The biggest lie Fintiri tells is that he’s kept his promises

Gov. Fintiri of Adamawa state is such a hard-core liar that Wednesday morning on Facebook his aide attached to the office of the Deputy Governor quoted on his Facebook post making a new round of unfilled promise again in 2020 defending his honesty that literally contains the line.

Fintiri could be the most honest governor in modern history. When you look at the real barometer of governor truthfulness, which is promise keeping, he is probably the most honest governor in Adamawa history. He’s done exactly what he said he would do according to the governor’s aide.

The Finder downplays Fintiri’s routine dishonesty with the dismissal that “in part, it’s an Adamawa thing — everything is the biggest and the best.”

But more to the point is the argument — quoted by Fintiri and his aides — that he delivers on his promises. That’s important since one big problem in politics with having a well-deserved reputation as a liar is that if a liar leads your political movement, you are liable to be betrayed.

His media aides, and Fintiri himself, wants to reassure supporters that even though Fintiri may be a huge liar, he won’t break faith with them.

Fintiri fans are supposed to believe that they are in on the con and it’s the rest of us who are the marks. Unfortunately, that’s exactly how a well-run con works and the truth is Fintiri’s record in office is littered with broken promises.

Fintiri has broken lots of promises

On the building of 2000 housing units in Adamawa, however, it’s not just that Fintiri hasn’t persuaded ADSHA to appropriate the staggering amount of money his pointless 2000 housing units would cost.

The thing he promised as a candidate was to renovate 5000 schools in Adamawa before September, 2019 — i.e., to brush aside the fiscal concerns that have in fact made the renovation of the 5000 schools  impossible by asserting that there was a way to get the renovation for free. This idea was so mind-bogglingly ridiculous that it’s probably for the best that Fintiri hasn’t actually tried to do it. But he definitely hasn’t tried, and he’s not going to be able to deliver on his promise because the promise was fundamentally dishonest.

The larger lie about Fintiri, however, is that he tried to keep his promise on the renovation of the specialist hospital in Yola. It’s true that he repeatedly promised to renovate the state own hospital. But what he specifically promised, as late as a December 2019 interview with Journalists when some of the equipment’s procured by Nayko’s administration was released to the Fintiri’s administration.

There’s a lot more where that came from:

• As a candidate, Fintiri promised to pay scholarship to students; as governor, he promised 32000 naira minimum wage to Adamawa workers.
• Fintiri promised to build flyover in the state capital.
• Fintiri promised to give most of his appointments to youths
• Fintiri promised to convert college for legal studies to ADSU, Mubi faculty of Law.
• Fintiri promised many time that he would give priority to education and host of other promises made by the governor.

The larger betrayal is that Fintiri portrayed himself as a self-financed candidate (which wasn’t true) who was willing to take stances on domestic and economic issues that his donor-backed opponents wouldn’t. In terms of position-taking, that was true.

Fintiri’s fusion of cultural conservatism to a relatively moderate set of economic policy positions was politically potent and helped make up for some of his personal failings as a candidate. But what he’s done in office is betray the bulk of that promise.

The idea that this makes Fintiri trustworthy, however, is absurd.

If his supporters are happy with this bargain that’s their business, but I think the basic common sense principle that people of all stripes should regard a dedicated liar as a betrayal risk makes a lot of sense.

At this point Fintiri told so many lies that he’s not actually going to trick any of his political opponents with new BS.

The lies — up to and including the lie that he’s delivered on his promises — target Fintiri’s supporters and are designed to set them up to take some kind of fall for him. So far, it’s been populists attracted to his moderate economic profile who’ve been betrayed. But next year will come a whole new set of political circumstances, and there’s no telling who will end up with a knife sticking out of their back