Fintiri: Heading to Govt House for the third time

TRACKING >>Adamawa State Governorelect, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, is probably the only Speaker of a state House of Assembly to have served a record two times as acting governor. His recent victory at the governorship election has returned him to the government house for the third term. WALE ELEGBEDE looks at the political rise of a man who has become a recurring decimal in Adamawa politics

Some people believe in luck, but they hardly experience it. Others experience luck, but it turned out to be a one-off experience because they couldn’t manage the prominence it gave them. But, there are those who adopted diligence as a lifestyle in whatever they do, and when luck rolls into their path, their endeavours create a meaningful impression on others,who literally ask where they are coming from to attain such a height.

The political trajectory of Adamawa State Governor-elect, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, aptly fits into the latter part, as he has enjoyed a swelled political career that can only be experienced on the combined forces of hard work and luck. From when he became Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly in November, 2011, Fintiri’s popularity has continued to soar in the North East state, but some people believe that he has always been a beneficiary of political crises hence his rise to prominence.

However, his loyalists and supporters believe his grassroots appeal, generosity, and deftness in championing the cause of the minority are the reasons why he continues to soar in his political pursuit. When it is about politics, Fintiri is not a greenhorn. Before the creation of Madagali Local Government in 1991, the governor-elect had been an active grassroots mobiliser and youth leader in the local community and enjoyed patronage of local authorities and politicians in the old Michika Local Government area, comprising Madagali and Michika local areas.

In fact, he was part of those who supported the election of former Speaker of Adamawa Assembly and later presidential adviser on politics, Ahmad Ali Gulak, when he aspired for as seat in the House of Assembly in 1991. Similarly, he led youths, who worked for the success of Barrister Tafa Sirimtu to the Constituent Assembly convened by the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida. Fintiri also mobilized votes for Barrister Bala Ngillari for election to the National Conference in 1994 during the regime of General Sani Abacha. With the backing of youths and some elders in his local community, Fintiri in 2002 contested against the then incumbent member of the Adamawa Assembly representing Madagali, J.J. Sinamai in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries and lost. He afterward defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and became the party’s candidate but Sinamai defeated him again in the general elections.

Fintiri had to wait till 2007 before defeating Sinamai as the then ACN candidate and headed to Adamawa Assembly to become minority chief whip. He later moved to the PDP from the ACN alongside his supporters and he rose to become deputy speaker of the Assembly in 2010. The path to his second term bid for the Assembly seat wasn’t that rosy as his 2011 reelection bid met some resistance from other aspirants in Madagali who ganged up against him during his campaign for reelection as a PDP candidate. But his doggedness and the backing of his erstwhile ally, former Governor Murtala Nyako, who was said to have given a matching order to his deputy, Ngillari who is from Madagali Constituency to ensure the victory of Fintiri or pay the price, ensured his return to the Assembly. Upon his victory at the general elections, he was elected majority leader of the Assembly. He later became a direct beneficiary of the impeachment saga that ended the tenure of Sadiq Dasin as the speaker of the Adamawa House of Assembly on 5th November, 2011 and was subsequently elected speaker.

His emergence as the speaker didn’t go well with the then state governor, Nyako, who, despite his key role in the reelection of Fintiri as the member representing Madagali Constituency in 2011, preferred Dasin to remain as speaker. The discontent about his emergence as a speaker led to the sealing up of the Assembly for three months. Soon after the crisis, Nyako and Fintiri mended fences and became great allies while forging a symbiotic relationship that lasted for over two years.

When Nyako’s election was annulled by the court in 2011, Fintiri who had by then moved up to become speaker of the State Assembly, also acted as governor till an election was conducted and Nyako was returned. However, with the game of interest changing hands, Fintiri and Nyako returned to the trenches and the House of Assembly under Fintiri initiated the impeachment process against Nyako and his deputy, Ngillari. Some analysts saw the move back then as a grand design by the speaker who had tasted the sweetness of power to reenact a similar scenario that will put him at the helm of affairs because the initial impeachment plan did not include Nyako’s deputy who had been a loyal member of the PDP. Fintiri was sworn into office as the new Acting Governor following the impeachment of Nyako and the resignation of his deputy, Ngilari, in 2014.

He was sworn in by the former acting chief judge of the state, Ambrose Mammadi, at the council chambers of Government House, Yola. But a Federal High Court in Abuja sacked Fintiri and ordered that former deputy governor, Ngilari, be sworn in immediately as the state governor, thereby nullifying his alleged resignation from office before the impeachment of ex-Governor Murtala Nyako. Making attempt for another third experience to the Adamawa Government House, Fintiri, who didn’t return to the Assembly in 2015, emerged as the governorship candidate of the PDP in the 2019 general elections. After the March 9 election was declared inconclusive and a supplementary election was conducted in 44 units across 14 local government areas of the state, Fintiri defeated the sitting governor, Muhammadu Bindow of APC to become the governor-in waiting.

Born on October 27th, 1967 in Gulak Madagali Local government area of Adamawa State, he grew up in a world that had become so conscious of the primacy of Western Education and Religious knowledge, both of which he struggled to acquire at an early age. He had his early primary School in Central Primary School Gulak from 1975-1981, Government Day Secondary School Gulak and Government Secondary School Michika from 1981-1986. He holds a post graduate Diploma in Policy and Strategic studies, from the University of Maiduguri 2004 after obtaining his first degree in History from the same University in 1992