Fintiri: Taking Adamawa to happy shores of modernity
Adamawa State was created on August 27, 1991 by Ibrahim Babangida from the then Gongola State. Taraba State was also a beneficiary of that split of Gongola. Abubakar Aliyu became
- By Ray Epku
Adamawa State was created on August 27, 1991 by Ibrahim Babangida from the then Gongola State. Taraba State was also a beneficiary of that split of Gongola. Abubakar Aliyu became Adamawa’s first civilian governor in 1992 and had the onerous responsibility of bringing Adamawa which was largely rural into the league of modern societies.
When I visited Yola, Adamawa’s capital city in the 2000s, the signs of its rural-ness were obvious: poorly maintained and narrow roads and low infrastructure for hospitals and schools. But when I visited Yola last week, I saw a different city, a drastically different city, a drastically beautiful city with fly-overs and well-paved and clean roads. It was a drastic departure from what I saw when I went there many years ago. Development has now peeped into the place. And most of the people I spoke to attribute a lot of the development to the people-friendly policy of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri. And the people themselves were very friendly as if it was their birthday.
Adamawa aka the “Land of Beauty” has a diverse cultural and ethnic landscape that features hilly terrains which include the Mandara Mountains, the Benue River Valley as well as such ethnic groups as Fulani, Bata and Higgi. Such diversity of culture and ethnicity can be both an advantage and a disadvantage for those who run such a state. The majority may seek to dominate the affairs of the state in perpetuity thus marginalising the minority groups while the minority may seek to make its voice heard loudly in the affairs of the state thus causing some problems. But it does appear that Fintiri has managed the ethnic and political push-pull effectively by the use of people-centred policies that have brought benefits to people in the 21 Local Government Areas of the state. He has built and renovated hospitals and schools, provided employment for about 4,000 health workers, created seven new chiefdoms and emirates to enhance peace, unity and effective representation. He has also placed a strong emphasis on the empowerment of women and youths since both groups represent a substantial part of the population of the state. Ignoring them can pose a problem for any government because the two groups belong to the most dynamic and vocal groups in Nigeria. They believe that they deserve to get more, much more than they have got from the system so far. The youths asked for a reduction of the qualifying age for the presidency from 40 years to 35. They got it. The women are asking for more representation. They are receiving a sympathetic hearing.
The governor, obviously a man who believes in the philosophy of compassion, does not allow the system to consign the vulnerable in the population to the margins. In his social welfare programme, he gives free medical treatment to children under five years of age. He also offers free maternal delivery services as well as giving elderly citizens above 65 years free medical treatment. With these policies of compassion to the vulnerable groups, it is obvious that he and these beneficiaries are singing from the same hymn book.
In many states in Nigeria, vulnerable groups are generally ignored and simply left to their devices. They are strictly on their own (oto). It is either they are able to get help from a Good Samaritan, or they simply wait miserably for the day that the Creator decides to call them home. For most of them in Adamawa State, Fintiri has made a significant difference between living and dying. He knows that the wheel that does the squeaking is the one that should get the grease. And so he offers the grease to that wheel.
Perhaps it is the experiences that he acquired in the various offices that informed his strides in governance. He was not only a member of the Adamawa State House of Assembly but also its Speaker some years ago. He was also the acting governor of the state in July 2014 after Murtala Nyako was impeached. He was in that position until October 8, 2014. Now in his second and final term as an elected governor of the state, he has done what many people in the state did not expect him to do: defect to another party. On February 27, he gently strolled from the PDP to the ruling party, APC. Many people must have thought that a governor that is doing his final term has no need to cross carpet into the ruling party since he has no election to contest any longer. Those governors who are doing their first term now may feel justified to flee to the dominant ruling party so that they can benefit from federal and party might. But I suspect that Fintiri did not want to be drowned by the drowning PDP. PDP, a hitherto strong opposition party, had descended into the position of a false pregnancy with every symptom seen but no baby. The party splintered into several tiny groups and has been booby-trapped with law suits and as at today it is plummeting like a crashing comet.
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So, it was probably wise for those who chose to move into the big tent and be protected from sun and rain because there is safety in numbers. That is why Fintiri’s decampment got a roar of approval from Adamawans. But, of course, the various defections from other parties to the ruling party have caused anxiety among pro-democracy activists who feel that Nigeria may be heading to being a one-party entity. That is a debate for another day. But according to available information, Fintiri decided that moving to the APC was in the best interest of Adamawa because it could benefit from being aligned to the centre through the decampment. So his decision was based on what he thought was best for the state and its people, not necessarily on what was best for him as a person.
There is ample evidence that the governor had run the state reasonably well. That has fetched him some rewards. He has been given a fistful of awards such as Nigeria Excellence Award in Public Service and Governor of the Year on Urban Infrastructure. He has also waged a war for peace in the state which has made the state reasonably peaceful in a region that has been very turbulent over the years.
Now, the political temperature is rising because of the interest of people who would like to collect the baton of state leadership from him on May 29, 2027. The names that have come up are Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed aka Binani who ran against Fintiri in 2023, Abdulrahman Bashir Haske, a major contender on the APC platform and Kaletapwa Farauta, the current deputy governor. All of them are hoping to get a nod from the outgoing governor and the APC architecture in the state to be able to contest for the top job. I was told that the governor is making his preference a top secret so that the choice process will receive the full benefit of transparency and fairness.
That is patriotic.
