Terfa Ayaga
4 December 2008
Yola — The National Chairman of the peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, has again doused the tension that threatened to divide the Adamawa state branch of the party by waging war against those their opponents refer to as the secessionists or disgruntled elements.
The chairman of the party last week in Yola separated the real grains from the chaff by accepting the faction of the party led by Alhaji Umaru Mijinyawa. Before now, a faction led by Chief Medan Teneke, a former commissioner in the governor Nyako's eight months government claimed to have toppled the former's leadership and was recognized by the national leadership of the PDP.
Ogbulafor who was in the state to commission some projects, declared that there was no division in the party even as two factions of the party had operated in the state for sometime. To be very jovial as usual with every PDP faithful, he noted that the Adamawa PDP had unity of purpose based on what he saw and that those claiming to be in factions were doing it at their own cost.
With that statement, however, a clean bill of health was passed on the Kugama camp of the PDP who also has the support of the Governor Murtala Nyako's government.
Teneke's full fledged factional leadership of the Party in Adamawa emerged following the crises that took over the party exactly two months ago.
The leadership that emerged promised to take over power and put in place curative measures in the party to save the institution from monumental decay. They also described the party as a collapsing edifice.
The faction had also pushed their case to the state house of assembly to seek for their support; a house they believed would definitely give them a caring audience because the house too had fought similar battle.
Earlier, signs of the crisis manifested when the chairman of the party, Mijinyawa Kugama went on air to announce that some disgruntled officials and chieftains of the party were holding secret meetings to destabilize the party.
Before the crisis erupted, Teneke was vice chairman of the party representing Adamawa Southern senatorial zone.
Details to the grouse of the Medan Teneke-led faction as contained in a letter presented to the house of assembly was that Kugama was incapable of running the affairs of the party in a truly democratic manner, leading to gross injustices meted out to the founding members of the party.
The Teneke faction accused the party Chairman, Mijjinyawa Kugama of incompetence, greed, dishonesty and lack of cohesion in the entire leadership of the party, frustrating the collective interest of the good people of Adamawa state.
According to Teneke, Kugama's sins among others were lack of co-ordination among the various arms of the party from the ward to the state levels. Poor and immature handling of party activities which they alleged, had led to huge backlog of outstanding disciplinary cases, unresolved party issues, unfilled vacancies at the local, state and ward levels and lack of maintenance or keeping of proper records of the state party activities.
Meanwhile, Kugama simply dismissed the allegations of the Teneke-led faction as baseless and irresponsible, adding that Teneke lacked the basic credentials to parade himself as PDP chairman in the state.
But the group who religiously held their position and bent on overthrowing the affairs of the party, according to observers were not men the Kugama Camp and Government house would underrate.
Those who believed so argued that Teneke himself lacked both the financial and his immediate environmental disposition to embark on a war he knew he would never win. Therefore, they alleged that the former commissioner was only fronted. Arguing further that heavy party stalwarts who were not at variance with the affairs of the party sent him on this mission.
To be very candid, said an analyst, the level the Teneke group was pushing its fight gave those in the mainstream of things sleepless nights. They had put in place every possible step to attract their confidence but only saw their gratitude. With this therefore, the authentic leadership of the party had to look somewhere. Hence, the resolve of the National chairman was speculated to have been sought.
According to political pundits, Adamawa political landscape is a den of intellectuals and would never survive if only in- house reconciliation strategies were implanted in the face of terrible clashes as the type the Adamawa House of Assembly began and even culminated into an impeachable story. And the one the Teneke's lords put out most recently.
Adamawa PDP is yet to matured to seek solutions to its disputes internally; this is the position of critical observers of the Governor Nyako's impeachment saga and the current impasse in the party.
Exponents of this line of thought say the Adamawa PDP at different points hoards certain issues to prove to the rest of Nigerians in this dispensation only to be stalemated by its national networks.
In the Nyako's impeachment case, as must be recalled, a few weeks into Nyako's second inauguration in office, after recovering from shocks of his earlier nullified administration, Nyako had submitted the list of commissioner nominees to the Assembly for screening; this was the first move by the executive to set their cabinet for possible take off of its government administration. Like a nightmare to the executive, the assembly refused giving six out of the 21 man list their blessing. The development invited public concern and somewhat suspicion among observers that definitely, the executive and the legislators would head on to a collision.
The executive on receiving the outcome from the house thought it so mild and confronted the legislators with the same list for screening. In a letter to the house, governor Nyako simply asked the legislators to clear the nominees. When the letter was read on the floor of the house, all the 25 members in the Assembly opted to talk on the matter.
Later, in very strong terms, the house ordered the clerk to write to the executive with a stronger warning never to re-submit the rejected names before it. The house however, proceeded on a month's recess.
While several reactions were coming up as regarding the house action on the executive over the issue of commissioner nominees, the house on the 30 days recess was busy preparing towards a war with the executive.
Supporters of the House action then contended that it was a reawakening of deep resolve, for at least legislators to once insist on what they felt was right since the rejected nominees were black listed due to charges of falsification of certificates and lack of minimum qualification to handle a public office of major heights like commissioner in the state.
On the other hand, other observers of Adamawa politics interpreted the insistence of the house rejection of the commissioner nominees that it was because the legislators had no fair share of slots in the list Nyako brought forward, still alleging that the legislators claimed to have suffered a lot to lift Nyako up to the Governor's seat and must not slap them in the face. The House condemned the list and maintained its stance.
Issues of politics of controversy and protest became clear in Adamawa politics when the PDP, conducted council elections in the state. The elections however brought about protest which mainly would have resulted to armed crisis in the state.
Aspirants for the council primaries stood their grounds that there were no elections in the party. Consequently, Party loyalists resolved to the streets on open protest.
What made the drama 'sweeter' as political analysts suggested was that the primaries had clearly exempted the whims and caprices of the legislators, thereby, blocking their ways. The issue of rejected mommies coupled with the controversial primaries enthused rumour near and far ends of the state that the Assembly would resume from recess with an impeachment notice.
The assembly men truly brought the earlier speculated impeachment notice against Governor Nyako. The impeachment struggle defiled all internally possible solutions. It took the might and powers of the National leadership of the party led by Chief Vincent Ogbulafor to wage into the matter that has now brought uneasy calm to the Adamawa polity.
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