The Adamawa APC: The resort to fabrications, By Babayola M. Toungo

My heart goes out to the multitude of All Progressive Party (APC) supporters in Adamawa state who had to endure a leadership that is at best lost for ideas going forward right after losing power in 2019 – to boot with a sitting governor at the time.

It seems the party leadership is yet to get over the hangover of the electoral thrashing they received in the 2019 polls, and this is beclouding their sense of judgment and giving them a false sense of worth.

After going through an election that they were prepared to do anything, including treason to clinch the gubernatorial seat, and coming out empty handed, the leadership of the APC has resorted to fabricating bedtime stories in order to continue holding their undiscriminating supporters captive.

I recently came across a video of one of the “shadow cabinet members” of the party making wild and unsubstantiated allegations of a phantom group of Islamic clerics, who have been hired by the state government to go and tell the president that Adamawa people don’t want a female governor and he should therefore suborn the courts to affirm the declaration of his excellency, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri as the elected governor of Adamawa state. As if this is not enough, the APC got a mullah (?) to record a video in which he repeated all the wild allegations earlier made by our “shadow cabinet member”. With Tinubu before the courts fighting to keep hold of his exalted office, is it plausible for him to intervene in someone else’s case?

I don’t normally allow myself to succumb to my initial instincts of responding to such infantile tantrums but then watching the two videos reminds me of the folks at Fox Network and Donald Trump. It is through the promotion of such conspiracy theories that they incite Trump supporters who proceeded to invade the USA Capitol Hill (the equivalent of our National Assembly). Their intention was to declare Trump the winner of the November 2019 elections. This was in January 2020. The APC care less how the people will react to such false information because they did worse than that during the elections and got away with it. They conveniently forgot that the president was the first governor to have a female deputy governor.

Both videos were short of facts but full of innuendos and meant only as a way of telling the APC powers that be that “we are still around wo”. With appointments almost over at the federal level, my take is that some people are trying hard to put themselves in the window to be noticed. The morsels and bones can do since the main course is almost over. You can sell yourself without making nonsense of the same system you seek protection from; you can also be noticed if you have anything to offer without ruffling feathers. If you lie to me when you don’t hold office, how am I supposed to trust you with my destiny by electing you to any office of public trust?

The implication of what the two APC tendencies tried to do – APC secular and APC spiritual – is to bring to question the neutrality of the judiciary, the same judiciary that the party ran to for succour. The same judiciary the party beseeched to give protection to Ari Hudu, the compromised Adamawa state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) – the ‘coup announcer’ when the APC tried to carry out electoral heist; the same judiciary the APC has taken its petition to, for redress is now a plaything in the hands of the president to do his bidding. The party is not antipathetic to dragging the judiciary into its orbit of dishonour. It is a sad commentary on the desperation for power by the leadership of the party as personified by its gubernatorial candidate and her circle of advisers.

These are people who are not averse to “wujja” a peoples’ mandate crying wolf where there is none. I don’t blame them for their newfound vocation of trying to sell phantom stories in order to retain their supporters, but it is a sad, pathetic, and sickening modus. A party leadership that can collaborate with a compromised public officer and do what they did during the second round of gubernatorial election so that the catchphrase “wujja wujja” will be actualised can do better than its recent outing. I can at least give them one thing – their capacity for mischief cannot be underestimated. Their love for drama and their pretence feeling for the people is daily laid bare by their thoughtless actions. They are in the process of outdoing Trumpists.

Their role models in their operational style are the Trump supporters in the USA. The Trumpists are on trial in the USA, so it will only be fair for all those involved in the Hudu saga to be tried and if found complicit, should be punished according to the extant laws. The lack of punishment is the bane of our society. Actions must have consequences.