The two old PDP men in Adamawa

By EMMANUEL AZIKEN
Had it been a battle of principle or ideas, it would have been very welcome. But the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has never been known to project a platform for transparent policy discourse.

However, the ensuing battle between the National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State is simply a selfish contest of ego.

Ego simply does not have scruples and so, the two elderly pensioners who came to national limelight more than twenty five years ago seem to be showing.

The two oldies who according to multiple sources are in-laws have set themselves in the path of mutual political destruction.

Tukur, the 77 year old multi-billionaire businessman national chairman of the PDP has taken the battle to the 69 year old governor of his home state with the dissolution of the state executive of the party in Adamawa State.

As everybody knows, state executives of the ruling party in every state are tea boys of the governors in those states. Adamawa was no exception. The only ambiguity was that in Adamawa, the state chairman recognized by Nyako was Alhaji Umaru Kugama, who is from the same local government area, and the same village as the governor.

In Adamawa State, Governor Nyako actually does not recognize the principle of zoning, which is the feature of several other PDP controlled states where the PDP chairman is “selected” from outside the senatorial zone of the governor.

Whatever it is the problem between the two men, no one can exactly say.

But in the run-up to the PDP national convention of the party last March, Nyako was known to have stubbornly opposed the emergence of Tukur despite the presidential bandwagon that was going the way of the then 76 year old businessman.

Not even a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan could pacify Nyako who reportedly connived with fellow PDP governors from the Noutheast to embarrass his in-law, Tukur at the zonal congress where Tukur was shamefully trashed.

Nyako only succumbed at the eleventh hour, minutes before proceedings opened on the convention ground last March.

After that, the governor did a show of recognizing the national chairman by hosting a reception for a true son of the state after the convention. But Tukur it seems never forgot the humiliation he passed through from Nyako in the run up to the convention.

Now fully settled in office, he is now baring his fangs.

The dissolution of the Adamawa executive of the party was framed on the fact of allegations of insubordination on the part of the Kugama led state executive. The executive, it is claimed, violated instructions of the National Working Committee, NWC against further actions in compiling the list of candidates for the forthcoming council polls in the state.

Tukur’s fixation with developments in Adamawa it is alleged, flows from the well known ambition of his son, Awaal, to aspire to the governorship in 2015. Apparently, Nyako is not in on that game.

After exacting his pound of flesh with the dismissal of the Nyako loyalists from the state executive, Tukur seems to be the one laughing now. Nyako, the former naval general and Chief of Naval Staff surprised many when he visited the PDP national secretariat to beg over his past ‘misdeeds.’

While begging, he is suspected to be also mobilizing fellow governors for what could be a calculated upper cut on Tukur.

If past experience is anything to go by, governors are known to fight viciously when it comes to such power fights.

Unfortunately, these fights, including the ensuing battle between Nyako and Tukur are not over principles, policies or patriotic matters. They are fights over personal fiefdoms.