Adamawa 2019: Ribadu Joins Adamawa Guber Contest -Says Adamawa Needs More than Cosmetic Solution to Developmental Challenges

Adamawa 2019: Ribadu Joins Adamawa Guber Contest

-Says Adamawa Needs More than Cosmetic Solution to Developmental Challenges

By Billy Graham Abel Yola

The former head of Nigeria's anti-corruption body, EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, has described the government of Jibrilla Bindow as estranged from the principles and developmental agenda of the president Muhammdu Buhari's led federal government.

Ribadu said, Adamawa state is benefitting from massive infrastructural investment from the federal government running into over one hundred billion naira yet the state government under Muhammed Umaru Jibrilla lacked the capacity and initiative to compliment the federal government's effort as it has not been able to build one new hospital or school in the state in the last four years.

Nuhu Ribadu made the remarks over the weekend while declaring to contest for governor of Adamawa state.

Ribadu explained that, Adamawa state is confronted with numerous developmental challenges and that this current government is only taking a cosmetic approach to addressing developmental issues as it lacks the capacity and capability to help the state overcomes its developmental needs.

He said, "I will give answers to our people, address economic and developmental challenges, put an end to hostilities between communities, among other security challenges."

Ribadu lamented that, "Our dear state is facing a number of developmental challenges that require urgent,holistic and strategic handling. We do not need to cosmetics, which do not address fundamental issues that are cornerstone to our development as a people. It takes visionary leadership with capacity and modern thinking to provided that needed redirection, beyond deceptive makeup. 

 

"It is this much-needed leadership that I promise to offer to our people. I come with genuine intention and I have a burning passion to change the fortunes of our people for good. 

"With all sense of humility, believe I possess the requisite credentials, both academic and character, required to move this state forward. I will run an all-inclusive government where all stakeholders like you truly have stakes. "

Ribadu said, "This is not an ordinary day for me and I believe it is not for the rest of the patriotic citizens of this State who desire development, who desire hope, who look up for purposeful leadership. 

 

"Today, I come to you as your son and brother who defines himself in the spirit of community service and development. 

 

"In the past months, I have had deep reflections about our country and state of affairs in both Nigeria and Adamawa State. "

He said, "In this drive to change Nigeria, I believe our president needs support of individuals with similar vision, especially at the sub-national level. It is not enough to have a reformed federal government and an honest and sincere president, this has to be replicated at other tiers of government for us to have all-encompassing progress we desire. 

"The reason for my being here today is that passion to uplift the community that I have; it is that spirit with which I am known, all my life. It is that zeal that saw me going into a career in law enforcement to fight injustice and bring about development. 

Nuhu Ribadu entrance into the Adamawa gubernatorial under the flag of the APC is against the backdrop of the pronouncement of the state chapter of the party that I would back the sitting governor, a position which has continued to cause no small disquiet within the party.

With Mahmood Halilu Ahmed (Modi) and Nuhu Ribadu in the contest, Adamawa APC primaries might prove too tricky for the incumbent especially in view of the massive support that both aspirants pulled together at their declaration against the poorly organised and scantily attended declaration of the incumbent compared to that of the two aspirants.

The people of Adamawa would not however forget in a hurry, the highly controversial candidacy of Nuhu Ribadu in the 2015 elections under the flag of the People Democratic Party, PDP, which many say was a major factor responsible for the implosion of the party in the state.

Nuhu Ribadu was said to have forced himself on his then party after a kangaroo Congress in Abuja, only to emerge as a distant third at the polls in a state that was deemed traditionally a PDP state.