Date Published: 01/06/10

ADAMAWA: THE POLITICAL-INTRIGUE AT GOMBI/HONG FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY By CHARLES NICHOLOS HONG

The inconclusiveness of the Court Cases regarding controversies surrounding primaries conducted in respect of 2007 Federal elections seems unlikely to end before the next set of Federal elections in 2011.

These primaries within the ruling People Democratic Party (PDP) also look set to be personalized and tribalised through jingoistic, primordial approaches attempting to preserved threatened areas earlier reserved for certain notables through which such ego-centric personalities were forced on to people of the areas.

These is what occurred in the primaries in respect of Gombi/Hong Federal Constituency.

When the primaries were first conducted at Hong, Six (6) aspirants contested but as a result of the inconclusiveness of the attempt~ the party ordered for the second primary which was then limited to two aspirants with the highest votes. The duo (Francis Haske Hananiya and Chief Emmanuel Bello) had to face the delegates again this time at Gombi. The result indicated that Chief Emmanuel Bello had emerged as winner and therefore presented to the party for adoption and endorsement. Haske Hananiya on the other hand some how got an impression of being the candidate~ and went out full force for the campaigns. The out come of the elections which gave PDP Victory at the polls set both Chief Emmanuel Bello and Hananniya against each other~ each claiming to be the rightful candidate. Chief Emmanuel Bello went to the Federal High Court in Abuja where he got

judgment declaring him the PDP Candidate.

Haske Hananiya and his sponsors saw this as a great challenge and appealed against it at Appeal Court in Abuja . He finally got an order setting aside the Federal High Court Judgment. Although this judgment did not formally adopt him as the rightful candidate, it is all the same, a kind of victory for him. Hananiya was however over carried by such a victory that he was virtually set for a major victory party, hoping that such was enough to land him in the National Assembly.

Clearly, there are so many areas that either party can rely on and sing his own victory song. As for Chief Emmanuel Bello, he can rely on his already being a member of parliament by virtue of the INEC Certificate which so far has not been invalidated and his party which also knows him as its own candidate. Additionally Emmanuel Bello may not be new to intrigues and ability to survive through hard

struggles. After all, he can count on his NEPU background and fight on.

This separates him from Haske Hananiya whose claim to being the actual PDP Candidate results merely on family arid tribal cleavages. It does not matter to him whatever the 1MB merchant Bank in Port Harcourt may be saying about his records while serving them. It may not also matter whatever the general perception is of him by the electorates in his Constituency so long as his privileged family influences hold sway in his native areas and this allows him to see his family hold the entire area by the jugular.

It is indeed necessary to also realize that politics is all about interests. As a true democrat, Hananiya submitted himself to the second balloting which took place in Gombi. If it therefore pleased democracy to manifest itself in favour of Emmanuel Bello, it is expected that Haske Hananiya would have embraced excellent democratic tradition by congratulating the winner and subjecting himself to the wishes and desires of the electorates.. As it is now, the feeling likely to be carried by most watchers of this drama is that for Hananiya it is do-or-die affair and it is either Haske or nothing.

It must be pointed out that in very many constituencies where two or more areas are brought together to form a single electoral entity, a kind of rotational democracy is usually adopted. That it has not been applied in Gombi - Hong does not mean that at--'all times people from a particular section should use others as cannon fodder. Even within the kilba community, others still feel that representatives from Hong must not always come from a particular area as it is now the case.

Perhaps and importantly however, it is necessary to inform Haske Hananiya that tactics of divide and rule may not work in the present circumstance.

He should appreciate the fact that when people get fed up with stereotyped thinking, they can revolt and take independent decisions.

The confusion over the true representative of the people of Gombi - Hong Federal Constituency may therefore drag on for a long time. But either way the tag of desperation already hanging on his neck and the fact that time is no longer on his side seem to be well placed. If he has to move out of such a dangerous and acute political angle, Hananiya requires political tenacity, personal ability to manoeuvre, selflessness and great patriotic ingenuity to convince his followers that he, indeed is after their interests, that of Gombi - Hong and the nation at large. So far Hananiya has shown no such demonstration and does not appear even close to such considerations for the moment.

Nicholas Charles

Writes from  Bekaji Estate, Yola.