When Praise Becomes Propaganda: A Refutal of “The Fintiri Aura”
When Praise Becomes Propaganda: A Refutal of “The Fintiri Aura”
By Umar Ardo, Ph.D
In his tribute titled “The Fintiri Aura,” Dr. Edgar Amos Sunday seeks to place Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri in the pantheon of history’s most transformative leaders, invoking names such as Lincoln, Mandela, Gandhi and Nkrumah. That this piece comes from the Chief of Staff of the Adamawa Government House, an aide whose career depends on the governor’s pleasure, is no surprise. What is surprising, and indeed appalling, is the sycophantic stretch of logic and the absence of objective analysis in likening Fintiri to global icons of leadership. Such praise, coming from a direct beneficiary of Fintiri’s patronage, lacks the credibility of independent assessment and smacks of mere propaganda, not patriotism.
2. The truth is that negative facts against Fintiri are overwhelming. It is well known that Ahmadu Fintiri was still embroiled in unresolved court charges related to embezzlement when he took office as governor. In any decent democracy, such a backdrop would bar one from even contesting public office. But in a country like Nigeria, where the moral compass is so broken it spins in every direction, such a record is ignored, even whitewashed, in favour of political expediency. That this fundamental blemish is omitted in Sunday’s narrative reflects not just selective memory, but wilful distortion.
3. In six years of stewardship, what tangible legacy has Governor Fintiri left behind besides a massive mountain of debt? Adamawa State has moved from 19th to 7th on the national debt index. This is not an achievement. It is an indictment. Borrowing billions to build five overhead bridges within a radius of less than two kilometers in Yola metropolis may look flashy, but in the absence of hospitals, functional schools, rural roads and job creation, they are hollow symbols of misplaced priorities. These bridges serve more as photo props, where he climbs now and then in the night to make fool of the public, than engines of economic growth.
4. The opportunity cost of this waste is tragic. Across the state, hospitals lie in ruins, schools operate in squalor and youth are trapped in the claws of joblessness and despair. Yet the Chief of Staff celebrates this as vision?
5. The creation of new emirates and chiefdoms was praised as courageous and inclusive. But beneath the surface, it was nothing more than a calculated political maneuver to shore up faltering ethnic allegiances and distract from governance failures. Fintiri did not liberate ethnic minorities; he exploited their grievances and sentiments to deflect attention from his own record! Ethnic politics became the smoke screen behind which fiscal recklessness and administrative mediocrity were concealed.
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6. Perhaps the gravest of all failures is the consistent drop in educational outcomes. In JAMB and other national metrics, Adamawa under Fintiri has lagged behind states that have traditionally fared poorly in education compared to our state. This collapse speaks volumes. If a leader truly invests in the future, it is seen not in slogans and ceremonies but in literacy rates, exam performances and school completion data. None of these indices support the governor’s claim to visionary leadership.
7. Trust is the currency of leadership. Yet Governor Fintiri is notorious for betraying those who brought him to power. His rise was aided by critical stakeholders in the state – political mentors, financiers and grassroots mobilizers – only for him to turn on them with calculated ruthlessness once power was secured. This is not strength. It is cowardice in the guise of autonomy. Leaders with vision do not burn bridges; they build institutions. Fintiri has done neither.
8. Dr. Edgar’s article is replete with adjectives – “gravitas,” “gumption,” “vision” – but utterly devoid of facts. There are no data points, no charts, no comparisons, no independent benchmarks. It is all rhetoric, not reality. True governance is judged by metrics, not metaphors. If Fintiri has done so well, let the numbers speak. Where are the health indices, the school enrollment figures, the employment data, the internally generated revenue growth? Without these, the article collapses under the weight of its own exaggeration.
9. In sum, “The Fintiri Aura” is less a tribute and more a testimony to the enduring culture of sycophancy in Nigerian politics. It represents everything wrong with our public discourse, where loyalty to power trumps loyalty to truth, and propaganda is paraded as policy. Governor Fintiri may have a few supporters, but history will not judge him by the words of his aides. It will judge him by the condition of Adamawa State when he leaves office. And on that score, the facts, not the fawning, will tell the true story.
