Re: Adamawa primaries: The facts, the fiction and PDP’s chances

It also carried innuendoes that had the potential of exacerbating inter-ethnic animosity and religious bigotry which some Fulani elements have exploited in the past.The main thrust of ACC’s write-up was the anger over the victory of Adamawa State’s Acting Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri at the September 6th primary election to select PDP’s candidate for the […]

It also carried innuendoes that had the potential of exacerbating inter-ethnic animosity and religious bigotry which some Fulani elements have exploited in the past.
The main thrust of ACC’s write-up was the anger over the victory of Adamawa State’s Acting Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri at the September 6th primary election to select PDP’s candidate for the forthcoming Gubernatorial Bye-elections scheduled for 11th October, 2014.
The prospect of Fintiri, who is not Fulani, winning the bye-election and then handing over to a non-Fulani in the 2015 elections seems too bitter for the jingoists under the aegis of ACC to swallow, hence their confused analysis of issues, fictitious claims and laughable threats.
The ACC claimed that PDP’s primary election was flawed, giving graphic details of what transpired before and during the exercise.  This suggests that ACC members belong to the PDP or have insiders in the party that identify with their cause.    
In the write-up, ACC claimed that “A top leader of CAN, who was in Yola two days to the election met with leaders of their faith group and champions of ethnic minority and urged that even though Fintiri is a Muslim, they should still support him especially given that his mother is still a Christian and several others in his family are still Christians, and that he (Fintiri) would not only have another Christian as a Deputy-Governor who invariably cannot be Fulani, but come 2015, he would ensure a Christian takes over from him”.
Also, in the closing paragraph, the ACC claimed: “The Acting Governor was heard saying ‘Mun pasa kwaryan Fulani’ meaning ‘we have defeated Fulani hegemony’.  If through ethnic and religious sentiments coupled with obvious manipulations you achieved this, let us wait for the general elections in at least 8 heavily populated local government areas dominated by the Fulani and what will this translate to. Or will his actions to commit state funds to building a church in Jimeta Central Market simply because there is a mosque there (which was built by the Muslim community in the market) do the plot any good”? All these give the ACC away as champions of Fulani imperialism in pursuit of their jaundiced ‘Born-to-rule’ mentality.  But this is 2014, not 1814 or 1914.
At the end of Boni Haruna’s tenure in 2007, some prominent people (both Muslims and Christians) had stridently argued that a Moslem should also rule for the next eight years.  If some people feel that after 8 years of having a Muslim as governor, it is fair for a Christian (“who cannot be a Fulani”),to be governor in 2015, what is wrong with that?  
Within the brief period of his tenure, Fintiri has demonstrated greater competence, patriotism, altruism, fairness and justice than the darling of the Fulani, Nyako.   
ACC’s incendiary write-up aims at weakening the increasing solidarity among the non-Fulani of Adamawa population by trying to whip up religious sentiments within their Muslim adherents by painting Fintiri as being a Christian sympathizer or at least not a true Muslim and that only the Fulani are true Moslems in Adamawa State.   Fintiri’s candidature holds great promise for genuinely breaking Fulani hegemony.  But, as we have seen in the last 2 months, it also holds great promise for the unity, peace, progress and development of Adamawa State regardless of tribe religion, gender, social status or political ideology.  

Adamu Asafa, Gombi, Adamawa State