Wednesday, April 11, 2007
KT POLITICAL TERRAIN
PDP: SHEMA RULES OK?
A lot of water has passed under the bridge and now Ibrahim Shehu Shema is the PDP gubernatorial candidate for Katsina state. A lot of water indeed, since many people, big and small, contested for the primaries. Aminu Masari, Magaji Mohammed and Muurtala Safana were the most prominent. These three were often referred to in PDP circles as the three musketeers who fought tooth and nail to thwart Shema’s bid for nomination at the primaries. But Shema had YarAdua and the PDP national machinery behind him. The musketeers probably did not see the handwriting on the wall. When the going got tough these three formed an alliance to fight Shema’s candidature and actually tried to mobilize Katsina people by calling for a general meeting in
At long last every one of them capitulated by abandoning the race for the primaries. Magaji went back to Dutsin-Ma while Masari went back to his Speaker job in
Shema himself faced a lot of tough times. First he had to contend with his mentor Magaji Mohammed. In the early days of the race Magaji had confronted him but Shema denied any political ambition vehemently and actually cried openly to support his argument. Magaji was obviously not fooled as he told Shema that he (Magaji) was ready to contest with any body including his own biological son.
Secondly in the course of entrenching Shema as the PDP candidate many party stalwarts were sidelined or jettisoned and this could easily boomerang. Many however are in the campaign trail and God knows what they can do to sabotage the effort. Right now tongues are wagging in Katsina about huge amounts of money for campaign being held up by Shema himself.
Again Shema was in the early days told to consummate a proper marriage in order to consolidate his position. It was a tough decision for him but eventually he married. Who did he marry? No other than the governor’s daughter.
IMMORAL SWAPS
Is it morally right for elected office holders to swap their positions in order to remain relevant? This is the dangerous development we see happening in Katsina and elsewhere in this country. The electorates are been taken for a ride besides denying more suitable persons the chance to serve the people. Look at this example:
Tukur Shagumba is ther Chairman of Batagarawa
Local government while Gide Sani is the representative at the state assembly. These two gentlemen have now struck a deal that allows them to swap their positions. This means Shagumba will go to the state assembly while Gide will be the chairman of the local government. I find this practice contrary to the tenets of democracy and the earlier it is stopped the better. Or are we saying that these two are the only qualified people in the local government for the two positions. And what stops them from swapping again and again and again in future.
ANPP: DEN OF CHAOS
This is the opposition party with the best prospect of winning the gubernatorial elections in Katsina. But the way things are going, the party has thrown away its good chances to the dogs. This is because they have two candidates running neck to neck for governor. How did this happen?
Well, the party’s primaries returned Nura Khalil as the candidate. But a list of barred candidates was soon circulated by INEC/EFCC and Nura’s name was included. The party quickly replaced his name with that of Abu Ibrahim thereby giving this new man permission to parade himself as the new ANPP candidate. Nura went to court to challenge his inclusion in the list and the court declared its verdict in his favour. With this Nura also hit the campaign trail by parading himself as the bona fide ANPP candidate. So now we have Abu Ibrahim/Murtala Safana on the one hand and Nura Khalil/Hamisu Gambo on the other all claiming to be ANPP flag bearers and their deputies.
Of course the ANPP party secretariat caused this mess though some newspaper columnists had heaped the blame squarely on Mohammadu Buhari himself.
A meeting has been slated for the resolution of this problem but no matter what happens the prospect of cementing the party behind one candidate is really remote.
AC:
The AC is the party Atiku Abubakar revived in order to contest the presidential elections. All his supporters have left PDP and are contesting for various posts under the party. Usman Bugaje is one of such people, and is contesting for the governorship position.
But who would have thought Bugaje will flag off his campaign at the Emir’s palace? The answer is no one. And that is because Bugaje has earned a good reputation for himself as the true friend of the masses. Consider these accolades for example: he has the best manifesto among all the candidates, he is the most learned and most humble, he has the best grasp of issues and displays good knowledge of how to tackle KT problems. Now with all these things in his kitty, people wonder why he went to the Emir at all. Was he seeking for permission or blessing? And assuming he wins the race, wouldn’t the palace be his first port of call? And one thing can lead to another and Bugaje would as soon be offered a traditional title. Perhaps then he would as soon be turbaned with some other crazy title.
At any rate one has to admit that Bugaje lacks political finesse as he commits one gaffe after another. The first was when he made unguarded remarks in the early days of the Shari’a debates. That earned him a lot of invectives and asinine prayers at various mosques across the North. He survived all those and came out up right largely as a result of his positive and pro masses contributions on the floor of the house. Now it appears he is risking everything as he hobnobs with an archaic and anachronistic institution.
