I am a lawyer, an elder statesman and critical stakeholder in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State. I was a founding member of the legendary Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). It could be recalled that the Action Congress (AC) was registered after the collapse of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). Action Congress later changed its name to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). I was at the convention of the ACN in Benin and a member of the committee that prevailed on former Governor Attahiru Bafarawa to step down for Nuhu Ribadu.
Key Highlights:
- The author alleges that APC House of Representatives primaries in Adamawa were not properly conducted and were instead “imposed.”
- He accuses key political figures, including Governor Ahmadu Fintiri and NSA Nuhu Ribadu, of excessive influence over candidate selection.
- The letter claims there were irregularities, including alleged corruption and manipulation of returning officers.
- It calls for intervention from President Bola Tinubu to ensure fair, democratic party processes and cancellation of the primaries in Adamawa.
- The writer warns that internal party disputes and alleged imposition of candidates could undermine APC’s performance ahead of 2027 elections.
I was an active participant in the national convention that ushered in the All Progressives Congress. I was also on your entourage together with Baba Bisi Akande, and Malam Nuhu Ribadu to Kano, when you paid a sympathy visit to the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, when he came back from hospital treatment, sequel to an attack on him by Boko Haram.
I write this open letter to you with a heavy heart that is in dare straight for resolution of some contending issues that affect our great party in Adamawa State. Fully conscious of the burden of history which will be remembered for a very long time, I am calling on you as a national leader, a grassroots mobilizer and a charitable democrat of uncommon grace and compassion to avail our party in Adamawa the latitude of participatory democracy as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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We are circumspect by way of introspection where we came from and possibly where we are going to, as the challenges are great, though not insurmountable. This calls for your urgent intervention in the process of instituting free, fair and credible Democratic culture.
The House of Representatives primaries held throughout the country on Saturday was not held in Adamawa State. Instead, what we witnessed was the coronation and appointment of candidates by the two most powerful personalities from the state, His Excellency, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser. With the exeption of maybe one or two constituencies, elections were not held in the rest of the constituencies in the state. The whole exercise was riddled with large scale subversion of the will of the people, democracy and the rule of law.
In Yola North,Yola South, and Girei Constituencies, one Salihijo said to have been recruited from Mayo Belwa in Adamawa Southern Senatorial District was brought in and imposed on the above mentioned constituency in the Central Senatorial District. This youngman was the immediate past chief executive of the Rural Electrification Authority. The whole country is aware of the allegation of billions of naira lost under his watch and yet, this is the same person Nuhu wants to impose on this constituency. He is doing this simply because he had asked the youngman to step down from contesting the governorship and contest the House of Representative seat. Since Mallam Nuhu is believed to have powers to impose anybody on any constituency, why not impose him on the constituency to which he belongs?
In Mubi North, Mubi South and Maiha Federal Constituency, a young lady was also said to have been imposed on that constituency. The fraud committed in this coronation was as a result of the appointment of the returning officer for the election, Kabiru Akilu, who was the immediate past chairman of the APC in Mubi North. He was one of the alleged beneficiaries of the eventual “winner’s” largess. Tongues are wagging as she was said to have bought him a Peugeot car worth N8, 000,000. Because there was no fairness, no rule of law, the beneficiary was appointed the returning officer for the election in Mubi South Local Govt Area. Will the rest of the contestants expect fairness from that election?
For now, almost all the aspirants that secured “victory”at the Saturday’s House of Representatives elections were either stoogies of Nuhu Ribadu or Governor Ahmadu Fintiri. Mr. President. nothing entitles Mallam Nuhu Ribadu the kind of influence he wields in your administration. If his past record of performance is anything to go by, you wouldn’t have allowed him the larger than life posture and menacing political role he has been playing in Adamawa State .
Nuhu Ribadu had never won even a single primary election in his political life and this singular act of meddling in Adamawa politics is very unnecessary and a great travesty of justice.
In 2011, you granted him the presidential ticket of the Action Congress, he lost his unit, lost his ward, lost his local government, lost his state, and subsequently lost the general election. I was a member of the committee that prevailed on Governor Attahiru Bafarawa to step down and support Nuhu in his presidential bid.
After the 2011 election, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan according to Nuhu had sent former Senate President David Mark requesting him (Ribadu) not to contest against him in the elections and if possible Nuhu should decamp to the PDP and contest the governorship election in 2015. According to Nuhu, President Goodluck will facilitate for him to take over at the appropriate time. I prevailed on Nuhu not to decamp to the PDP, and secondly, President Goodluck didn’t have the capacity to perform that political miracle. I told Nuhu that if President Goodluck has failed the senator from Sokoto who introduced the motion on the doctrine of necessity that facilitated Goodluck to assume the presidency in acting capacity, what assurance has he that President Goodluck will succeed in his case. He initially agreed with my advice and the rest is now history.
Mallam Nuhu and my humble Self-attended the funeral of Pa Otedola in Epe. On our way back to Lagos. Nuhu told me what Ambassador Hassan Tukur told him at the funeral session of Pa Otedola, that the president told them that the National Chairman of the PDP, then, Ahmed Mua’zu and Ambassador Hassan Tukur had met him the previous right. The president had instructed Ambassador Hassan Tukur to inform Nuhu that he should not contest future elections against him (Goodluck) and that he will not impeach Governor Nyako and allow the opposition party to take over Adamawa State.
So, it is either Mallam Nuhu decamps to the PDP and be made the governorship candidate or they will field their ourn candidate. Againz I reminded Nuhu of my advice to him in 2011, that he should not decamp to the PDP. I told Nuhu that he should be mindful of the fact that there were people in the PDP who were expending their resources to build the party and would be interested in contesting the governorship election in 2015. They will not work for his ticket if he is imposed on the party. His nomination, contrary to practice was brought from Abuja and he was imposed on the party. This nomination contrary to practice was imposed on the party and he lost the election woefully because Mallam Nuhu came third in the elections after Markus Gundiri came second to the eventual winner.
Here is the interesting part of the story as Mr. President, Goodluck asked Nuhu to nominate anyone for the position of the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority and Nuhu was believed to have skipped all the people who had worked for him in Adamawa State and went to Kano and nominated the Chiroman Kano from Kano, who was and still married to the daughter of his older sister, Hajiya Abu. Is this the man of political strategy who shuns the citizens of his state and went to Kano and recruited someone with no political connection and value to Adamawa, when those who toiled and suffered for his political activities had been left to carry the can?
Mr President, you have appointed Nuhu as your National Security Adviser, we thank you for that. But do you know that even his personal assistant, is from Taraba State? We were expecting him to appoint one of his boys from Yola South Local Government to add value to his people, but alas! According to sources attributed to Nuhu, if he appoints his personal assistant from his boys, people from Adamawa will flood his office to disturb him. This is the same person trying to impose candidates including the governorship candidate on the people of Adamawa. If he is contemptuous of us, he should leave us alone.
Not that Nuhu did not want to be the governor of the state at the moment, but he was expecting you, Mr. President to ask him to resign and contest the governorship election thereby placing the moral burden on you to return him as the governor of the state. If your Excellency has declined to impose him on the people of Adamawa State, why should you then allow him to brazenly interfere with the state’s electoral process? I am pleading with you Mr. President to restrain Mallam Nuhu from meddling in the party primaries in Adamawa .
Sir, kindly use your good offices to direct the national chairman of our party to cancel the House of Representatives primaries in Adamawa.
Another disturbing development happening in the party in Adamawa State, is the dubious role being played by the state chairman of the party. On the left hand side, he is an APC member and on the right, he is a PDP member. I know of three House of Assembly contestants that the chairman bought PDP nomination forms for. When Mustapha Salihu made his declaration to contest for the governorship of the state, the stipends given out for sharing to those who came for the occasion was allegedly shared by PDP party officials in some local government areas. Why should our state party chairman be hobnobbing with the PDP again, since he has joined Governor Fintiri in formally decamping to the APC?
Emphasis should be on the need to respect due process, membership active participation and other due democratic processes under this party in government. Mr. President sir, there’s this proverbial saying that one can force a horse to a river, but cannot force it to drink. Sir, don’t ignore the nine hundred thousand (900,000) APC supporters for a single individual of no political consequences. This, you know better, your Excellency.
Let me thank you for your patience for reading this family lengthy open letter with the hope that you will most profoundly intervene in correcting this pitfall that has the phenomenal capacity to affect the fortunes of our elections in 2027.
Thank you.
Alh Hamidu Mahmud, Walin Mubi.
