Adamawa 2019: Bindow's Opposition Regroups As 2015 Guber Runner up Steps Down for Modi

Adamawa 2019: Bindow's Opposition Regroups As 2015 Guber Runner up Steps Down for Modi

Billy Graham Abel Yola

As the race for the Adamawa gubernatorial race heats up, the tussle for Adamawa APC's flag bearer has taken a new turn against the incumbent, as the runner up in the 2015 gubernatorial elections in Adamawa and the then candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Markus Gundiri, has stepped down from the contest and threw the weight of his campaign behind President Muhammadu Buhari's In-law, Mahmood Halilu Ahmed, popularly known as Modi, who is fast becoming the dark horse in APC's permutations for 2019.

While addressing supporters at the farm house of former SGF, Babachir David Lawal in Hong, Adamawa state, Friday, Markus Gundiri said it has became imperative for him to step down from the contest and work with other aspirants towards presenting a formidable and united front against the incumbent governor Jibrilla Bindow in the approaching primary elections of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Gundiri said, "About five of us from this side of the APC have consulted extensively and have realised that in order to salvage the state, some of us have to shelve our personal interest for the collective interest of our people.

"My decision to withdraw my aspiration today and to support the Modi aspiration is a result of deep consultations and a united interest beyond personal pursuit.

"Let me clear out doubts already spreading in some quarters that the withdrawal of my candidacy was in order to deputise for Modi, that is not true, I am a gubernatorial aspirant in my own right but we always have to do something bigger than ourselves in order to achieve something worthwhile and we are still working out some details within our group.

"The essence of my withdrawal is largely strategic bordering on helping the people of Adamawa state escape governor Jibrilla's failed leadership and it is because we have one leader and I am ready to listen to and comply with directives from the leader of the group, BD Lawal.

"My group is ready to cooperate and work to strengthen our position towards clinching the party's ticket for 2019 and we are ready for primaries in Adamawa but it would be a direct primaries not indirect as some people want it."

Earlier on, the former SGF, Babachir Lawal and the convener of the event said, the merger would help in ending "Governor Bindow's misrule in the state and APC in Adamawa state will nominate all its candidates through direct primaries.

Babachir said, “God had shown me that we will defeat Bindow on the 29th of September and put an end to Atiku's supporters group in the party.

“While Bindow is undoubtedly working for Atiku, we are here to protect Buhari's interest in 2019."

The former SGF explained that, the meeting is a huge statement about the decision of one of the gubernatorial aspirants, Markus Gundiri, to step down for Mahmood for the 29th September primaries and challenged every card carrying member of the party to participate in the party process and eschew violence as a very good example of what the candidacy Modi represents.

Speaking at the occasion, Mahmood Halilu Ahmed, commended Gundiri for the courage and foresight to step down considering both his professional and political pedigree saying the outstanding politician took the step because he has a higher goal of rescuing the people of Adamawa state from the horrible situation it has been thrown into under governor Jibrilla Bindow.

Mahmood said, "I feel humbled that a person of Gundiri's experience, a seasoned technocrat and a formidable candidate will step down for me."

He decried that local governments funds have been diverted and the councils reduced to dumping ground and the civil servants have been abandoned due to poor leadership.

Mahmoud warns that, "We know where these funds have been taken too and we will track them down and return them for the interest of the people of Adamawa.

"I am in the contest to win and to bring development to the state." 

Mahmoud said he has been described by those afraid of his candidacy as a rookie politician explaining that he has been an active politician since 2009 and has been able to make his mark in the political landscape.

Other speakers at the occasion included former senator, Bello Tukur and Medan Fwa, Isa Gonja, Jerry Kundisi, among others who unanimously agreed that what remains now would be to rally their constituents and mobilise them for the Mahmood movement.

They said there is an absence of governance in the state and that Mahmood is an answered prayer for the state.

They added that it is time for the people to remove a governor that has been championing a campaign for the elections of illiterates.

The collapsing of Markus Gundiri's structure into that of Modi is a deft move in the choreography for the flag bearer of APC in Adamawa state by the Babachir's side of the APC divide as both the first and second runner up in the 2015 elections, Markus Gundiri and Nuhu Ribadu are now pitted against the governor, Jibrilla Bindow, in a direct primaries not indirect primaries, much to the chagrin of the incumbent governor's camp who earlier last month adopted the indirect primaries.

It remains to be seen as to where the pendulum swings for the APC in Adamawa state as it heads into the 2019, but if the feelers are true that Nuhu Ribadu would eventually step down for the candidacy of Mahmood, then, the incumbent  would have already lost out on five fronts heading into the party's primaries. 

One, the campaign for an indirect primaries in the state has already implode as the national body of the party denied it's request as per reports multiple sources, secondly, the Buhari Campaign organization has pledged it's fielty to the Modi's cause a move which is a minus for Bindow's we second term bid, a move pundits expect the Bindow camp to have made and cache upon the group's availability, thirdly, with the two runners up in the 2015 gubernatorial elections whose total vote count would pose a nightmare to any incumbent on the same side of the political divide against the governor, their eventually collapse into a single opposition, would undoubtedly alter the APC political landscape in favour of Modi, in spite of the governor's apparent advantages going into the primaries and fourthly, that marginal factor of thousands of unsolicited protest votes that Bindow harvested in the 2015 elections as a result a horde of PDP renegades, is an advantage that has fast dissipated as the PDP is already regrouping itself for 2019 and it is a fact that quite a handful of the PDP renegades who are still in the APC have already pitched tent with the Modi movement.