Fintiri’s COS lambasts Umar Ardo, describes him as an election veteran.
The chief of staff of Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, has slammed the 2023 gubernatorial candidate of the Social Democratic Party in Adamawa, Dr. Umar Ardo, describing him as an election veteran who has contested elections year after year with no success in sight.
Dr Amos Edgar, Fintiri’s head of staff, produced and distributed an article in which he stated:
For personal reasons, I had been hesitant to join the debate with Dr Umar Ardo over his article titled “When praise becomes propaganda: A refutal of ‘The Fintiri Aura’.” However, the shallowness of the piece and how a few people appear to be convinced by it compel me to clarify some things and offer advice to Dr Ardo.
I wrote ’The Fintiri Aura”, in which I drew attention to the visionary leadership qualities of Rt. Hon. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, the Governor of Adamawa State, and highlighted, among others, his courage and deep faith in God. This is my personal opinion.
I and everyone are entitled to choose his or her heroes and heroines. Even the global leadership icons that I listed, such as Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and so on, may not be viewed as heroes by others. I know that some would rather list Malcolm X, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and the like as their heroes. Dr Ardo, too, is entitled to choose his heroes.
Dr Ardo deprecates my article as lacking in credibility and objectivity because I am the Chief of Staff and an aide to Governor Fintiri.
If my article lacks objectivity, how can we judge Dr. Ardo’s article to be objective, considering his constant and harsh criticism of the governor, whom he has repeatedly challenged in elections and court cases and lost? It is instructive that Dr Ardo could not find a single policy, programme, or project to commend in a governor who has been in power for six years. So much for objectivity!
Instructively, President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu both gave Governor Fintiri awards for good governance back-to-back despite being in different political parties and in opposition to each other.
Is Buhari also an aide of Fintiri? Or is Tinubu his chief of staff? Or are both of them propelled by sycophancy?
Besides, I have heard several elder statesmen, women, and youths from Adamawa State, some of whom have nothing to do with the government, publicly showering encomiums on Fintiri for his administration’s developmental strides, especially in physical infrastructure.
Dr. Ardo makes a meal of a purported court case against Fintiri. It is needless to remind him of the trite aphorism in Nigeria’s legal system, which asserts that a person is innocent until he is proven otherwise by a court of competent jurisdiction.
Dr Ardo argues that my write-up is devoid of data. I wrote about the governor’s qualitative attributes, such as courage and faith in God, and gave lucid examples. That should suffice.
If and when I write about measurable issues that can be rendered in quantitative terms, then it is valid to provide relevant data, not for those blinded by prejudice and hubris, but for objective analysts.
One piece of statistical data that might be of interest to Dr Ardo is the 6,870 votes (0.3%) he scored out of a total of 2,196,566 registered voters in the 2023 governorship elections.
Repeatedly contesting to be governor of Adamawa State like Dr Ardo has done and consistently being rejected by the electorate in such a humiliating way might make someone bitter, frustrated, and demoralised. For such people, one of their greatest needs is a hug.