Fintiri’s defection and the 2027 equation in Adamawa

Lengthy seen as a PDP fortress, Adamawa State now sits on the coronary heart of Nigeria’s evolving political geometry as Governor Ahmadu Fintiri trades the social gathering that constructed his profession for the All Progressives Congress.

With the 2027 governorship election on the horizon, his defection—wrapped in claims of “developmental pragmatism” and “political sagacity”—forces a reckoning: is that this realignment a masterstroke that cements APC’s return to the state, or a dangerous gamble whose fallout might destabilise the social gathering’s fastidiously nurtured constructions?

Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State has been described by many politicians within the state because the luckiest political chief — each inside and past Adamawa’s borders.

In 2007, Fintiri had neither political reputation nor a robust godfather, but he emerged as a member of the Adamawa State Home of Meeting on the platform of the then‑unpopular Motion Congress, now the APC. He pulled off a shocking victory by defeating a sitting member of the Peoples Democratic Party, the very social gathering whose candidate was the then‑governor, Boni Haruna.

Fintiri wrote his identify in gold when, as Speaker of the Adamawa State Home of Meeting, he impeached former Governor Murtala Nyako for a number of monetary offences dedicated by the Nyako administration. He grew to become a celebrated hero when he paid all three months of salaries that Nyako owed staff inside only one month of taking up as appearing governor.

By 2019, Fintiri — now a member of the PDP — contested the governorship and defeated a sitting governor, Jibrila Bindow, who had received in 2015 on the APC platform.

In 2023, Fintiri received re‑election, however not with out political bruises.

The APC candidate, Hajiya Aisha Binani, declared herself the winner whereas voting was nonetheless ongoing in some native authorities areas. But highly effective figures within the APC —  together with former presidential candidate and present National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s spouse, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, and numerous APC supporters — lined up behind Fintiri and raised their voices in defence of the governor.

Nonetheless, Fintiri’s relationship with Atiku quickly turned bitter. In response to investigations, Atiku was seen as interfering within the affairs of the state. The governor felt he had totally compensated Atiku by appointing his first son, Adamu Atiku, as Commissioner for Works and Vitality Growth — probably the most profitable ministry in Adamawa.

What started as rigidity quickly snowballed right into a full‑blown political struggle when Fintiri aligned with the camp of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

Atiku seen the governor’s transfer as a direct confrontation to his presidential ambition. Fintiri stopped attending Atiku’s occasions within the state and deserted the ritual of paying him the normal Sallah homage.

To additional weaken Atiku’s camp, the governor appointed the previous Vice President’s loyalist, Ibrahim Mijinyawa, because the state’s Commissioner for Native Authorities and Chieftaincy Affairs. The transfer shattered Atiku’s dwelling‑state help, as his loyalists started accepting appointments and contracts underneath Fintiri’s authorities.

Atiku might barely comprise his ache when he publicly dismissed Fintiri’s defection as being pushed by the governor’s private pursuits, not these of Adamawa State. But even Atiku himself had defected to the African Democratic Congress — a celebration he had joined after six earlier defections and chronic accusations of being a serial job‑hopper.

The previous Vice President grew to become a digital political orphan when the PDP in Adamawa stopped inviting him to stakeholders’ conferences. Atiku then joined the ADC in a bid to pursue his presidential ambition — a challenge many political observers now see as subsequent‑to‑inconceivable, given his fallen political picture each at dwelling and throughout the nation.

Additional investigations revealed that late President Muhammadu Buhari started wooing Fintiri into the APC by awarding him the title of “Finest Infrastructure Governor.” After Buhari’s passing, President Bola Tinubu revived the defection challenge by presenting Fintiri with one other “Finest Infrastructure Governor” award, deepening the political courtship.

In 2024, the Publicity Secretary of the APC Adamawa State chapter, Mohammed Abdullahi, confirmed in an unique interview with The PidomNigeria that the social gathering was in talks with Fintiri over a doable defection earlier than the 2027 normal elections.

In December 2025, the APC Nationwide Vice Chairman for the North East zone, Mustapha Salihu, additionally disclosed that the social gathering had a powerful curiosity in Fintiri’s defection. Two years of hypothesis that the Adamawa State Governor would defect to the ruling APC lastly ended final Friday, when he formally introduced his transfer to the social gathering.

It meant Fintiri bowed to the APC and deserted the PDP — the very social gathering that constructed his political profession. In a 14‑minute dwell statewide broadcast from his new Governor’s Workplace, Fintiri addressed the nation and introduced that he had formally defected to the APC.

“Fellow residents of Adamawa State,” he started, “I tackle you in the present day on this method because of the magnitude of what we’ve at stake, the regard we’ve for you, and the constant help we’ve all the time loved from you.

“In 2019, you voted for us overwhelmingly towards an incumbent. In 2023, you repeated the identical feat with even higher goal, regardless of all odds. Now we have remained widespread in your hearts, and so has our social gathering, the PDP, with you. We’re aware of the ethical burden imposed on our shoulders by your collective mandates.”

The governor defined that the choice to affix the APC — alongside together with his whole cupboard, PDP officers, and supporters — was in the very best developmental curiosity of the folks of Adamawa State.

“Now we have constructions all over the place,” he declared. “We’re transferring into the APC with all 226 wards, 21 Native Authorities Areas, all elected and appointed members, and certainly our vitality and our political equipment, to confer profit on our state, the nation, and our folks. I subsequently name on all our supporters to slot in, register massively within the APC, and kit up for a future that’s assured.”

“Current occasions within the polity demand that we take decisive and strategic choices,” he added. “There are seasons for political exigencies, simply as there are seasons for political expedience. Now we have come this far and constructed a lot with the folks that we’re prepared to maneuver additional to align our polity with nationwide politics.”

“It’s on this foundation that we’ve by no means, as a authorities, ventured into something that doesn’t develop our expensive state or instantly profit our folks,” he stated. “Now we have all the time been guided by the triple ideas of session, legality, and impression.

“As democrats, we seek the advice of with the folks. As residents, we interrogate how each choice we make aligns with extant legal guidelines; and as leaders, we weigh the impression of each choice on the state and our folks.”

“The choice to go away the PDP and be a part of the APC was not taken evenly,” Fintiri careworn. “It was not pushed by private ambition or by comfort. It was guided by one overriding consideration: the lengthy‑time period stability, growth, and prosperity of Adamawa State.”

Fintiri additional disclosed that, after huge consultations with a broad spectrum of Adamawa folks, “we’ve resolved to politically align Adamawa State with the All Progressives Congress.”

The governor identified that the political alignment would allow Adamawa State to successfully help and leverage President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which, in keeping with him, goals to rework the nation in crucial sectors resembling social welfare, infrastructure, housing, and inclusive financial growth.

“It was the late Senate President Dr Chuba Okadigbo who as soon as stated, ‘It takes political sagacity to know political arithmetic,’” Fintiri stated. “In our case, we’ve been lengthy sufficient on this recreation to know the worth of our power and the best steps to take. This isn’t elementary arithmetic; it’s a political geometry that locations each quantity in its proper place.

“In ultimate democracies, alignments that confer mutual benefits are the conventional rule. Our alignment with the APC is a testomony to strategic adaptability. It’s sagacity in motion. It is a reciprocally useful choice that displays a realistic method to politics — conferring electoral worth whereas delivering democratic dividends to the folks,” he said.

Fintiri insisted that his choice to affix the APC meant that the period of Adamawa’s “sideline politics” was over and that the state was now again within the mainstream of nationwide politics.

Nonetheless, wanting again at Adamawa’s political report, Fintiri’s defection to the APC is just not an computerized victory for the social gathering within the state.

In 2015, Nuhu Ribadu (now National Security Adviser) was given the PDP governorship ticket on the direct instruction of then President Goodluck Jonathan, but the ticket turned out to be a political calamity: the PDP misplaced Adamawa regardless of the President’s full endorsement of Ribadu.