DPP

DPP’s Futile Effort in Sokoto

Ali Liman Abubakar

Sokoto was perhaps the only state that the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) made a popular choice of a candidate at the last April general elections in the country. There, the party did its homework so well that it left no one in doubt of its readiness to secure a landslide victory. The then president Olusegun Oabsanjo, hell-bent on picking his own pound of flesh from Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, the then executive governor of the state, sent emissaries to study the political terrain in Sokoto, and to ascertain PDP’s chances of upstaging the almighty Bafarawa. This was despite PDP’s seeming anointing of Alhaji Muktari Shagari as the party’s flag bearer.

As the battle of wits raged on between Bafarawa and Obasanjo, the latter, the story went, was advised against treating Bafarawa’s factor in Sokoto politics with kid globes, and the rest as they say, is now history. PDP courted into its fold the biggest fish in Sokoto politics; the one and only person in whose possession lays the key to Bafarawa’s defeat. Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, proved bookmakers right when he roundly defeated Bafarawa’s party, Democratic people’s Party (DPP) in the elections.

It was therefore a thing of great surprise when the DPP filed a law suit at the electoral tribunals alleging irregularities in the election. When this did not work, the party learnt a lesson from the neighboring Kebbi, where the tribunal there nullified Governor Sa’idu Dakingari’s election on technical ground. In Sokoto’s DPP’s estimation, Wamakko’s election should equally be nullified since he also crossed-carpeted from the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), forgetting that in the first place, the manner of Wamakko’s and Dakingari’s ditching of the ANPP was not the same. While in the latter’s case, it was clearly out of the fear of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the former was wooed by the PDP on the grounds of his popularity, public acceptability and PDP’s insatiable desire to win in the seat of the Caliphate, that finally landed him the ticket on a platter of gold.

Oblivious of this situation, the DPP pressed its case in the tribunal before it was informed that it merely tried to be a meddler and a busy body of sort for it to hinge its hope of getting the ruling in its favor through technical grounds as it happened in Kebbi. Armed with all sorts of perceived evidences, the DPP headed to the appeal court where it now awaits a ‘favorable’ verdict.

But the DPP would never have wasted its time if it had recognized that Alhaji Muktari Shagari, should have been the one at the tribunal now rather than any other person. This is because whatever injustice the DPP is crying of, Shagari was the victim. Here is a man who was bracing to be crowned the King, only for his party to relegate him to the position of a deputy governor. Shagari a two-term minister of a single ministry, one of the handful ministers that were closest to the president, as well as a relation of the first executive president, Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Shagari, was by most people’s permutations the PDP’s anointed before the joker emerged in circumstances uncharacteristic of Obasanjo. I believe the electoral tribunal would not have hesitated a second in annulling Wamakko’s election had Shagari decided to go to court. But fortunately, like I said earlier, the PDP has done its homework so nicely that it all seems foolproof now.

Not a single person ever doubted Wamakko’s reputation as a popular candidate both before and after the electioneering. It was this quality that stood him in good stead against incumbency, financial muscle and aggressive politicking. As an astute and an up-and-doing politician, Wamakko saw PDP’s offer as not only timely but also a viable weapon with which to pay back a debt in equally a disheartening measure. We all remember how Wamakko was almost humiliated for a justifiable sin of aspiring to succeed his then boss. He was forced to resign from his plum job of a deputy governor in order to salvage his honor for the rainy day.

A Hausa adage says in kana da kyau ka kara da wanka, meaning even the beautiful ones take bath. Popularity alone seldom wins election in this country. Something has to be added into it and so, Wamakko grabbed PDP’s ticket in a no-victor-no-vanquished situation with his former party the ANPP, under which the coast was clear for him to run for the governorship elections.

Who could then deny the people their hard-earned choice? What technical reason in Sokoto DPP’s reasoning could warrant the dissolution of this election that confirmed a seeming unanimous decision of Sokoto people? In the first place, why should there be a basis for comparison between Kebbi PDP under the duo of Alhaji Adamu Aliero and Alhaji Sa’idu Dakingari, and Wamakko’s Sokoto? In my personal opinion, whosoever considers taking this matter up did not perhaps witness the wild jubilation that greeted the announcement of the verdict by the electoral tribunal in Sokoto.

Unlike the former government in Sokoto, which was seen as the proverbial inuwar giginya by the majority, Wamakko’s government is already living up to its high rating, by redeeming its electoral promises. Wamakko as many witnessed during a festive period, personally distributed materials to the people. When asked to be relieved of that job, he countered in a very humble manner that the people are his people and thus deserved him to personally serve them in whatever manner possible.

It is also on record that the civil servants in the state are better off now than they were few years back where they were denied a well deserved three steps increase. Immediately after his take-over, Wamakko moved in to save the situation. The civil servants smiled to the banks and the consequences for that action was a re-energized workforce and a finer output in the administration of the state.

What I want the petitioners of Sokoto governorship election to understand here is, they may have reasons to go to court with all those evidences they said they have, but they are not the ones who have any case with Wamakko’s election. Therefore, their claim of being the gander in Sokoto, that deserves what is given to the goose in Kebbi was untenable as explained by Mike Ozeokhome, a member of the tribunal, who said that “no two (court) cases are the same.”

DPP’s effort to have the Sokoto governorship election nullified is to say the least an action that would surely end in futility. This is because if elections were a boxing game where only points are counted, Wamakko, with huge grass root support, PDP’s might and huge ANPP support to boot, would have easily been given the position even before casting a single vote.

Abubakar is with the Dept. of Mass Communication Bayero University, Kano, and can be reached on aliliman@gmail.com.