Ngilari’s predicament

saying that the delay in the appointment of the commissioners was not an act of disrespect for the people of the state, but that government took time to look at circumstances that brought the government into being and what needed to be done to move the state forward. For anyone who knows the predicament of […]

saying that the delay in the appointment of the commissioners was not an act of disrespect for the people of the state, but that government took time to look at circumstances that brought the government into being and what needed to be done to move the state forward. For anyone who knows the predicament of Bala Ngilari, this was a statement of hope following despair. Given that salaries for December were paid through augmentation of nearly N1bn in more debts, Bala
Ngilari must have weighed the financial implication of establishing the administration. He has promised a Deputy Governor and an Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice soon.
Consider being placed on seat as Governor of a State and the first thing you are confronted with is a 3 month wage bill of nearly N6bn, a bank debt profile of nearly N13bn and a monthly interest service of N300m. On top of this, you are also confronted with a political process that has not gone down well with the State polity, itself spoilt by a past profligate regime that offered financial handouts instead of development! The people still want more handouts even if development continues to elude them. Add to all this, the influx of an estimated 500,000 internally displaced persons struggling pathetically to get by.
This sums up the unenviable predicament in which Bala Ngilari found himself when he was returned as Governor of Adamawa State, to conclude the tenure he shared with impeached Murtala Hammanyero Nyako. Before the impeachment, the Legislature had cited the precarious condition of the state’s finances. The State Government was not only unable to raise the paltry sum of N142m required for the payment of withheld salaries of civil servants for which all hell broke loose leading to the Governor’s impeachment, each of three Government accounts were in the red by up to N3bn. The House of Assembly gave this damning conclusion, that given the scenario on the ground at the time, “the Government will stand still one day, due to excessive overdrafts in all the accounts with average of more than N3bn monthly”.
That situation has been made even worse today, by the rescheduling secured by Umaru Fintiri who acted as Governor, and committed a further N3bn to ongoing projects. Thus, Bala Ngilari with monthly revenue of averagely N2.4bn, has a plate of N13bn or more in bank debts to stare at, against mounting pressures from the State Civil service to deliver on salary arrears payments promised by Fintiri, and the frustrated aspirations of the people through the last 7 years of waste. The costly security environment and the welfare of the over blowing Internally Displaced Persons on account of the Boko Haram insurgency, are also  serious issues to contend with. Quite a challenge albeit normally anticipated in Governance. State economies collapse due to mismanagement, yet a leader of high dexterity institutes regimes of management that can effectively turn matters round. This however requires time, which Governor Bala Ngilari does not have, sadly, and this is where the unfairness in his predicament can be appreciated.
Governor Bala Ngilari served as Deputy Governor to Nyako, a man who did everything to exclude his Deputy from decision making and responsibility. Even Nyako joked about the relationship, often addressing his Deputy as king of patience. Yet Bala Ngilari now has to cope with a critical political situation in which decisions have been taken by Abuja hawks to disenfranchise him from the political process which, were it normal, he would have automatically earned the ticket to contest for Governor of Adamawa State. But the situation is not normal. Nuhu Ribadu has been curled from the opposition, into the State PDP, and offered the ticket to contest Governorship in 2015. The process is anything but legal and normal by interpretation, creating a situation of discontent akin to a roaring volcano about to spew larva!
Politically, there is a dilemma as to how to market Nuhu Ribadu to victory in 2015 just round the corner. With a nomination to the Senate, Bala Ngilari could swallow his pride and submit to the PDP in good faith, but the epitome of the political crisis is that the iconic State PDP Chairman Joel Madaki and his EXCO Secretary Barrister AT Shehu with their command of the party following and structure, stand suspended and need to be wooed back if the Party is to have hope,  Many other key contestants, aggrieved by their disenfranchisement, are in court petitioning, just as angry disenfranchised delegates seething with fury and support influencers are giving counsel to a protest to ensure PDP suffers defeat. The storm may be weathered, but a crisis is avoidable. It is better that the situation is managed without the aloof mien being bandied by the hawks who voters plan to humiliate as been mentioned loudly almost everywhere everyday!
Thus with less than two months to the crucial February election, the PDP is fractured. Clearly there is a disconnected between the State supporters of the party and the manipulators of matters in Abuja. The primary that produced the State candidates could present insurmountable legal challenges in the future, the standoff with the Joel Madaki-led EXCO and the departure of many contestants to PDM are all spectres that spell one thing – failure. A protest vote could give APC an easy win, and worse, threaten a winning chance for President Jonathan against Muhammadu Buhari, whose popularity is soaring by the day.
For now, Abuja has to make it easy for Bala Ngilari, granting him a fighting chance through a ticket to the senate, reconcile with and restore Joel Madaki and his group, and dress the grant of the ticket to Nuhu Ribadu in some legally acceptable cloak. More importantly is a rapprochement with the disenfranchised lot of contestants to the Governorship and Legislative political offices. It is still possible to stitch the shreds and manage a victory next year.
On his part, Bala Ngilari is best advised to include himself with the Party in hope to also establish a legacy that can be sustained by future administrations. Practical steps need to be taken to change the Adamawa narrative of political disagreements, raging feuds, and waste of resources, both human and material, to assuage the divergent warring sentiments of class, ethnicity, and religion. Needed urgently is a broad based conference of Adamawa elite, all stakeholders and influencers to forge a contract of peace and harmonious coexistence of the people. Adamawa, a state with immense potential of people and resources, is in dire straits, lacking in infrastructure, its people ravished by poverty, and school children performing poorly because of the many vagaries, the future must be of concern to all. Adamawa State deserves to be better than it has found itself.
The strangulation of the state by banks earning N300m each month in bogus interest is not acceptable given the human suffering of the mainly civil service State, and requires intervention championed by the Adamawa State Government, assisted by the Central Bank of Nigeria. It goes without saying, that crimes have been committed that have bred this predicament. The criminals must be sanctioned, looted funds returned to State coffers or else the process will continue to repeat itself.