Speech by:
His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri Executive Governor Adamawa State.
Accepting the Gubernatorial Nomination to run as the Governorship Candidate of Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 Election in Adamawa State.
Ribadu Square, Yola.
25th – May, 2022.
Protocols
Distinguished delegates, party leaders and elders, I thank you all for this overwhelming mandate to fly the flag of our great party once again to victory. Four years ago, we gathered in Lamido Cinema for a similar exercise. An exercise which was a defining moment for our great party in Adamawa State. You exhibited this cultured stoic democratic ethos which has become our collective trademark as loyal party men and women of the PDP. At that State Congress, we demonstrated our anger at the way we were governed by the party in power in the State at that time. We made a collective resolution to take back our State from the All Progressives Congress (APC) whose performance in governance was far below any acceptable rating. That resolution was what made you to entrust the flag of our great party onto me as your candidate for the 2019 general election in the State. I carried the flag with pride and led us to victory in the 2019 election.
The decision you took could only happen in PDP – a party with deep democratic roots. It is only in PDP that such a decision could be made in an open election where a of my political background could emerge as the party’s flagbearer. You trusted me to lead the onslaught not because I was the richest of all the aspirants or any pecuniary consideration. You didn’t even care about where I was coming from or the faith I profess. You entrusted your mandate to me because you believe I am one of you. Because I share in your plight and understand your needs. The needs of Adamawa and Adamawa people. Because I have bonded enough with you to know what works for you and the State and what does not. Beyond the bond you share with me as a legislator from an extreme constituency of Madagali to the leadership I provided in the State Assembly as a Speaker to those stints I had as the Acting Governor of the State, I have edged a credential good enough to make you trust me. While this noted pedigree is sufficient to inform your decision, I believe the real icing on the cake was the trust that I have the courage to get the job done. The courage to lead from the front not from the rear as a commander that can democratically wrestle power from those who are misusing it and the courage to provide good governance when the battle is won.
After the primary election which was adjudged free and fair, I didn’t take my triumph for-granted. I went all out, cognisant of the burden entrusted on my shoulders and the task ahead. I came back to launch an aggressive allencompassing-issue-based campaign. We unpacked the 11-Point Agenda which became our potent battle arsenals during the campaign and strategic development compass when we won.
We sold our campaign to the people of Adamawa State with a sincerity of purpose and patriotism to our State. We were honest and truthful to every commitment we made during the campaign. Trust was one ingredient the APCled Government lacked. That was what we cultivated in reckless abundance. The people believed us as much as they could with their lives. To the voters of Adamawa State, the 2019 election was an opportunity to vote between continuous lies and sincerity. And they chose the latter. We were voted in and the APC was voted out.
Today, I am happy to note that what has just happened is an endorsement of the fact that at the party level we have not been a disappointment to our party and its leadership. I am happier that the trust between the entire people and our great party remains sacred. We have in the last three years guarded this trust jealously. It is the ordinance of this trust that propels us to deliver every item in our social contract with the people of Adamawa State with the required precision. We have stabilized the polity and provided good governance for all. We have reignited confidence in government and elevated leadership to a serious business. Our citizens can now take the words of their leaders to the bank.
In spite of the global economic challenges which has been worsened by the effect of COVID-19 Pandemic, we have been able to discharge our responsibilities to the people with amazing satisfaction. On assumption of duty in 2019, we met a State with:
1. heightened insecurity and uncertainty as a result of the remnants of the activities of the Boko haram insurgency in the Northern zone with some communities largely unhabitable; Farmer/Herder clashes which had threatened food security in the State and the nation at large; incessant kidnappings on the farms, at home, on transit, etc.; the supreme reign of the urban crime such as the monstrous activities of the Shila Boys cult which had crippled night-life especially in the metropolitan centers and; perennial clashes among ethnic groups over limited resources. We redesigned the security architecture of the State, invested resources and sought for the necessary collaborations to combat the situation. Today, Adamawa State is one of the safest States to live and do business in the Federation.
2. decayed and over-stretched infrastructure or outright lack of them especially in the Urban centers. Such as good roads, portable water, Affordable Housing, Power and Energy to support the growth of MSMEs, as well as poor transport infrastructure, inaccessibility to Rural Communities where the State’s abundant resources lay untapped. We picked up the task of providing physical infrastructure with unquantifiable vigour. We demonstrated commitment to completing all the roads initiated by our predecessors and constructing new ones; we are opening up the rural areas through aggressive rural infrastructure campaign; lighting up communities by providing electricity to towns hitherto not connected to the national grid or whose facilities were destroyed especially in the insurgents’ devastated areas. Today, we have bridged the infrastructure gap so fast that Adamawa State is emerging as one of the wonders of urban renewal in this century.
3. A disgruntled and ill-motivated Civil Service with largely stale skills to operate in the 21st Century where recruitment and progression are marred by primordial considerations and celebration of mediocrity and total destruction of morals. Added to these ills, are the uncertainty of monthly pay-cheques, payment of pension and gratuities of retirees and other entitlements. Through meticulous and deliberate reform in the service, we implemented the minimum wage and its consequential adjustment and ensured that workers have gone beyond the worries of when monthly paycheques are made ready in the State. We have religiously kept to our promise of ensuring that wage isn’t only paid but paid as at when due. We have innovated an ingenious way to deal with the issue of Leave Grant and with the understanding of the organized labour, we are surmounting it with ease. We are unbundling the unwarranted gridlock with our pension system. So far, we have sustained prompt payment of pensions and clearing the backlog of gratuity payments we inherited. Beyond the regular monthly commitments on gratuity, we have released the sums of 1.5 Billion Naira and 1.3 Billion in 2021 and 2022 respectively, for this purpose. We have subdued mediocrity and introduced merit in the recruitment, retention, and promotion of workers in the State. Our commitment to workers welfare knows no bounds. To ease the hardship of mortgage and house ownership in the State, we are constructing 1000 Unit of houses in Malkohi, Yola. This has reached an advanced stage and I have directed that 600 out of the 1000 units be allocated to the great workers of Adamawa State.
4. an education system that was crying for help in terms of access, enrolment, retention, and progression. With ill-motivated teachers, poor learning infrastructure, lack of teaching aides and general lack of incentives and subsidies for both parents and students. Such incentives like free tuition fees in public schools, payment of national examination fees such as JSSCE, WAEC and NECO; and payment of bursaries
(Scholarship) to indigent students in tertiary institutions, etc. today, we have aggressively reversed the ugly trend. Our teachers are paid regularly, the infrastructure is being improved upon, the teaching aides are provided in the schools, scholarship bursaries are provided for our students in tertiary institutions, Basic education is free in the State and no child attending public school pays NECO and WAEC in Adamawa State anymore.
5. a health system that was managing to survive only with the support of donor partners with weak service delivery, poor infrastructure and general lack of access in most communities. Today, in Adamawa State, we are building 5 brand new cottage hospitals across the State and rehabilitating and expanding all the Generals Hospitals. We have equally recruited Nurses and Doctors to man the hospitals and established the State Health Insurance Scheme tagged Fintiri Care, which is aimed at supporting low-income earners and vulnerable people in the State.
6. poor agriculture system that can hardly support subsistence living. Today in Adamawa State, through the Adamawa State Agribusiness Support Programme (ADAS-P), we are transforming the Agricultural sector by empowering farmers to produce not only food for the teeming populace but restore their pride in the oldest profession by unlocking the necessary financing opportunities that incentivize their transition from subsistence to agric-merchants.
Distingushed Delegates, Party Leaders and Elders, this is not a moment for stoke-taking, but i feel it is equally important to bring some of these achievements to your notice so that you can appreciate the value of the decision you took in 2019 which is a vindication of the the decision you just took today.
We have invested the greater part of our four year term on subduing our development challenges as a State. As your leaders, we are at all times sensitive to your other needs. I want to tell you here that we have dedicated the remaining part of the term to attending to those other silent but necessary needs that would directly alleviate your poverty and economically empower you. These needs are generally refered to in Nigerian political parlance as Stomach infrastructure.
To the citizens, of Adamawa State, i want sound that this is the begining of the journey to the 2023 election. The PDP as a party has done its part today. My humble request to you as always is to join us and repeat this beautiful decision in 2023 by voting the PDP all the way. Never go back to decide and lies. There is nothing new that the APC will tell you.
On this note I want to congratulate all our aspirants who emerged as winners in all the primary elections held in the State from the State House of Assembly to the National Assembly primaries. I want to assure you that the party will stand by you till the end. To the other aspirants who were not successful at the primaries I call on you to embibe the spirit of sportsmanship and support the party at all levels. In PDP we are one big family and there is enough space for everyone.
Distinguished delegates, from here, there is a bigger and more important primary election ahead of us as we head for the party’s national convention in Abuja on 28th-29th – May,2022. For us in Adamawa State this is more than a convention. It is a moment to demonstrate to the world that we love ourselves, we love our party and we love Nigeria. It is time to stand behind our father and mentor, our uncle, brother and our friend Atiku Abubakar – Wazirin Adamawa, not just becuase he is from Adamawa but because he is the candidate that can return our party to its winning ways and equally return Nigeria to its glorious days. This is not Waziri’s project, it is an all-Adamawa project, let’s go to Abuja and mobilize our friends and even enemies, if we know them, to vote for Atiku and vote for a united, prosperous and secured Nigeria. As one, we can.
Thank you and God bless.
