By Mansur Umar

In less than two years from today, the clock would be ticking towards the end of Gov, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri’s administration.

We are at a point where we must carefully and diligently seek out a leader with the temperament and skills to navigate the ship of state in an inclusive and result-oriented manner for 2023.

That is because our redemption, if or when it comes, must be through politics.

This, I know, does not give rise to optimism, considering how broken our politics are today and our tendency to elect the worst of us. But there cannot be any salvation for Adamawa State outside a responsible and inclusive leadership with a patriotic outlook.

As usual, several names will be thrown up as we get closer to the 2023 election, among them the good, the bad, and the ugly. Some of the aspirants will burnish their jaded pro-democracy ‘credentials’, others their ‘experience’, and yet others will come with an entitlement mentality, but we need to focus on leadership because, as we can all relate to, it is the key to dousing the tension and redirecting our collective statehood focus toward development issues.

In 2023, we need that person who can reach across social class and political aisles to create a national conversation of inclusion. It is perhaps needless to add that the first step to getting Adamawa to speak with one voice again is to get a leader who speaks the language of inclusion and walks the talk.

In reality and for me after the last few months Hon Abdulrazak Namdas, the member representing Ganye, Jada, Toungo, and Mayo-below Federal constituency, and the chairman house committee on Army, has come across as that person. There may be others I don’t but Namdas’ grasp of the issue, his public communication, his mien, his eight years experience at the National Assembly, and his pacifist outlook, comments on him as an excellent choice.