Nigeria Content Online

The
Adamawa State governor, Murtala Hammanyero Nyako, is currently battling
issues arising from statecraft and political manoeuvring that are
capable of under-cutting the gains of his two-year administration. He
is faced with a labour crisis which has crippled socio-economic
activities in the state over the past one month.

Incidentally, the
state is ravaged by a cholera outbreak that has led to the loss of
several lives in eight affected local government councils in the state.
The death toll from the cholera epidemic is compounded by striking
public health workers who have downed tools over the past one month. A
total of 36 deaths (unofficial figures) have so far been reported, with
the worst hit area being Numan Local Government Area. Zainab Uche, the
state commissioner of Health, confirmed the development. She, however,
said the government was responding to the reports and that the state
government would soon announce the official number of those who have
died.

Accusations

Labour in the state
is accusing the government of culpability, pointing out that the
resultant deaths of children and adults from the cholera epidemic “was
avoidable.” The strike embarked on by labour, which has paralysed
social and economic activities in the state for the past one month, has
lingered, as the state government and labour officials refuse to shift
grounds on two contentious items on the negotiating table.

The bone of
contention is Labour’s demands that the government re-instate 56
workers claimed to have been arbitrarily sacked in two of the
government-owned parastatals in the state – the College of Legal
Studies and the state-owned Transport company.

However, the state
government has proceeded to the Industrial Arbitration Court, insisting
that it would not be blackmailed by labour into setting a dangerous
precedence. The state government, through Maijama Adamu, the chief
press secretary to the governor, said it has made it abundantly clear
to labour that the government would not accede to the “unfair and
unkind” demands.

The government
spokesperson maintains that the demands of the striking workers have
been agreed to by the state government, except refusal to give in to
“labour’s call for the removal of the Provost of the College of Legal
Studies and the General Manager of the State Transport Company”.

On the political
turf, Mr Nyako is contending with accusations of discrimination and
marginalization by a powerful political bloc in the state, whose
members comprise of heads of the over 85 ethnic minorities in the state.

Left in the lurch

The governor
appears confounded by public hostility, despite the impressive record
of projects executed mid-way into the four-years tenure of his
administration. The minority groups, promising not to lend support to
the governor, hinge their claim on his alleged ethnocentric
inclinations. The governor on his part has come out to say the
so-called Elders Forum, which is an offshoot of the Adamawa State
Minority Forum, is using tribal and religious sentiments to throw the
state into tribal and religious crisis.

Mr Nyako’s
government has not actually been cast in good light, causing a member
of the party who is at odds with the governor, to spitefully accuse the
administration of lacking “reasonable politicians” in its fold.

“Can you imagine
that while workers in the state are striking and no truce seems to have
been reached, I can reliably tell you that the governor is in far away
London with some members of his family at the expense of tax-payers,” a
labour leader said at the weekend.

He also claimed that the state governor has been distracted from
state craft by the many issues it has to contend with, especially on
the political front. With Atiku’s sudden return to the PDP, obviously
re-setting the dynamics of the party, the Nyako camp has been forced to
respond with solidarity rallies being staged across major towns in the
state. The state chairman of the party, Mijinyawa Kugama has publicly
declared that there was no vacancy in the Adamawa Dougirei Government
House. The implication of this is that politics takes the front line
while developmental programmes become secondary.