After what literally appeared a tempestuous journey, Admiral Murtala Nyako yesterday fell like a pack of cards in the murky waters of Adamawa State politics. It was the end of an era for the former Chief of Naval Staff and Deputy Chief of Defence Staff.
The development brought to an end Nyako’s seven years tenure characterised by crises, controversies and allegations of highhandedness by the retired naval chief.
Nyako was removed from office by an overwhelming majority vote after a panel set up by the former acting Chief Judge of the state, Justice Ambrose Mammadi, indicted him for gross misconduct. The House had earlier charged him with 20 counts of gross miscon- duct but found him guilty of 16 of them.
The panel, inaugurated on July 7, submitted its report a week after, thereby setting the stage for his eventual impeachment.
The former governor would go down in the political history of the state as one who came, saw but failed to conquer.
Nyako’s first contact with politics was in February 1976 when he was appointed military governor for the then newly created Niger State by General Murtala Muhammed. He later became a member of the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) during the General Ibrahim Babangida military regime.
He joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2006 and emerged the Adamawa guber- natorial candidate of the party in the 2007 general election in very controversial circumstances. He was later declared the winner of the 2007 governorship election in the state.
In February 2008, the Elec- tion Petition Appeal Tribunal upheld the earlier nullification of his election by the state Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, and the House Speaker, James Barker, was sworn in as acting governor on February 26, 2008. He was re-elected in a rerun election and returned to government on April 29, 2008. Two months later, he ran into trouble with the state Assembly.
Since he took over the mantle of leadership in the North- East state, the former governor had been enmeshed in one controversy after another.
The first impeachment at- tempt against him
Indications that Nyako’s reign in Adamawa would be turbulent emerged very early in his first tenure. In June 2008, less than two months after he won the rerun election, the former governor ran into troubled waters, with the state Assembly. But some political bigwigs in the state and the late President Musa Yar’Adua intervened and he was left off the hook.
The late president had direct- ed the then vice president, who is at present the nation’s presi- dent, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, to broker peace between Nyako and the state Assembly. At the end of the reconciliation meeting, the then national chairman of the PDP, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, had declared the misun- derstanding a family affair.
Ogbulafor had stated: “It is the party that intervened and we have solved the problem. It is a family and it’s been taken care of. We only went to brief the president what we did and the president is happy with the party. The governor and the speaker are one and the same. Everything is over and we are happy.”
After the first impeachment moves were staved off, Nyako, like the wren, who after having a good meal, challenged his personal god to a wrestling bout, went into a political duel with most of those who saved his neck. Consequently, in his recent travails, there were not many people to speak for him.
At the height of the impeachment moves against him, 46 top politicians in the state, including Senator Jibril Aminu, had, in a communiqué, hailed the House of Assembly for the initiative to rid the state of the former naval chief.
The communiqué had stated in part: “That the Nyako/Ngillari administration has, over the years, brought Adamawa State to its knees politically, economically, infrastructural, and security wise.
“That through its deliberate and misguided policies, the regime both exacerbated social and political tensions in the state by creating ethnic and religious distrusts among the various groups, and entrenched lawlessness, unconstitutionality, corruption, nepotism, favoritism and dishonesty in governance to the point that our people can no longer condone such a regime even for a single day, if they can help it.”
His battles with Bamanga Tukur, President Goodluck Jonathan et al
When former vice president, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, returned to the PDP in 2010, after his political sojourn in the defunct Action Congress (AC), Nyako refused his readmission into the party. All efforts by Atiku to get a PDP membership card were blocked by the former governor. It took the interven- tion of the national headquarters of the PDP before the former vice president was re-admitted into the party.
Similarly, shortly after his re- election in 2011, Nyako fell out with PDP bigwigs in Adamawa over the control of party structures in the state. The top shots included Senators Jubril Aminu, Grace Bent, Jonathan Zwingina and Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, among others. The battle con- tinued, even after Tukur became PDP national chairman.
When Nyako defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) last year, the former Chief of Naval Staff also engaged the former military administrator of Lagos State, Brigadier General Mohammed Marwa, in a battle over the control of the party structure in the state.
The bone of contention between them was the control of party’s structure in the state ahead of the 2015 general elec- tions. In no time, the party in the state was factionalised.
Nyako later teamed up with six other governors of the ruling party, who had issues with the party and President Jonathan to form G7. In August last year, the former Adamawa governor and other members of the G7, alongside other aggrieved members of the PDP, staged a walkout from the PDP miniconvention at the Eagle Square in Abuja. They later announced the formation of the New PDP.
In November last year, the retired naval officer formally dumped the PDP for the opposition APC. His deputy refused to join the APC as well as members of the House of Assembly.
Earlier in the year, he took on President Jonathan, accusing his administration of embarking on genocide against the North under the guise of fighting terrorism in the North-East.
In a stronglyworded letter to the 19 northern governors, Nyako wrote: “It is a wellknown fact that the present federal ad- ministration has now become a government of impunity run by an evil-minded leadership for the advancement of corruption that is apparently enjoying the protection of the federal administration as a citizen of this country should enjoy but is being denied by the administration using its mass murderers/ cut-throats imbedded in our legitimate and traditional defence and security organisations. We also saw it as the beginning of genocide. Genocide kingpins are now on the prowl in north- ern Nigeria.”
Many people, especially supporters of President Jonathan, were not happy with his comments.
The second impeachment move
The recent journey for Nyako started in June when the state Assembly resolved to sack him and his deputy following a petition signed by 19 of the 25 members of the Assembly alleging gross misconduct against him.
The impeachment move was sequel to a motion on constitutional matter raised by the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Laori Kwamoti (PDP-Numan), on the floor of the House backed with a document signed by 19 of the 25 members. The lawmaker had cited Section 188 of the constitution as the basis for his motion.
As soon as Kwamoti was done, Malam Usman Abdulkareem (PDP-Nasarawo/ Binyeri) also moved for the impeachment of Ngilari, stating that he had a petition signed by eight lawmakers alleging gross misconduct against the deputy governor.
Consequently, the Speaker, Alhaji Umaru Ahmadu Fintiri, directed the clerk to serve separate notices to the affected personalities and all the 25 mem- bers of the state Assembly.
Also, attempts to immediately serve the embattled governor and his deputy the impeachment notice in person were not suc- cessful, prompting the House to pass a resolution to serve them through the newspapers.
The charges against the governor included fraudulent awards of contracts of over N8 billion through a company in which one of his wives is believed to have interest, alleged corrupt siphoning of N300 million public funds through a company for the construction of Mubi by pass road without mobilising to site or any construction carried out after collecting the money.
Other charges included: “Gross violation of oath of office by outrageous patronage and dominance of family and friends in the discharge of government business, gross violation of Section 120 of the constitution and gross misappropriation and diversion of Internally Generated Revenue for personal use to the detriment of the people of Adamawa State.”
Many had insinuated that the impeachment was instigated by the Presidency to get even with the former governor for defecting to the APC and continued opposition to President Jonathan. But the former governor himself dispelled such insinuation, stating that neither Jona- than nor non-natives of the state had a hand in his travails.
He had stated in an inter- view in Yola: “The Presidency is not in any way involved in the ongoing political squabble and the political tension in Adamawa has not been externally motivated by non-natives of the state, as claimed by some people.”
As the noose tightened on Nyako, he made frantic ef- forts to save his neck. Firstly, he tried to evade the service of the impeachment notice on him and his deputy, prompting the House to resolve to use a substituted service. He also tried to use the judiciary to stop the lawmakers.
Those gunning for Nyako’s job
The fight of the titans will soon ensue in Adamawa State following the impeachment of Governor Murtala Nyako and the resignation of his deputy, Mr. Bala James Ngilari. Many believe that the development will elicit political battles as to who succeeds Nyako as governor in the next three months, in accordance to the constitution.
What may play out in the state is that a green horn may emerge because of the number of political heavyweights that are eyeing the former seat of Nyako. Indeed, no less than 20 to 30 governorship aspirants from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC) and a host of other minor political parties, may emerge after the primaries of the respective parties.
In the PDP fold are Senator Abubakar Halilu Girei, former chairman, Senate Services Com- mittee; Dr Umar Ardo, a political scientist and activist; Dr. Silas Jonathan Zwingina, one-time Director General of Moshood Abiola’s ‘Hope ‘93’ and former Deputy Senate leader as well as Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Modibbo, former Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Educa- tion Commission (UBEC).
Others are Brigadier General Mohammed Buba Marwa, former Military Administrator of Lagos State; Mr. Awwal Tukur, son of the immediate past national chairman of PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur; Dr. Aliyu Idi Hong, political son of Professor Jibril Aminu and a former minister of State, Foreign Affairs as well as Mr. Markus Gundiri, a retired director in a federal ministry.
In the APC are former EFCC boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu; Commodore Abdul’Aziz Nyako, first son of the impeached Governor Murtala Nyako; Alhaji Dahiru Bobbo, former Director General of the National Boundary Commission; Barrister Boss Mustapha, Alhaji Abdullahi Abubakar, Alhaji Abdulrazak Namdas, former secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in the state, who is regarded as the political son of the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and a host of others.
However, the battle must first be the intraparty contest before that of the muscles flex- ing among the candidates of the two major political parties, on one side and their godfather, on the other side. In the PDP, for instance, the former national chairman of the PDP is said to be goading his son, Barrister Awwal Tukur, while Professor Jibril Aminu is supporting his political son and former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Aliyu Idi Hong. Zwingina, Marwa, Girei, Ardo, Modibbo are political heavyweights in their own rights.