Noise or Real Anger? Scoring Adamawa’s National Assembly Members as the Drums of Change Beat Louder

Something important is happening simultaneously in Adamawa right now, and both things deserve honest reporting. On one side, communities across all three senatorial zones are demanding change in the National Assembly, with youth groups, church leaders, ethnic councils, and, as of today, a sitting senator himself saying publicly that the federal government has failed the state. On the other side, the aspirants who want to replace the current lawmakers have, as of the time of this report, had private discussions with Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, the most powerful political figure in the state, seeking his endorsement before the primary even begins.

The people are chanting for change outside. Their potential replacements are negotiating endorsements inside.

This report does not choose a side. What it does is apply the one standard that should govern every vote: the evidence. What did Adamawa’s eleven National Assembly members actually do? Where does the record support the community’s anger, and where does it complicate the narrative that everyone who currently holds a seat has simply failed?

The Senate Scorecard: Three Senators, Three Very Different Stories

Senator Binos Dauda Yaroe, Adamawa South. Of the three senators, Yaroe’s record is the most extensively documented and the most genuinely mixed.

He has chaired the Senate Committee on States and Local Government Affairs in the 10th Senate, served as Vice Chairman of the Capital Market Committee in the 9th, and holds positions as President of the National Assembly Legislators Fellowship, Treasurer of the Northern Senators Forum, and Treasurer of the North East National Assembly Caucus. His constituency-facing programmes include free medical outreaches that have reached over 130,000 people across the nine LGAs of Adamawa South, solar-powered borehole installations, rural water projects, youth and women empowerment through skills acquisition, and regular town hall meetings across his senatorial district.

On the legislative side, he has sponsored multiple bills with direct bearing on his constituents’ lives, including a bill for the establishment of a School of Mines and Geological Studies in Guyuk, a bill for a School of Forestry in Toungo, and his most ambitious piece, a bill for the establishment of the Federal University of Education in Numan.

That last bill is the story within the story. The Federal University of Education, Numan, bill was withheld from presidential assent due to what Senate President Akpabio identified as ‘clerical errors’. Yaroe has said he was working to correct those errors and resend the bill for Tinubu’s signature, maintaining that the bill was not completely rejected.

And today, Yaroe stood up publicly and said the APC and the federal government have failed his people, that southern Adamawa remains one of Nigeria’s most neglected regions, that the rejection of his university bill was a painful betrayal, and that he would have considered joining the APC if it could guarantee presidential assent to that bill. “Senatorial representation is a trust,” he said.

Here is the honest question his constituents must ask alongside the legitimate community frustration: a senator who has reached 130,000 people with free medical care, installed boreholes across nine LGAs, run skills acquisition programmes, and pushed a university bill to the point of presidential review is not doing nothing. The bill stalling is a real failure. But the failure belongs as much to a presidency that withheld assent as to the senator who sent it. As recently as February 2025, stakeholders at his Numan town hall meeting, including Professor Ambrose Voh, told him directly that the people of Adamawa South had “never had it so good” under his representation. That community endorsement existed five months before today’s frustration with the APC. Both things are true. The constituency must weigh them.

Senator Amos Yohanna, Adamawa North. This is where the evidence asks the most uncomfortable question about the change narrative.

Yohanna was not elected to the Senate in February 2023. He won a court battle against former Senator Ishaku Abbo, and the Court of Appeal’s decision on October 16, 2023 removed Abbo and installed Yohanna. He was sworn in on October 25, 2023, meaning he has been in the Senate for approximately eighteen months at the time of this report.

When he was sworn in, he told journalists his style of representation would be “bottom-up”, promising to meet communities in their own spaces, hold town hall sessions across Adamawa North, and allow constituents themselves to articulate what they needed rather than deciding from Abuja what they should receive.

The public record in the period from October 2023 to May 2026 does not contain independently verified documentation of specific bills sponsored, constituency projects inaugurated, or empowerment programmes delivered by Senator Yohanna in Adamawa North. What it contains is his formal Senate participation, including a motion supporting the call for security intervention after attacks on Lamurde LGA communities and his initial promises of inclusive representation.

Eighteen months is a short tenure. A senator who arrived via court ruling, not via the original February 2023 election, started eighteen months later than his colleagues. The communities of Madagali, Michika, Mubi North, Mubi South, and Maiha are among Nigeria’s most security-pressured, most displacement-affected constituencies. The absence of a documented constituency record in eighteen months is not automatically a verdict of failure. It is a question that deserves a direct answer from his office before 2027.

Senator Aminu Iya Abbas, Adamawa Central. Abbas chairs the Senate Committee on Science and Technology and Innovation in the 10th Assembly. He has a documented institutional track record that predates the Senate, having served two terms in the Adamawa State House of Assembly and held the positions of Chief Whip, Deputy Minority Leader, Minority Leader, and ultimately Speaker from 2019 to 2023.

His Senate-specific constituency record for Adamawa Central, in terms of specific bills, specific projects, or specific empowerment deliveries, is not extensively documented in publicly available sources covering the 10th Assembly period. He is currently positioned as one of the leading governorship aspirants in the APC 2027 race, which raises a fair question: in the period since June 2023, how much of his political energy has been on Adamawa Central’s Senate representation versus his 2027 governorship campaign?

The House Scorecard: Eight Seats, Eight Very Different Stories

The eight House of Representatives members from Adamawa present the full spectrum of legislative experience in the 10th Assembly, from a lawmaker who distributed N224 million in cash to a member whose own constituency group called his record “zero impact” to a first-term lawmaker who walked into Abuja via a court ruling and has been largely invisible since.

Rep. Kwamoti Bitrus Laori, Demsa/Numan/Lamurde. The most documented record among Adamawa’s House members, and the most contested. He inaugurated solar boreholes, a computer centre, a town hall, and examination halls across the three LGAs in 2021, disclosing that each member receives N100 million in annual constituency project allocation but typically accesses only N80 million due to poor budget implementation. He attributed stalled projects to a paucity of funds in 2022 and corruption in the implementation chain in 2024. His own explanation for underdelivery is, in each year, different. Three terms. A visible but contested record. His party’s own ward executives in the constituency went on record in March 2026 to say he bypassed official structures after defecting from the PDP. He is seeking a fourth term.

Rep. Ja’afar Abubakar Magaji, Mubi North/Mubi South/Maiha. This is the member the community’s anger about poor representation should be most specifically directed at because the evidence here is the most damaging in the entire Adamawa delegation.

In September 2025, Sahara Reporters documented that Magaji distributed a total of N224 million in cash to constituents: N124 million was described as youth empowerment, and an additional N100 million went to what he described as childhood friends who were “not well-to-do”. The money was reportedly withdrawn from a commercial bank in mint notes and shared directly. The report triggered a firestorm of criticism, with Nigerians describing the development as another example of reckless political culture where public officials flaunt questionable wealth in cash handouts even as millions of citizens grapple with hunger, unemployment, and inflation.

What makes this particularly relevant to the accountability conversation is the contrast. His supporters raised over N49 million in five hours for his 2027 nomination forms, with donors including people described as those he facilitated employment for and those he empowered in business. His re-election advocates have described him as having delivered “agricultural support, classroom blocks, empowerment programmes, and direct financial interventions exceeding N100 million to constituents” in his first term. He was also present for the establishment of two federal medical centres, FMC Hong and FMC Mubi, welcoming them publicly in December 2024.

The question his constituency must ask directly is this: a lawmaker who can withdraw N224 million in minted cash from a bank and distribute it personally to friends and youth groups is a lawmaker whose sources of that wealth deserve a clear, public accounting. His supporters’ rapid N49 million fundraising, largely from those he claims to have empowered, raises the same question.

Empowerment programmes that produce donors rather than independent, self-sustaining community members are not development. They are patrons.

Rep. Abubakar Babazango (Abaza), Yola North/Yola South/Girei. This is the member whose record draws the most formally documented community anger in the entire House delegation and whose name was absent from the previous version of this article due to a sourcing error that is now corrected.

Over a year into his tenure, the Jimeta Frontiers Movement, a community advocacy group in Yola, held a press conference specifically to call out Babazango’s record. Their president, Comrade Danladi Isa Adamu Jikanshi, described his representation as “a total failure” and “zero impact”. The group accused him of abandoning his constituents while prioritising personal business interests, specifically alleging he was more focused on expanding his international business empire, particularly in the export of essential products, than serving the people who elected him. “He has been silent both with bills and constituency projects, including employment opportunities,” the group said. They compared his tenure unfavourably to predecessors Barr. Garba Lawan, Hajiya Aishatu Dahiru Binani, and Hon. Abba Girei, all of whom they described as having been more present and more productive.

Babazango himself became the member through a court ruling in October 2023 that removed Abba Girei, who had won the February 2023 election. The JFM noted: “It’s unfortunate the court decided otherwise against Abba Girei, but honestly, by all standards, past lawmakers outshine him.” The constituency has now attracted multiple high-profile aspirants for 2027, including former REA Managing Director Engr Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad and a returning Abba Girei, whose declaration message was simply, “Let us finish what we started.” The community’s message to Babazango is equally simple: they want someone else.

Rep. James Shuaibu Barka, Gombi/Hong. A first-term member with a long institutional history in Adamawa politics, having previously served as Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly before his resignation in 2010. His 10th Assembly record in terms of specific bills sponsored or constituency projects delivered is not extensively documented in publicly available sources. His experience is not in question. His current-term constituency delivery is a question that remains unanswered publicly.

Rep. Kobis Ari Thimnu, Guyuk/Shelleng. A first-term member whose public record in the 10th Assembly is the thinnest of all eight members in terms of verifiable public documentation. No bills, no documented constituency projects, and no public-facing empowerment programmes have been independently verified through open-source reporting in the period covered by the 10th Assembly. This is a constituency that includes Shelleng and Guyuk, areas this reporter visited during NHGSFP field investigations, where school infrastructure deficits and food insecurity are documented and severe. The silence of the constituency’s representative in that context is itself a form of answer.

Rep. Aliyu Wakili Boya, Fufore/Song. A first-term member who serves on the House committee covering his relevant thematic areas. His record prior to the House included service as Executive Chairman of Fufore LGA and as ALGON Adamawa State Chairman. No independently verified constituency project deliveries or sponsored bills have been confirmed in public sources covering the 10th Assembly period for his constituency.

Rep. Zakaria Dauda Nyampa, Madagali/Michika. A second-term member who is the only Adamawa House representative with a documented, specific legislative action in the 10th Assembly that produced a formal House resolution. His motion on Boko Haram attacks in Dar and Pambla communities in Madagali led to the July 2025 House resolution mandating the Chief of Defence Staff, Inspector General of Police, and DSS to deploy and establish a permanent Forward Operating Base along the Madagali-Michika corridor. He also defected from the PDP to the APC. His constituency record beyond the security motion is limited in public documentation.

Rep. Inuwa Mohammed, Ganye/Jada/Mayo-Belwa/Toungo. The largest constituency in the Adamawa House delegation by geographic area, covering four local government areas, and one of the most conflict-affected in the state. Field reporting by this publication documented active farmer-herder violence in Jada, an IDP population in Ganye that has not farmed in eighteen months, and school infrastructure in Toungo that has seen no renovation intervention despite existing budget lines. No independently verified constituency project record, no sponsored bill, and no documented empowerment programme for this constituency have appeared in public sources covering the 10th Assembly period. His member profile on Parliament Reports directs to a tracking page with no featured legislative contributions.

The Composite Picture: What the Full Scorecard Says

Across all eight House members, the pattern that emerges is this. Two members, Laori and Nyampa, have documented, specific, verifiable constituency-facing records that can be assessed and debated. One member, Magaji, has a record that combines documented community interventions with a cash distribution controversy that raises serious questions about the source and purpose of his political philanthropy. One member, Babazango, has been formally indicted by a named community advocacy group in a documented press conference. Four members, Barka, Thimnu, Boya, and Maiangwa, have public records that are either thin, absent, or limited to institutional biography rather than 10th Assembly-specific delivery.

The communities of Adamawa are not wrong to demand more. What the scorecard reveals is that the demand is strongest precisely where the documentation is most absent and that the loudest voices for change are coming from constituencies whose current representatives have the thinnest public evidence of work done.
That is not noise. That is a verdict.

The Fintiri Factor: Why Aspirants Are Inside While the People Chant Outside

The detail in this story that no accountability analysis can ignore is what is happening right now, today, as the community anger finds its public voice.

House of Representatives aspirants from across Adamawa are in private discussions with Governor Fintiri. The governor, who has declared his own APC senatorial ambition; who formally left the PDP in February 2026; and who told stakeholders in May 2026 that the power to determine his successor rests with him, is now the man whose endorsement the people who want to replace the current House members are seeking first.

This is the structural contradiction at the heart of Adamawa’s 2027 change narrative. The communities are demanding a democratic process, open primaries, transparent candidacy selection, and representation that comes from the ward rather than from a backroom. Their potential champions are seeking the blessing of the most powerful political patron in the state before the competition even begins.

The Gongola Peoples coalition, which warned in April 2026 that “never again shall the destiny of our people be determined behind closed doors while the collective will of party members and the broader public is ignored”, was speaking directly about this dynamic. The irony is that the aspirants who most loudly echo the language of the community’s change demand are the same people currently in a private room with the governor, seeking his endorsement rather than the community’s direct mandate through a primary.

YOUCAN Adamawa described consensus without transparency, consultation, fairness, and voluntary agreement as “nothing but political dictatorship”. If the aspirants emerging from Fintiri’s residence carry his implicit blessing into a primary that was supposed to be competitive and open, the community’s demand for change will have produced exactly the dynamic it was protesting against, only with different faces in the same chairs.

What the Evidence Actually Says: Change or More of the Same?

The demand for change in Adamawa’s National Assembly representation is legitimate. It is documented. It is coming from verified community voices, religious organisations, ethnic councils, and a sitting senator. It deserves to be taken seriously.

So does the evidence. Senator Yaroe’s record, with all its frustrations, including the blocked university bill, is not the record of a lawmaker who was doing nothing. He has said publicly he wants a third Senate term and will seek his people’s support to continue his work. His constituents must decide whether the blocked bill is evidence of failure or of a system that failed him and them together.

Senator Yohanna arrived in October 2023 with promises and a short tenure. The northern zone communities who are demanding new representation deserve the specific, detailed account of what those eighteen months produced. They have not yet received it publicly. That account should be the first thing any aspirant for his seat is asked to engage with.

Blueprint’s political analysis said it plainly last year: “The people of the state are getting sophisticated in the art of politics, and they cannot be fooled by the antics of some politicians that come to them only when they are in need of their precious votes.”

That sophistication is precisely what the 2027 primaries must now test. The primaries for the House of Representatives are scheduled for May 15, 2026, three days from today. The Senate primaries follow on May 18. Every aspirant meeting privately with the governor today has those dates on their calendar. Every community member demanding change has the same dates.

The question Adamawa must answer in the next seventy-two hours is whether the process that produces the next set of names on a ballot is driven by the people outside who are chanting for change or by the conversation happening inside the governor’s residence right now.