VIce-Admiral Murtala Nyako is the Governor of Adamawa State. He was once Governor of Niger State. He was formerly Chief of Naval Staff of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was also formerly Deputy Chief of Defense Staff. All this suggests he is a man with enough pedigree to occupy the highest echelons of government in Nigeria. However, his memo to the Northern States Governors’ Forum of April 16, 2014 and his other recent public pronouncements now indicate otherwise. Going by these, Nyako is no longer fit to be governor of Adamawa State, or any state in Nigeria for that matter.
Nyako’s diatribe
In his memo, Nyako redefined Nigeria, creating a new country out of it which he referred to as “the North.” Therefore, he addressed his broadside to “Fellow Governors and Citizens of the North.” Nyako insists: “Northern Nigeria is on its own.” But we may well ask the governor when the North became a country by itself. Having conferred statehood on the North, Nyako asks his Northern compatriots: “should we not… consider a declaration of Northern Nigerian Amnesty to the culprits (of the Northern insurgency) and consequently squarely address all other matters connected with the Amnesty and Boko-Haram syndrome?”