a request to avail his two political surrogates with its platform so as to revive their fledgling political ambitions.
Shittu was said to have , at first, received the request of Haske with a pinch of salt having learnt that the the two surrogates of Haske in persons of Mijinyawa and Boya who have irreconcilable differences with the then state chairman of the party Umar Bello Jada, will never realize their ambitions as far as Jada still reigns as the party chairman.
Another seeming obstacle before Shittu was the moral burden and even the possible backlash that will follow any unilaterally decision to remove Jada as the Adamawa state chairman of the party.
Shittu also knows that if he did not allow Haske to come in to rejuvenate the party, there is the likelihood that it will not make any impact in 2019 in the state as the party has been rendered inconsequential following its rejection of an earlier alliance with the faction of APC loyal to ex-governor Murtala Nyako and another botched alliance with the Social Democratic Party that will see the two parties fielding candidates to contest elective positions on a pro-rata basis.
Haske has also perfected the move to sponsor the incumbent speaker of the state House of Assembly to fly the gubernatorial flag of the party
In order to fill the missing gaps and to avoid throwing the party into needless internal strife, Shittu allegedly summoned Jada where he pointedly told him the imbroglio that has ensnared the party. He allegedly told Jada that he finds it difficult to take a unilateral decision to sack him because of the immorality of such action and the prospects of facing a retributive justice as Jada may likely revolt.
He also told Jada that sparing him as the state party chairman will equally hurt the interest of the party as it will lose an important stakeholder who has the wherewithal of rejuvenating its dying and dysfunctional structures and inject it with a new lease of life.
Impressed by the openness of the national chairman, Jada allegedly decided to resign as the chairman of Adamawa State chapter of the party, as a special sacrifice to ensure the survival of one of his babies in the very inclement political terrain of Adamawa State.
With the resignation of Jada, the Haske group began a frenetic and frenzied move to root the party structure, first by getting a new office and the appointment of an interim state exco that will superintend the affairs of the party pending when the substantive exco will be
put in place.
Reports indicated that in his move to ensure that the party is solidly rooted, Haske has secured and furnished the new state secretariat complex of the party located at Target junction along Atiku Abubakar way, Jimeta and has also appointed Jafaru Baba Girei as the interim chairman that is expected to superintend the party in acting capacity.
Haske has also perfected the move to sponsor the incumbent speaker of the state House of Assembly to fly the gubernatorial flag of the party while the ex-ALGON chairman, Boya, as well as another ex-local government chairman will fly the Central and Southern Senatorial flags of the party respectively.
It was revealed that because of the uncertainty surrounding the political future of many members of the state House of Assembly, 17 lawmakers have agreed to defect alongside the Speaker since they have been given assurances of getting automatic tickets that will enable them stage a comeback to the Assembly while Boya is expected to bring 15 of his colleagues that were also promised automatic tickets to vie for a range of political offices come
2019.
It was reliably gathered that Mijinyawa and Boya took the weighty decision because of the glaring fact that their ambitions may not materialize in the APC because of some undercurrents in the
party.
For instance, the governor’s aversion to the ambition of Boya was an open secret as he has both in the public and secret discussion told Boya that he will not support his senatorial ambition, advising Boya to instead, contest for state House of Assembly seat.
On the contrary, the governor does not have any personal animosity against the ambition of the speaker following the unflinching support that the Speaker has accorded Bindow; but his action in ditching the Speaker stems from the need to be politically correct so as to secure the support of the eldest son of Lamido and Kaura Adamawa who doubles as the Commissioner of Local Government Affairs, and by extension, the support of the Adamawa
Emirate.
But as the no love lost between Kaura and Mijinyawa persisted making them not to see eye to eye, it dawned on Bindow that he needed the support of Kaura whose emirate controls 7 local governments areas in the state more than Mijinyawa who as a “commoner” do not enjoy the larger than life influence that Kaura commanded.
It was believed that a recent attempt to remove the speaker, few weeks ago was orchestrated by Kaura in a seeming attempt to weed Mijinyawa not only from his plum position but to consign him to permanent political oblivion.
Effort to contact Haske, Mijinyawa and Boya for comments was not successful as the the time of filing this report.
