Murtala Nyako, The Unsung Hero Of Our Change

Editor’s note: Writing from Kano, Naij.com contributor Hamza Yaro studies the figure of Murtala Nyako, ex-Adamawa state governor — the one person, Yaro says, who deserves to be commended for the desire to stand by his people, but who, so far, has instead been subjected to unjust persecution.

Murala Nyako

Change. This was the campaign slogan for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the just-concluded 2015 general elections. The majority of Nigerians and non-Nigerians wanted change and were ready to sacrifice almost anything to get it. Nigerians were simply fed up with the then status quo, which was impunity, corruption, executive lawlessness and insecurity. Thank Heavens, they didn’t labor in vain.

For so many, what mattered most was we that should have a complete departure from what was obtained and knowing the major players behind this feat. They are those who believe that everyone who contributed to this unusual victory should be acknowledged and appreciated. The journey was a very long and tough one with very few initiators who were ready to sacrifice all to ensure that Nigeria becomes a better nation.

Forces to be reckoned with

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari are those believed to be in the foremost in the group which was making every effort to create the platform for four political parties (CPC, ACN, ANPP, APGA) tagged the legacy parties to merge to become a single party. It was a great opportunity that at this time the level of impunity and recklessness of the leadership of the ruling party, the PDP, was becoming intolerable to its executive governors and party members and seven of them parted company with their party to form a new PDP. Five of these governors with their state’s followership then merged with the legacy parties to form APC.

These five governors, who were major players and forces to be reckoned with in the PDP, became the vanguards of the wave of APC entrants. Their action was also the most significant in the sense that the political landscape in the country then tilted in the APC’s favor. They became the solid pillars for the APC in its mission for a better Nigeria.

Following in the wrong footsteps?

Hardly had the new government begun to settle down for the business of governance, which Nigerians stood in the rain and sun to vote into power, when it became engulfed in crisis. This might have come as a rude shock to Nigerians but to a few who are privy to the antics of some of the leaders of the party and its members, this is far from being astonishment.

Yes, just like the fallen PDP, the APC has started towing the same line of “use-and-dump” syndrome, which cost the former its embarrassing defeat at the polls. When the APC was desperately searching for victory, it needed everyone in its train. Even the devil then would have been accommodated into its fold just to achieve its aim to succeed. What do we have today? Those who risked their lives and suffered persecution for this change are being left out in the cold with no iota of gratitude from the party.

Nyako the Catalyst

One major factor that cost the PDP their defeat is the way their government handled the insurgency, kidnappings, robberies and other ills which were ravaging our dear country, with the lackluster attitude coming to the fore when the Chibok girls were kidnapped. At a time when everyone was afraid to speak out against the Jonathan administration for its “kid gloves” treatment for Boko Haram, a time when Nigerians from the other geopolitical zones were blaming Northern leaders for their silence on the insurgency, a period when voicing out dissent became dangerous and accusing the government of complicity in the whole issue was suicidal, Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako, the then-governor of Adamawa state, who was also one of the five governors to leave the PDP from the APC, stuck out his neck and damned the consequences to tell the federal government to its face that it was responsible for what the North was going through. His speaking out became the catalyst for other people especially the clergy and few notable persons to voice their own point of dissention.

The unwillingness to hear the alarming bells

In a letter he presented at a three-day-long symposium on current economic, social and security challenges facing Northern Nigeria, in Washington DC, USA, organized by the US Institute of Peace in March, 2014, Nyako bluntly stated that the Jonathan-led administration has so many questions to answer on its involvement in the so-called Boko Haram insurgency.

This was the beginning of the political battle between the Jonathan administration and Nyako. The federal government was ready to finish or at least incarcerate him under trumped-up charges of treason for daring to speak out on behalf of the people. The government used everything in its arsenal to make sure Nyako was impeached after an attempt on his life failed. He had to flee the country to save his life.

Long before the said Washington address, he had also written to the late President Yar’adua-led federal government in June, 2009, warning of an impending danger should they fail to take decisive action when the Boko Haram was still a rag-tag group. In April, 2011, he wrote a memo to President Jonathan titled General insecurity in the North-East political zone of Nigeria, in which he gave a detailed report on Boko Haram and even went further to suggest ways of tackling the menace, to nip it in the bud and roadmaps on reducing poverty in the region.

In March 2013, as the chairman of the committee on security of the PDP Governors’ Forum, he again presented a report titled Brief on restoration of security, which was forwarded to the president. Again, no action was taken. The Northern Governors’ Forum was also not left out. Nyako wrote a memo to the forum titled On-Going full-fledged genocide in Northern Nigeria in April 2014. Copies of all these correspondences are available on Nyako’s Facebook page and Twitter handle. At this point, the Jonathan administration had had enough of his protests. Three months later, they made sure he was no longer governor through a dubious impeachment process.

Ready to sacrifice himself for the good of his people

The question that comes to mind is, why were all these observations ignored by the federal government? Nyako became a voice in the wilderness where no one was ready to listen to him for fear of persecution and victimization. Even the so-called prominent Nigerians, for fear of being witch-hunted, refused to join his campaign against Boko Haram and confrontation with the Jonathan administration.

Today they move around shoulders high falsely claiming victory for standing up against the government when it mattered most. Little wonder why they have suddenly begun to show Nigerians who they really are. Nigeria never comes first but their own interest and blind ambition. It took the international community (European and American) to provide Nyako with protection against persecution from the then-federal government.

Leaders who are not ready to lay down their lives for their citizens have no business being in power. Nyako stood for his people and was ready to lose his life just so that they could have peace while his counterparts were too afraid to do same. These same politicians, with the exception of a few genuine agents of change, are the heroes Nigerians are celebrating today remain unsung.

This article expresses the author’s opinion only. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Naij.com or its editors.

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