Aisha Buhari’s Adamawa town hall meeting and matters arising

TOM GARBA reports on matters arising in the aftermath of a town hall meeting hosted by the wife of the president, Mrs Aisha Buhari, in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

First Lady, Hajia Aisha Buhari, took an unusually bold political step a fortnight ago when she hosted a Town Hall Meeting which was meant to pull together the different political tendencies in the state.

The First Lady, an indigene of Yola South Local Government Area, put together the programme aimed at fostering unity among political stakeholders in state. It was a meeting where all stakeholders of the state, irrespective of politics, party affiliation, religion and ethnic background, came together in search of what they called a new course for the purpose of developing the State.

Despite the vision of unity that brought about the idea of that meeting however, it happened that many of the stakeholders who were seen to have expressed strong voices in the political history, religious and traditional institutions of the state were absent from the meeting  which was tagged “progressive meeting of concerned Adamawa indigenes.”

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The First Lady, who spoke at the event, said the meeting was aimed at uniting the people to achieve a common goal of development through peaceful coexistence. She thanked the people of the state for voting her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari, at the 2019 general election, adding that the meeting was to enable stakeholders brainstorm on putting in place a reconciliation process that would ensure that persons with diverse political and religious orientations are able to work together without getting fixated on politics, religion, tribe and norms.

While addressing the gathering, Mrs Aisha Buhari said Adamawa State had been left in a state of quandary since the elections, adding that now that the elections are over, there was need for Adamawa indigenes to reunite so that the state would not be at the crossroads again.

According to her, the prevailing security situations in Adamawa State have continued to pose serious trouble and threats to peace and the very existence of the people. She recalled that the state was once a beautiful state with serene environment with good people cutting across ethnic lines when she was growing up but now, according to her, the state is highly divided.

She called for unity and pleaded with the people to eschew their differences and come together to give peace a chance so that a new Adamawa can be created from the ashes of the former which she said had seen strife and bitterness.

But a commentator on public affairs in the state, Dechambers Mubi Danladi, was the first to point out that a number of respected indigenes of the state were not in attendance. He added that a meeting of such magnitude should not fail to bring together the likes of Alhaji Bamangar Tukur, Professor Jubril Aminu, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman (rtd) or their representatives. He stated that these personalities are generally considered the senior citizens of the state.

He observed that a meeting of that magnitude should not fail to bring together notable indigenes of Adamawa if it was to achieve the desired reconciliation, adding that if you called a meeting for reconciliation or unity you must sit down and discuss, heart-to-heart, the worrying issues.

Danladi further said: “I was thinking we are to look at ourselves eye ball to eye ball and tell ourselves the truth, where we have failed each other. It is then a true reconciliation process has begun, with a possible outcome that will make us a united people.

”Once you call for a Town Hall meeting, invariably you are saying things went or are getting wrong and you set to fashion out ways to go about it. It is a moment of sober reflection to God and to our fellow humans in order to mends our ways.

“You and I will agree that a lot of things have been wrongly done to almost everyone, either in connection to our political affiliation, region and or the way the government of the day is running the affairs of state.”

Danladi told the Nigerian Tribune that the meeting did not achieve its aim but rather “it opened too many doors to suspicions and revolving questions without answers in the minds of people.”

Aside those mentioned by Danladi, many other prominent indigenes of the state also boycotted the meeting, without any form of representation. Former vice president and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was absent, just as  the governor-elect of the state Honourable Ahmadu Fintiri, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF),  Boss Mustapha, former Governor Murtala Nyako, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and Dr Ahmed Modibbo.

Others who failed to turn up for the progressive town hall meeting included the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal; Mr Marcus Gunduri; Lamido of Adamawa, Dr Barkindo Aliyu Mustapha; Emir of Mubi, Walin Ganye Sadiq Kalu; Bello Tukur; former Governor Boni Haruna; Senator Abdulaziz Nyako; Senator Binta Masi Garba; Senator-elect, Adamawa Central, Hajiya Aishatu Ahmed Binani and Mr Ali Gulak.

However, the meeting, which was put together as a non-political platform to bring together the diverse people of Adamawa despite the religious, ethnic and political differences, had in attendance some prominent indigenes including Governor Jubrilla Bindow, who was represented by his deputy, Martins Nasir Babale; Amb Fati Balla; Professor Iya Abubakar; Head of Service, Dr Amos Edgar; former Governor Bala Ngilari; Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Buba Bindir as well as the senators- elect from Adamawa North and South senatorial districts.

Others who graced the occasion included Mr Othman Suleiman; General Buba Marwa (rtd); Senator Silas Zwingina, Chief Joel Madaki, Mr A. T. Shehu, some traditional leaders and security chiefs in the state.

Notwithstanding the efforts put into organising the meeting, a number of stakeholders are of divergent views as to its success rate. Some are of the view that without bringing everyone on board, the much desired unity would remain a mirage.

A senatorial candidate of the PDP from Adamawa Central Senatorial District, Alhaji Murtala Chibado, said the meeting may not hold much water for Adamawa’s unity. Chibado, who spoke on a television programme anchored by Sheriff Alhassan, stated that the meeting would find it difficult to make any political milestone in view of the divergent political differences that had engulfed the state.

According to him, the decision of some PDP leaders to attend the meeting was uncalled for in view of the ongoing legal tango between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP. He added that attending such a meeting when the petition at the tribunal on the 2019 presidential election was ongoing would amount to indicating that the party at the state level was maintaining a stance different to that of the national headquarters.

A founding member of the APC and the pioneer national vice chairman of the party, North East, also stated that the meeting was unnecessary at this time, adding that if the president’s wife was to pull her weight, she would have prevailed on Atiku Abubakar, a prominent indigene of Adamawa State, to drop his petition against her husband, President Buhari. He stated that a major display of the unity would have been to cause Atiku to drop his opposition to a son-in-law of the state for the sake of unity and peace.

He said: “For me, I think the First Lady is yet to discover the path that will lead to unity and progress of the state. She is from Adamawa State, an indigene of Yola South. Atiku Abubakar is from Adamawa State, a national figure in the political history of Nigeria and a presidential candidate of the PDP who is hell bent on removing her husband from office, using the court process.

”It should have dawned on the First Lady to widely consult in the line of oneness, to persuade Atiku to drop his court case against Buhari in the interest of peace and unity that will bring about development.”

He was even of the view that the meeting might have exposed some overt relationship between some participants at the meeting and the incoming PDP government in the state.

APC organising secretary in the state, Alhaji Ahmed Lawal, was also not particularly moved at the peace effort as he said the parley was more of a “paper presentation meeting.”

Lawal said the meeting could not have brought immediate peace in the midst of the divergent views of political stakeholders in the state, adding that it was more of an invitation to a few people to listen and commend paper presentation by scholars.

”For me, when you say you are holding a town hall meeting, you are referring to a gathering of both stakeholders and grassroots people for everyone to say his or her mind on issues. In that meeting, nobody was allowed to talk. Speaker after speaker presented their papers to a boring gathering and left. If I may ask, what was the outcome of the meeting? All I know, seen and heard was that the meeting ended with rhetoric comments of “let’s unite and live in peace.

”The following day, the front pages of most of the newspapers across the country were dominated with stories of the plan by the First Lady to establish Muhammadu Buhari University with support from the governments of Sudan and Qatar. Is that what you call the outcome of a town hall meeting? No! This is far from the fact,” Lawal said.

According to him, the meeting looked like a gathering of PDP sympathizers, which he said reinforced the First Lady’s call for the PDP to institute an all-inconclusive government in the state.

The APC chieftain further said: “If she is really a unifying factor and a woman who wants the progress of the state, why would she fight the APC during the governorships election? Why wouldn’t she then come and unite the people of Adamawa to vote for PDP or APC? Is it now that unity is needed in state?”

He also stated that many of those who were expected at the meeting did not turn up, adding that many stakeholders in the state are of the view that the meeting had more of political undertones.

The views of political stakeholders in Adamawa State are as divergent as their various colourations, bordering on religion and ethnicity. While a number of political leaders commended the First Lady for her initiative in floating a town hall meeting in the wake of vexed election matters that criss-crossed the state just a few months back, some others are of the view that Mrs Buhari was only seeking to worm her ways into the heart of Adamawa politics with such an effort.

Is Nenne, as she is fondly called by many, out to carve an image for herself in Adamawa and turn herself into a major decision-maker going forward or is she seeking peace for the sake of development of the state? These are questions whose answers lie in the belly of time.