A month-by-month look at Ahmadu Fintiri’s top lies of 2019

A defining feature of the Ahmadu Fintiri administration is the bombardment of lies — Fintiri’s unceasing campaign to convince people of things that aren’t true.

Fintiri made more than 100 false claims last year. (We’re still calculating the final total.) Some of them were innocent slips, some of them little exaggerations. But a large number of them were whoppers: deliberate, significant attempts to deceive and manipulate.

The breadth of the dishonesty was as striking as the frequency. Fintiri was inaccurate this year about every conceivable topic, from his 115 billion naira inherited from Bindow’s administration to the confidence of the people towards his governance style.

He told too many lies for us to confidently pick a single most notable lie of the year. So we’ve picked our 11 most notable, one for every month. (We’re defining notable as some combination of egregious, important and bizarre.)

May: Adamawa state Debt profile

Fintiri has long seemed to relish reciting lurid stories about the debt profile of Adamawa state when he took over governance in May 29^th, 2019. During a swearing in ceremony and after been sworn into office, Fintiri enmeshed in Adamawa debt profile -related false claims in May, as he sought public support and sympathy for his government over claims that his government inherited huge amount of debt from the administration of Sen. Umaru Jibrilla Bindow, he came up with a vivid new tale about the slow pace of his governance and how the huge debt profile he inherited contributed lack of fund for the state.

“Our government inherited N115b loan and have been servicing the loan with over N1 billion every month.

He noted that the loans build up over the years owing to the fact that on monthly basis the immediate past administration collects N3.2 billion bank overdraft to pay salaries.

he said during a courtesy call by permanent secretaries to congratulate him after 2019 election victory. ““We have to cut cost to be able to pay salaries without necessarily seeking for bank overdraft. We’ve been doing so, successfully too, since we assumed office in May, 2019,” Fintiri said.”– is not at all true, as Bindow incurred 44 billion out of the 95bllion naira debt profile linked to the state by DMO not all the 95 billion published by DMO.

According to debt management office,(DMO) Adamawa current debt profile stand at 95,604,743,892.60, the claim by Fintiri that his government inherited 115billion naira debt from Bindow’s administration is false.

The 95 billion naira published by DMO was incurred from 2007 to 2015 which clearly shows that the 95 billion predate Bindow’s tenure.

June: Relocation College of Health and Technology Mubi back to its original site in Michika as stipulated in the act establishing the institution.

Fintiri has depicted himself as a crusader against injustice. What happened in June was telling.

Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri in Michika in an interview with newsmen shortly after rounding off his Woking visit to Michika and Madagali on Friday promised to relocate college for health currently in Mubi to Michika.

The Governor also promised to renovate and equip the general hospital Michika with state-of-act facilities and build roads across Michika local government.

Fintiri’s lying is rarely challenged in real time. This time, a reporter did try to object to the fiction about relocation of the college to Michika in the face of insecurity and constant inversion of the local council by Boko haram. A claim that is also false as security is not guarantee in Michika for the governor himself not to talk of relocating teachers and students to Boko haram prone zone.

July: ADAMAWA GOVERNOR FINTIRI TO RESUSCITATE SPECIALIST HOSPITAL

Gov. Fintiri speaks during tour of specialist hospital in Yola on August, 2019.

Nearly a year after Fintiri made his infamous “RESUSCITATE SPECIALIST HOSPITAL, promise, nothing has been achieved so far” only for the governor to returned to same hospital to repeat same false claim of resuscitating the hospital.

August: “building of 2000 housing units for civil servant”

Fintiri, who has tilted at building 2000 housing units for civil servants in Adamawa state for more than six months, made perhaps his strangest claim on the subject at a function in government house, Yola on August 18.

“We are building 2000 housing units for civil servants in Adamawa to enable all civil servants own a house,” he said.

There might indeed be a plan of building 2000 housing, but as at today nothing has been heard of it, despite taken 9.9billion naira for such project. That should not mean the governor should pass on their false claim to the state. But Fintiri is not only a serial liar but a serial sharer of inaccurate information.

September: Two lies in one

Fintiri has been lying about renovating 5000 schools across Adamawa state since 2019, falsely claiming that 5000 schools will be ready by September, 2019. His rendition on June 30, along with a similar claim in September, might have been the most egregious.

“I disagree with the past administration attitude towards handling the issue that affect our education system,” Fintiri told reporters.

This was a double lie. In addition to taking his usual unearned credit for taken almajiri off Yola Street, Fintiri used his non-accomplishment as a cudgel against a Nyako whose accomplishment it really was.

October: “we have eliminated Shila Boys and stamped out insecurity in Yola”

According the a Facebook post by the governor’s aides on media, George Kushi, Fintiri have stamped out insecurity by visiting “sambisa” located within the metropolis to rid the enclave of the shila boys that have their field day under the past administration of Bindow.

Despite this false claim by Fintiri, insecurity in Adamawa has turn for the worst, a permanent secretary and host of others was kidnapped, some were killed during  the months under review.

November: Building of 2000 hostel capacity in ADSU, Mubi.

Fintiri continued his smear campaign against the Bindow administration later the same week, falsely claiming that the past administration was reluctant to lift the university from its current state, George Kushi shared a face book post that falsely claimed that Fintiri will build 2000 hostel capacity in ADSU, mubi, a claim that is not only false but misleading.

December: “4000 out of 7000 employments given under Bindow is illegal”

Between May 28, when we started counting Fintiri’s false claims at THE FINDER, and December 15, the day until which we currently have comprehensive data, Fintiri’s most frequent false claim of any kind was that 4000 out the 7000 employments given by the Bindow administration is illegal.

“Bindow led government employed 7,000 workers out of which 3,000 were found to be wrongly employed. They are now given the room they could enter by the door not through the window,” the media aid explained…”

His assertion has been contradicted by numerous employee sacked by Fintiri and by multiple HR experts. But Fintiri said it on 19 separate occasions over those five months. And he said it 6 times in August alone, more than he did in any other month, as he faced scrutiny over his sacking over about 10,000 workers hiding under “due process”

 

The minimum wage fiasco

 

Fintiri preferred to lie than to admit error. His thoroughly deceitful multi-day effort to convince people that he is the first governor to pay minimum wage, a claim that he fails to fulfil up till date, investigation reveals that, Fintiri only paid minimum wage to some section of the state workers, nothing has been done about the local council workers till date, as none has benefitted from the minimum wage at the 21 local council in Adamawa and even the consequential adjustment of those from level 7 within the state government workers are still in the dark about minimum wage payment. We counted 12 false claims from Fintiri on workers welfare over 11 days.

“NCE holder was employed as lecturer in the State Polytechnic under Bindow

The Sharpie madness was old news by the end of September 2019. Fintiri’s handlings of the sacked employee from the state polytechnic were his most frequent subject of dishonesty in all four weeks of October.

His most frequent individual false claim on NCE holder lecturing in the state polytechnic, Yola was highly inaccurate. He said this on 13 separate occasions through December 15.

Fintiri never explained in detail what course the NCE holder was employed to teach under Bindow and what department the NCE holder was posted to in the polytechnic. But Fintiri just kept repeating his “false story” mantra over and over — banking, as usual, on his ability to turn a lie into gospel among his supporters no matter how many times fact-checkers debunked it.

Fintiri first made a version of this claim at the end of September, but he repeated it on 8 separate occasions in October alone. That was 8 more times than he uttered any other individual false claim that month.

Payment of scholarship

Fintiri has to be egregiously inaccurate to get fact-checked by Finder News,” but his November 22 lie about the payment of scholarship. When Fintiri claimed he had “just approve that scholarship should be paid before December, 2019.

Fintiri’s claim on media was not a one-time slip. In October, when there were still no sign of payment of the stipend called “scholarship” by the state government, Fintiri said, “Look, we will paid scholarship before December, 2019.

According to Oxford dictionary “scholarship is a grant or payment made to support a student’s education, awarded on the basis of academic or other achievement. Can the 15000 or the 7500 paid to university students and students with polytechnic be called scholarship? How many of the beneficiary got the payment? Investigation show that it was only 25 per cent of the total number of those that applied got the stipend.

Fintiri’s nonsense-rambling about the people been happy with his style of governance in Adamawa lends itself to dismissive mockery, but it’s worth taking it seriously.