Is Comrade Mustapha Salihu the Next Governor of Adamawa State? Inside the 2027 Battle Nobody Is Openly Fighting

He arrived at Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri’s book launch not quietly. His high-profile attendance at the event reportedly involved significant financial support and logistical showmanship, arriving via chartered flight, a gesture that sent every political antenna in Yola twitching. The man was Comrade Mustapha Salihu, APC National Vice Chairman for the North-East, and in Adamawa politics, nobody flies chartered for courtesy.

Fresh political manoeuvring is unfolding quietly in Adamawa State, revealing an emerging struggle for influence within the All Progressives Congress ahead of the 2027 general elections. At the centre of that manoeuvring stands Salihu, a man described by his supporters as a unifier, by his rivals as a calculated operator, and by political analysts as a player who understands that in Adamawa, the real election is fought long before INEC opens its doors. The question is no longer whether he wants the governorship. The question is whether he can navigate a political chessboard now crowded with the most consequential players the state has seen in years.

The Man, the Machine, and the Money

Comrade Mustapha Salihu PhD, known as Sa’i Adamawa, is a leader whose contributions span labour activism, legal expertise, academia, and high-level APC party machinery, with a deep personal and financial commitment that has significantly strengthened the party’s presence in Adamawa State. His résumé reads like a calculated construction, not an accident. He holds a PhD in Security and Strategic Studies, an MSc in the same field, a BSc in Sociology, and both LLB and BL qualifications. He has published over 20 international articles on security, politics, and governance.

But credentials alone do not win primaries in Nigeria, and Salihu knows it. He personally procured and donated a modern, state-of-the-art 20-room duplex complex equipped with facilities to serve as the new APC secretariat in Adamawa State, valued at over ₦300 million, marking a major upgrade to the party’s operational infrastructure. He also gifted the APC state chairman an SUV worth over ₦100 million and donated ₦100 million for the day-to-day running of the party. By every measurable metric, Salihu has been buying loyalty in the most literal sense available under Nigerian political culture.

Stakeholders of the APC in Jimeta, Yola North Local Government Area, have called on Salihu to declare his intention to contest the 2027 governorship election, describing the call as a clarion from the people. The December 2025 stakeholders’ meeting at Lamido Cinema brought together traditional rulers, elders, youth leaders, women’s groups, and religious leaders, all urging him forward. To his supporters, the endorsements represent organic grassroots momentum. To his critics, the entire performance is a carefully staged theatre.

The Ribadu Wing, the Fintiri Factor, and a State Caught Between

Here is where the story thickens, and where political analysts say Salihu’s ambition meets its greatest test. Working closely with figures like NSA Nuhu Ribadu, Salihu provided organisational guidance, administrative coordination, and strategic direction to peace and reconciliation committees that resolved internal disputes, facilitated defections, and strengthened the party’s unity. In party circles and media assessments, Comrade Salihu has consistently been placed in the Ribadu wing of APC, a factional alignment rooted in shared history, joint reconciliation work across the North-East, and proximity to federal power structures.

Salihu’s renewed urgency appears linked to the rising influence of Tijjani Galadima, the Yola-born Chief Executive Officer of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, who is widely believed to enjoy strong backing from political networks associated with the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. In plain language, the man closest to Ribadu’s own circle is now a rival, and that rivalry has forced Salihu to recalibrate.

Salihu’s calculations appear rooted in the belief that Governor Fintiri’s solid backing among minority ethnic groups could serve as a counterweight in future internal power struggles. “This thinking, whether sound or misguided, reflects a deeper truth about Adamawa politics, ethnicity remains the unspoken currency of influence,” said Phillip Danyola, a Kaduna-based public affairs commentator. Adamawa is home to over 100 indigenous ethnic groups, and no candidate can win a general election without threading that needle.

Then came the seismic event that changed every calculation. Two years of speculation that the Adamawa State Governor would defect to the ruling APC finally ended when he officially announced his move to the party, abandoning the PDP, the very party that built his political career. Twenty-two commissioners and special advisers in Adamawa announced their defection to the APC less than 24 hours after Fintiri joined the party. Overnight, the entire political architecture of the state shifted. Speaking at the post-defection stakeholders’ meeting, Comrade Mustapha Salihu described the gathering as significant for Adamawa politics and commended the governor for moving his structure into the APC.

The public warmth was genuine, or at least convincing. But inside the party, the power contest did not pause for pleasantries.

The Structural War Beneath the Surface

A political war unfolded inside the APC in Adamawa State as Governor Fintiri and National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu locked horns over control of the party’s structure, exposing deep cracks within the ruling party ahead of 2027. The fight, insiders say, is less about ideology and more about who controls the delegate system that will determine who gets the ticket. Tensions boiled over during the APC North-East Zonal Congress held in Gombe, where a candidate aligned with Ribadu emerged as the party’s zonal chairman, dealing a significant blow to Fintiri’s camp. Sources within the governor’s camp described the outcome as a calculated exclusion.

The aspirants reportedly affected by alleged plans to manage the primary process include Abdulrahman Haske, Abdulrazak Namdas, Mustapha Salihu, and Salihu Girei, individuals described by party insiders as having significant grassroots support and electoral viability. None of those names have gone quietly. Salihu’s camp, for its part, has pushed back hard against narratives designed to diminish his standing. A stalwart of the APC in Adamawa State dismissed claims that the Presidency had endorsed the governorship ambition of Comrade Mustapha Salihu, describing the speculation as a calculated attempt to gain undue political advantage. The denial itself is instructive; endorsement rumours do not swirl unless there is something to swirl around.

Meanwhile, Adamawa Central has never produced a governor of the state since creation in 1991, yet the zone remains one of the most decisive electoral battlegrounds in Adamawa politics. Calls for power shift to the Central Senatorial Zone, which has never produced a governor, are gaining attention among youth and other groups as political realignments continue. Salihu hails from Yola North in Adamawa South Senatorial Zone, which means the zoning argument, if it gains sufficient political momentum before the primary, could be the most effective wall standing between him and the ticket.

APC governorship primaries are billed for May 21, 2026, with prominent names in circulation including Felix Tangwami, Ahmed Tijjani Galadima, Abdulrahman Haske, Joel Madaki, Bakare Gerei, and Aminu Iya Abbas, among others. The field is crowded, the stakes are historic, and the structural battle for delegates is already underway.

The Right of Reply

The Gazette News reached out to the campaign office of Comrade Mustapha Salihu PhD for comment on his formal governorship declaration, his alignment with the Ribadu wing of the APC, and his assessment of the zoning debate ahead of the primaries. His office did not respond to our requests for comment as of press time. The APC Adamawa State Working Committee also did not respond to enquiries regarding the party’s position on internal zoning arrangements ahead of the May 2026 primaries.

What Ordinary Adamawa People Are Watching

In the tea shops of Jimeta, among the traders at Yola Central Market, and in the classrooms of Modibbo Adama University, the 2027 debate has a particular texture. People want roads, water, security from Boko Haram remnants, and economic inclusion for Adamawa’s youth in a state where poverty remains entrenched. The National Bureau of Statistics placed Adamawa among Nigeria’s five poorest states as recently as 2022, with a multidimensional poverty rate exceeding 72 percent. In that context, every political calculation about ethnicity, zoning, and elite alliances runs directly into the arithmetic of suffering.

The fear among ordinary residents, expressed plainly to this reporter, is that the battle between big men will once again produce a result that serves the big men, regardless of what the ballot says. Stakeholders have warned that any attempt at imposition could spark strong resistance. “If the APC insists on imposition, people are ready to resist it, even if it means withdrawing their support,” one political observer stated.  That is not a small warning in a state where voter apathy has historically swung outcomes.

Comrade Mustapha Salihu is real, his resources are real, and his party credentials are real. Whether those three realities are enough to survive the intersection of Fintiri’s new weight, Ribadu’s structural hold, a field of credible rivals, and a Central Zone agitating for its first-ever governor is the question Adamawa will spend the next twelve months answering.

“Salihu’s gamble may yet pay off, or it may backfire spectacularly,” Danyola said. “But one thing is certain, the quiet struggle for Adamawa has begun, and its outcome will be decided not in rallies or manifestos, but in the shadowy intersections of ethnicity, ambition and elite alignment.”

In Adamawa, the real voting happens long before the polls open. And right now, every handshake counts.