Many years ago, three men were vicariously nailed in a place called Golgotha. One was totally innocent of the charges placed against him. It was political. His traducers thought he had come to change the course of leadership in Israel. They did not understand his pronouncements about the reason for his coming.
The other two men were purely enemies of society- malefactors who by their nefarious activities had inflicted pain and miseries on fellow human beings. Almost everyone in Israel believed the punishment meted out to the thieves was justified. This appears to be the verdict of some people following last Tuesday’s impeachment of Murtala Nyako, a sitting governor in Adamawa State in the troubled North East geopolitical zone of the country. Nyako was taken to Golgotha and was nailed there! Murtala Nyako is not Christ and does not possess any virtue that could qualify him to so be (at least for now).
Those who carried out the exercise insist that Nyako’s “crucifixion” as it were, was on merit, as in their own estimation the former governor possessed the attributes of the two malefactors, hence the 20 impeachable offences that did him in.
The development has expectedly elicited controversy. While those in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) family are comfortable with the impeachment, members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) allege that in Nyako’s case, there is more to the issue than meets the eye.
A pundit said that Nyako’s faulty leadership style was evident in the cat and mouse relationship that existed between him and his deputy, Bala Ngilari on one hand, and members of the state House of Assembly on the other (hand).
“It is quite easy to know the kind of government Nyako was running in Adamawa. He was not known to enjoy a good relationship with his deputy, and he was not a friend to most members of the House of Assembly. I want to believe that had Nyako been a good person, maintain a robust relationship with his deputy, he would have succeeded in carrying along Ngilari with him to APC. What is evident is that the former governor was a lone-ranger. If he had been a good man in power, most members of the House of Assembly would have defected with him to APC. The man was an irritant while in power and only cared for himself and members of his family.
“Look at the case of Chibuike Amaechi. The Rivers State governor would have long been impeached had he not carried along his deputy, majority members of the state House of Assembly. That is what we call political sagacity and it does not have to come with gray hair. Nyako has plenty gray hair, but lacks the simple wisdom how to manage men. He was simply not sagacious while in power,” Henry Nwagbara, a public affairs commentator, said.
A retired military personnel who hails from Mubi, Adamawa, told BDSUNDAY that Nyako shot himself in the foot when he decided to fight members of the House of Assembly.
The retired soldier, who asked not to be named, said: “Here’s a man who single-handedly installed all the members of the House, but when he crossed over to APC none of them followed him. It is a reflection of the level of resentment of his bad politics. We watched him dig his own political grave and since he is not given to listening to advice, he fell into the grave with his eyes wide open.”
Nyako and allegation of selfishness
A former presidential aspirant and an indigene of the state, who craved anonymity, described the governor’s impeachment as appropriate and long overdue. He alleged that Nyako turned the state into a family business, where no one else mattered but him, his wives and children.
“I will tell you right away that Nyako’s impeachment is long overdue. In every aspect of politics, there is always the ethnic and religious coloration. Nyako claimed to be a Fulani and a moslem. When it favours him, he brandishes the ethnic side of him, and at another time when it favours him he brandishes the religious aspect. All his life he goes to Moslems in holier-than-thou attitude. In 2007, he did not contest the PDP primaries, but the then President Obasanjo picked him up and gave him to Jibril Aminu and they imposed him on the people to spite Abubakar Atiku. At that time, Nyako was a member of the ANPP. He does not believe that anybody else has a stake in the state except him and members of his family,” the man who is a strong member of the PDP said.
“Nyako ran Adamawa like his own personal estate. He has four wives; each of them had a commissioner attached to her; who were reporting to them every day. He forced his son Abdulaziz who was a commodore in the Nigerian Navy to resign and come into politics to succeed him. Abdulaziz, until Nyako’s impeachment was the de-facto governor to whom everybody, including the SSG, was reporting. One of Nyako’s sons-in-law, marrying his daughter, was at loggerheads with Abdulaziz because of their interests in the governorship seat. He had prepared one of his wives, Zainab, to run for the Adamawa Central Senatorial district. If you go to the National Judicial Council (NJC) you will confirm that Nyako had sent the name of one of his wives to be made the chief justice of the state. There are just too many indiscretions of the man. The implication is that it gave Adamawa bad name and pushed away good hands from politics. I am glad that we have put all that behind us,” he added.
Critics question allegations against Nyako
Pundits say that some of the allegations against the former governor were just made up or a case of giving the dog a bad name to hang it.
A critic who identified himself as Jonah, a civil servant, said Nyako committed “gross misconduct” because he did not share the money.
Jonah said: “In our clime, all those terminologies as ‘he did not carry everybody along’, ‘gross misconduct’ and such like are money-based. In Nyako’s case, the major allegation centred on his refusal to share the money accruing to the state. He was accused of ‘chopping’ alone.”
Itsey Sagay, a constitutional lawyer, said he was in doubt as to who actually removed Nyako, whether it is the House of Assembly or President Goodluck Jonathan. It was his view that the impeachment was hatched and delivered from Abuja.
According to him, “the rush-rush conclusion of the entire process leading up to the impeachment of the governor gives an impression that somebody was somewhere saying come let’s conclude this condemnation quickly. There are too many questions than answers.”
A lecturer with the University of Lagos, who spoke on condition of anonymity, condemned what he called abuse of impeachment by Nigerian politicians.
“Impeachment which is a tool of redress available to the people through their representatives has become a tool for witch-hunt in the hands of some self-serving politicians. We saw it in the case of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, former governor of Bayelsa State; we saw it in the case of Ayo Fayose and many other places and they all happened when Obasanjo was in power. They have not changed. When you hear them accuse a governor of wrong-doing, if you look closely you will see that they are not speaking for the interest of the people, but for their own selfish ends. It is very unfortunate,” the don said.
Attempting a definition of what amounted to “gross misconduct or impeachable offence” a columnist said: ‘if anyone were to ask me what amounts to gross misconduct or impeachable offence, my answer would be: it depends on the political correctness about whoever is doing the committing. It all depends on how well for instance, the offender ‘federates’ with the lawmakers and all the other power blocs.
“If for instance, PDP had allowed APC succeed with taking the majority of the National Assembly, I’m sure that by now, we’d be feasting on a delicacy of Jonathan’s ‘gross misconduct’. I doubt if Nyako would be in nearly as much trouble as he is today if he stayed in PDP with his lawmakers or taken them with him to join APC.”
Nyako’s impeachment widens PDP coast
The impeachment is believed to have widened the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s coast and has strengthened its determination to overrun the states under APC. The development has increased the number of states controlled by the PDP to 19, whereas APC is down to 15.
Nyako’s sack, which less than a month after his party, APC, suffered an unexpected defeat in the gubernatorial election held on June 21, 2014 in Ekiti State, may have further dampened the moral of the party’s leadership.
APC sulking
The All Progressives Congress has expressed dismay at the development, accusing the PDP of staging a “war against Nigeria”.
John Odigie-Oyegun, who was elected recently as the broom party’s national chairman, alleged that Nyako’s ouster was part of the plans by President Goodluck Jonathan to weaken the opposition’s strongholds ahead of the 2015 general elections.
“The entire impeachment of Governor Nyako is so fraught with irregularities, bias, judicial contradictions and in violation of every procedural and constitutional provisions that it is the worst manifestation of impunity,” he said.
The party accused the President of bribing members of the Adamawa State House of Assembly to hatch the plan of impeaching the governor, claiming that he was informed of the same plot to do same in Edo, Nasarawa and Rivers State.
“The house members were allegedly given US$300,000 as part payment to impeach Nyako.”
APC queried the allegations of extra-budgetary expenditure leveled against Nyako, saying the President is also culpable of the same allegation.
“Who is more guilty of gross misconduct than a President who is frittering away our commonwealth to induce perfidious legislators to impeach their state governors? Who is more guilty of gross misconduct than a President who deploys troops to harass, intimidate and arrest the opposition during an election? Who deserves to be impeached for gross misconduct more than a President who uses national institutions against the opposition, and shuts airports arbitrarily?” the party chairman queried.
Nyako’s defection and vexatious letter- his undoing
Nyako, a retired Admiral from the Nigerian Navy and a former Chief of Defence Staff, dumped his former party (PDP) for APC late last year. His relationship with the PDP worsened following a letter he wrote recently to the Northern Governors’ Forum accusing President Goodluck Jonathan of committing genocide in the region in the name of fighting terrorism.
It was gathered that when it became obvious that his fate had been sealed, Nyako was said to have dashed to the Aso Rock where he unfortunately received the Brutus kind of “unkindest” stab from the chief occupant of fortress. His refusal to retract his letter described as repugnant and publicly apologise to the President as demanded by him (Jonathan) nailed his political coffin.
Zebulon Agomuo
