Nyako: Now, who’ll bell the cat?

However, the inclusion of Nyako’s deputy, Mr. Bala James Ngilari for impeachment, may have caught many political pundits napping.One needed not to look at the crystal ball to discern the fate that was imminently going to befall the retired Vice Admiral ever since he decided to navigate in the turbulent and rough political ocean, without […]

However, the inclusion of Nyako’s deputy, Mr. Bala James Ngilari for impeachment, may have caught many political pundits napping.
One needed not to look at the crystal ball to discern the fate that was imminently going to befall the retired Vice Admiral ever since he decided to navigate in the turbulent and rough political ocean, without enough life-saving jackets. He obviously left his planks wide open for the enemy to infiltrate and inflict maximum injuries on him. He behaved like a general who went to war against an external aggressor without enough soldiers.
Though the Governor, whose admirers and supporters prefer to call him Baba Maimangoro, being the biggest Mango farmer in the land, could rightly be described as the proverbial cat with nine lives when it comes to battles for political survival. It would however appear that this time around, he is left with no more survival strategy. The end of the road, some may say, has come for Nyako.
But then this is not the first time the state Legislators would attempt to impeach Nyako. Sometime in 2009, the Assembly under the speakership of Hon. James Barka, now Nigeria’s High Commissioner in Tunisia, the House initiated a similar move. The impeachment notice as required by law, could not be served on Nyako. He evaded service and instead flew to Abuja for help.
After listening to him, the late President Umar Yar’adua, directed the then Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to mediate and broker peace between the embattled Governor and his lawmakers. There were interventions from several other quarters among them, prominent PDP stakeholders from Adamawa State led by Prof. Jibril Aminu, late Comrade Paschal Bafyau and the National Assembly members from the State. The National Secretariat of the ruling PDP also chipped in words. The legislators thawed eventually. Nyako got a breather as the hold on his jugular was relaxed.
Agreements were reached among which was that the Governor should sack his powerful Chief of Staff, Alhaji Bello Tukur, while the presidency would provide a soft landing for Tukur vide an appointment in the presidency. Nyako reneged, and was to later used Tukur to block the third term bid of Aminu to return to the senate in 2011. Tukur, who has since also fallen out with Nyako, now represents Adamawa Central in the Red chambers of the National Assembly.
The question arises: where will Nyako now run to in order to find remedy for his current political grief? He is no longer in the good books of the presidency which had been instrumental significantly for his political survival battle victories including his controversial declaration as the winner of 2011 gubernatorial polls as well as the success he recorded during litigation at the court and tribunals. On several occasions he had taken on President Jonathan. The latest being his accusation of Jonathan as responsible for the killings in the north especially, the north east region. Nyako is no longer with the PDP, but with the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), so the question of whether the PDP or the presidency could come to his aid is unthinkable.
Obviously, the APC leadership cannot convince the all PDP legislators in Adamawa state to sheathe their sword against the embattled Nyako. Only last month  Governor Rabiu Kawankwaso visited Yola at the instance of Nyako to talk to the leadership of the House to leave the sleeping dog lie, but Kwankwaso was speechless, when a member of the Assembly asked him where he was when Nyako locked up the Assembly complex for about two months.
Already 20 members of the house have appended their signatures to the impeachment document, Nyako is left with five members who are sympathetic to him. In addition, virtually all the major stakeholders from Adamawa irrespective of party affiliation have dumped Nyako, due to his politics of exclusiveness. He has only his commissioners, special advisers, local government council chairmen and family members as his food soldiers. How far can they go in starving off the on- slaught on Nyako.
While the impeachment drama continue to unfold in the coming weeks it is pertinent here to take a foray into the likely implications of the impeachment. If the house succeeds in impeaching the governor and his deputy, it would mean the speaker, Hon Ahmad Fintiri who is also from the Madagali local government as the deputy governor, takes over as the acting governor for a period of 90 days when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), would organize a fresh gubernatorial poll in Adamawa within three months as required by law. But in view of the current State of Emergency in place in the State, will INEC be able to conduct elections within three months, more so that INEC chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega once held that his commission may not conduct elections under insecurity and risk the lives of his staff? And what happens if after three months INEC fails to organize the polls? A lacuna could just creep in with its attendant consequences.
Already, there is a school of thought among the PDP stakeholders that, the charges against Ngilari be dropped or he be given a clean bill by the seven man panel to be put in place by the state Acting Chief Judge to investigate the 20 allegations of gross misconduct so that he could just come in and finish Nyako’s term, and nominates somebody as deputy Governor until May 29, 2015. But the house leadership is not convinced. It is believed that for his loyalty to the party, the PDP would want to provide a soft handing for Ngilari, who refused to dump PDP for APC.
Initially, Ngilari, who it was learnt that the powers that be were planning to reward him with a governorship ticket for his loyalty, was not in the original impeachment plot.
On the face value, the offences Nyako and his deputy are accused of, are gross enough to warrant impeachment but in politics anything can happen.
Garba Yedimakudon, contributed this from No. 1B, Sukuta Street, Wuse II, Abuja.