Who Will Save Murtala Nyako?

The genesis of the impeachment process against Governor Murtala Nyako is traceable to many factors, but two are most important: first, Nyako’s failure to honour his own side of his ‘deals’ with the State House of Assembly after they approved many requests from the executive, most notably, the controversial 10 billion naira bond. Secondly, Nyako’s happy-go-lucky action of denying many of the legislators the opportunity to control their constituencies during the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa State. After all, Nyako’s opponents have always labelled him someone who relishes the politics of acquiring all for himself to the detriment of an all-inclusive politics. 

Before the current crisis, Gov. Nyako had the support of more than eighty percent of the State House of Assembly. For instance, when Nyako defected to the APC, and his adversaries took over the PDP in the state, only six members from Lamurde, Ganye, Guyuk, Numan, Nassarawo/Binyeri and Gombi constituencies openly attended PDP meetings. The rest of the members sat on the fence. 

Now, hurt by Nyako’s ‘betrayal’, the House members are willingly and freely offering a priceless service to the PDP and presidency. The PDP and the presidency will certainly enjoy what is happening, and no one can blame them, because Nyako is the architect of his predicament. 

From all indications, House members are determined to push the impeachment through- despite Nyako smartly evading the notice, forcing the house to place it in print and electronic media. 

Who will save Governor Murtala Nyako? The Adamawa masses could have been Nyako’s saviour, because Nyako had once enjoyed an unprecedented support from them. But he has lost their sympathy because of his failure to correct his political blunders- open cronyism, non-representative government and poor resource distribution. And majorly, gross government disservice the state is witnessing in all sectors. 

Another group that can save Gov. Nyako is the traditional class. The first impeachment attempt was doused by the late Lamido Aliyu Mustafa. There are rumors that the governor has made reasonable inroad in using the traditional class to persuade the members to drop the impeachment proceedings. If Nyako succeeds in getting the tradition class to plead with the members on his behalf, it would work. Out of the 25 members of the House of Assembly, 5 have not signed the impeachment notice. So, if Nyako is able to persuade, for instance, the Ganye chiefdom to talk to the five house members of chamber tribe extraction from Toungo, Ganye, Jada/Mbulo, Nassarawo/Binyeri and Leko/Koma constituencies, the impeachment process will suffer a setback at the second stage- the two-third majority will not be met. The two-third majority in the Adamawa state House of Assembly is sixteen members. 

Nonetheless, if eventually Nyako finds his way out; will he be able to respond to the 20 allegations of financial misconduct against him? This is anybody’s guess. 

On another hand, deputy governor Bala Ngilari is an unlucky man- he is an aspirant for the governorship position. Some political factors will work against him in this politics of impeachment. All his opponents will oppose handing the governorship position to him on a platter of gold. He is said to be at loggerheads with Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, the Speaker of the House and also the complex Adamawa politics, where tongue, faith and geography play important role in Ngilaris’ dilemma. 

Whichever way the impeachment process goes, Nyako will still come out with many bruises. 

Zayyad I. Muhammad, writes from Jimeta, Adamawa State, zaymohd@yahoo.com, 08036070980.