#Kabiru Marafa Education | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

blueprintnewspapers-blog · 7 years ago

Text

2019: APC Senators battle state governors

New Post has been published on https://www.blueprint.ng/2019-apc-senators-battle-state-governors/

2019: APC Senators battle state governors

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has remained mired in controversies among its leading lights in respective states barely 12 months to the 2019 general elections. PATRICK ANDREW writes. Why the conflicts Since the All Progressives Congress (APC) against all odds took Nigeria’s political stage by storm by defeating the incumbent and seemingly invincible Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it has remained an enigma: staying afloat despite being a conglomerate of divergent political entities, a marriage of convenience, a togetherness devoid of unity. The APC, in the estimation of some persons rightly or wrongly, is a mere union of deeply divided interest groups, which in the usual ‘Nigerian factor’ has however strutted on warts and all. The sharp differences are hardly difficult to spot going by the motley of complaints from aggrieved groups some of which have blossomed to factions across the states. Four political parties namely the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) merged to birth the All Progressives Congress (APC). Perhaps lacking in ideology to drive and galvanise the different parties into a cogent entity, the APC has struggled to retain its identity ahead of the 2019 general elections. Members might belong to the same political party and enjoy perks of offices based on their positions, but other than that they are as distinct as day and night. Even at the National Secretariat, any casual observer can without tasking his or her imagination clearly spot the divide that there is no love lost between them. At least eight senators, elected on the platform of Nigeria’s ruling APC are having serious battles with their state governors, also members of the ruling party. In some of the cases, the conflicts are geared towards the 2019 elections. In others, it is simply a battle for supremacy and ego. While lawmakers elected on platforms different from those of the state governors are reasonably expected to challenge the policies of the rival parties, the highlighted APC crises show that it may be worse within the party’s own leaders. In most of the cases, there appears no way of resolving the crises despite the various efforts of the APC and the presidency.

Kogi: Dino Melaye Vs Yahaya Bello The unending political feud between the senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, and Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has become a familiar episode in Kogi politics. The major political attack was the move to recall Senator Melaye by members of his constituency. Thousands of signatures were collated and sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which made arrangements for verification of the signatures, the recall process later became a legal battle. Even though Gov Bello has repeatedly denied his involvement, the senator has continued to finger the governor as the sponsor of his planned removal from the National Assembly. The crisis reached another height in April 2017 with the reported assassination attempt on the Senator in his country home in Ijumu Local Government Area. The police later arrested the sole administrator of Ijumu, Taofiq Isa, and released him on bail over the incident. The case is also in court. Similarly, in November 2017, the two politicians almost had a bloody clash when the convoy of Melaye was attacked after he delivered a speech at the Kabba Day celebration. In other times, Melaye has unapologetically called Bello names; ‘olodo governor’, ‘daft’ and suffering from ‘verbal diarrhoea’. In early 2018, he posted a video where he claimed he saw Bello dressed in prison uniform. Firing from the other end, Bello has accused the senator of lacking ‘home training.’

Kaduna: Shehu Sani Vs El-Rufai The altercations between these two have recently become more frequent than when it started. The crisis dates back to 2015 when, after the elections, El-Rufai made some appointments from the party, APC, in a manner perceived as unconstitutional by Senator Sani and others. In his defence, the governor said the nominees Senator Sani sent to him for appointment were dropped because of lack of necessary academic competence and capacity to function as commissioners. In the heat of the altercations between these two, El-Rufai dropped a bombshell in 2017 when he warned his political opponents not to fight him, saying when late President Umaru Yar’Adua fought him, he died. Sani has not been silent. He criticises a lot of the policies of the state government and the governor’s party activities he perceives as wrong. When he was suspended from the party in 2017, he accused the governor of masterminding his ordeal describing him as a ‘parasite to PMB administration.’ At several other occasions, he described the governor as ‘dubious progressive,’ ‘lunatic,’ ‘irresponsible.’ Sani was at the fore-front of opposing the governor when he announced an education reform that would lead to the sack of 21,000 Kaduna teachers and employment of more ‘better qualified’ ones. Already, partly based on the crisis, the APC in Kaduna is split into different factions although the one loyal to the state governor is recognised by the party leadership in Abuja. It is not clear how or if the party will be able to resolve the crisis especially as El-Rufai’s political adviser, Uba Sani, is already gearing up to take the senator’s seat come 2019.

Kaduna: Hunkuyi Vs El-Rufai Still in Kaduna, Senator Suleman Hunkuyi representing Kaduna North has also in recent times taken on the governor. The genesis of their disagreement is difficult to trace given the fact that Senator Hunkuyi’ younger brother was appointed commissioner and his elder, Idris Othman, was for many years a close associate of the governor. At first it was not as rough as the battle between El-Rufai and Shehu Sani, but all that is now history following the suspension of the Senator from the APC by the state chapter of the party. That came on the heels of Hunkuyi vow to “do everything possible” to vote Gov El-Rufai out in 2019. Even though the governor has been silent on this, there is no doubt that the two have scores to settle ahead of next year elections. That silence was dramatically broken yesterday morning when bulldozers invaded and demolished the secretariat of the parallel APC at 11B Sambo Road, Kaduna. Of course, the demolished property belongs to Senator Hunkuyi. “In the early hours of today, the @GovKaduna Mallam @elrufai personally drove a bulldozer accompanied by armoured tanks to destroy my house at 11B Sambo Road. This is a new low and fighting dirty with such low level of pettiness is indeed unprecedented in Kaduna state”, the Senator said describing the El-Rufai as ‘reckless and petty’. However, a statement signed by the Director General of Kaduna Geographic Information System (KADGIS), Malam Ibrahim Husseini, said: “This morning a building on 11B Sambo Close was removed for flagrant violations of land use and non-payment of ground rent since 2010. This illegal violation of use had begun to distress neighbours who were being forced to endure an influx of thugs and blockage of the road. The latest conflict with Senator Hunkuyi will make El-Rufai arguably the only APC governor in conflict with all his party’s senators from his state. Hunkuyi now has the support of another faction of the Kaduna APC.

Zamfara: Marafa Vs Yari The struggle for political space in Zamfara State has brought the governor, Abdulaziz Yari, and senator representing Zamfara Central, Kabiru Marafa, at loggerheads in recent times. The political quagmire took an interesting dimension in November 2017, when the senator alleged that the governor was not an indigene of the state. This followed the senate’s refusal to confirm the nomination of Ahmad Mahmud as REC nominee for the state as a result of a petition written to the committee on INEC by Gov Yari. In another appearance at plenary, Senator Marafa alleged that the governor and his deputy know the militia laying siege on the state. Gov Yari in his response to the allegation said in a statement by his Special Adviser, Salisi Isah, said that the senator’s comments were ‘mischievous, callous and misleading.’ The governor went further to threaten Marafa’s 2019 ambition. “Yes we are going to kill him politically, we are going to bury his political ambition in 2019. He wants to be governor, he is not going to get it, even the Senate he is not going to return,” he said in a statement. The feud continues as Marafa’s support for the REC nominee is yet to yield its desired result just as the security crisis in Zamfara State has not abated.

Kano: Kwankwaso Vs Ganduje For the two terms they worked together as a governor and deputy, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Abdullahi Ganduje, stood out among other political office holders for a harmonious working relationship. Things, however, started getting sour some months after the 2015 elections which saw Gov Ganduje emerge as the state governor and Senator Kwankwaso as the senator representing Kano central. On October 21, 2015, during the 59th birthday of Senator Kwankwaso, which is usually marked in Kano as Kwankwasiya Day, instead of the allies of the two politicians to come together to mark the event, the pro-Ganduje elements celebrated it at the Government House, while those who identified themselves as loyalists of Kwankwaso, led by his former Chief of Staff, Yunusa Dangwani, held theirs at Mambayya House in Kano. Another perceived genesis of the feud is the appointment of state executives by Ganduje. None of the commissioners in Mr. Kwankwaso’s executive was retained by Ganduje, with the exception of Nasiru Gawuna, who was commissioner for agriculture under Kwankwaso. Meanwhile, for reasons many have described as political, Kwankwaso has not visited Kano since May 2015. In January when he decided to do so, the feud got a renewal. The rift got to a head when two rival political camps, Kwankwasiyya and Gandujiyya, fixed rallies for the same area on the same day. Clashes between supporters of both camps had left many injured but Kwankwaso refused to shelve his ‘grand visit’ despite police warning. He later jettisoned his planned visit, saying he wanted to allow peace and security prevail.

Borno: Kyari Vs Shettima Their 2019 ambitions appear to be putting Governor Kashim Shettima and Abu Kyari, the senator representing the northern senatorial district of the state, against each other. The senator who is currently nursing an ambition to occupy the state government house is not in the best of relationships with the governor who, many believe, is eyeing the northern senatorial seat in 2019. To neutralise Kyari’s ambition, Gov Shettima is said to have initiated moves to draft the senator representing the central senatorial district, Baba Garbai, into the governorship race to succeed him. Even though they are both in the same APC, the former allies appear not to be comfortable with their 2019 ambitions.

OGUN: Olamilekan Vs Amosun The 2019 gubernatorial ambition of the Lagos West senator, Olamilekan Adeola, has brought him at loggerheads, not with his current state governor, but with the governor of the state where he aspires to govern. Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun is rounding off his two terms with the race to the Ogun State government house becoming fiercer by the day. In seeming reference to the senator, Amosun, in November 2017, vowed for the second time that he would not hand over to a ‘stranger’ in 2019. Although Amosun is disposed to someone from Yewa part of the state succeeding him, he opposes Adeola who is from that part. The governor said it would be an insult to the forebears of Ogun State if an ‘Atohunrinwa’ (stranger) should succeed him when there are true sons and daughters of the soil in abundance. Despite that, Adeola has vowed to contest with or without the governor’s support. This subtle bickering has split the leadership of the party into two, with the Yayi faction enjoying the full support of a national leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu, while Amosun wants to be allowed to determine his successor.

Ondo: Boroffice Vs Akeredolu Though the leadership of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo state has tried to dismiss the existence of cold war within its ranks, there are indications that all is not well between the Ondo North senator, Ajayi Boroffice and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu. Boroffice did not support Gov Akeredolu’s election in 2016. After the election, the governor and his supporters said they did not consider the senator a member of the APC and that he would have reapply to the party to become a member. Boroffice, however, fired back saying he never left the APC and remains a full member of the party. The APC in Ondo is currently making moves to resolve its internal crisis with a former governorship aspirant, Olusola Oke, returning to the party. Oke left the APC after Akeredolu won the party’s governorship primaries. He later contested against Akeredolu on another platform. Despite the reconciliation within the Ondo APC, there are, however, still indications that the differences between Messrs. Akeredolu and Boroffice remain unresolved. To resolve these crises and others within the APC, President Muhammadu Buhari set up a committee headed by Bola Tinubu, the former Lagos governor.

Bauchi: Gov Abubakar vs Dogara The crisis in Bauchi APC is not altogether about who assumes the office of Governor come 2019, at least that is what those in the trenches have repeatedly said. Rather, they have adduced concern for the ordinary citizens of the State as reason for openly confronting Governor Mohammed Abubakar. Recall that in 2016, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara had led some lawmakers of Bauchi extraction to the APC national secretariat where they accused the governor of not properly managing the N8.6 billion fund extended to the state by the federal government. Dogara and Abubakar have endured frosty relationship since the former emerged Speaker without home support from the governor. However, Dogara sometime in 2017 cleared the air by stating thus: “It wasn’t because he refused to support me to be Speaker, it wasn’t because anybody had reported him. It was because the people were getting so angry that they decided to take their destiny in their hands and everybody knows. You can find out from them in Bauchi that that was the direction we were heading to, a very dangerous direction and the president needed to intervene. “In Bauchi, the moment Ahmadu Muazu left governance, development stopped in Bauchi. Clearly no new district has been opened, the whole capital is crammed up, there’s no water, challenges left, right and centre, we cannot continue like that. “This is not a struggle between I and governor M.A Abubakar because I want to contest for Governor, it is a struggle between forces of good and forces of retrogression, between who wants to see advancement in Bauchi State and those who say they are offering leadership while they are just filling their pockets”, Dogara said in an interview. However, it does not appear that the situation has improved. Instead, the gulf between them has widened as more foes have embraced the battle against the governor to the utter detriment of the party in Bauchi. Aside from Dogara, Governor Abubakar also has an axe to grind with senators Suleiman Nafiz and Ali Wakil, who do not also see eye to eye with the governor.

Cross River: Aggrieved vs Minister Bottled up anger suddenly came to the fore recently in the Cross River APC chapter when the State Working Committee (SWC) of the party suspended the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Uguru Usani. “State Working Committee (SWC) has suspended the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Pastor Usani Usani. The man has been going against most of the party (APC) rules. He called illegal meetings with intention of forming parallel State Executive Committee (EXCO). “The party severally called him and warned him but he did not listen. Last year, he appeared before the State Working Committee to explain his role in some of those meetings. “He told us he doesn’t owe us any explanation and he was warned. He promised us that he will be of good character from that moment. But he keeps holding different meetings both here in the state and Abuja. “Recently, he tried to constitute a parallel EXCO against the one that has been in existence from the inception of the party, so we have no option than to suspend him and recommended for his expulsion from the party at the National level”, Chief Godwin Takus, a member of the SWC who described the minister as cloak in the wheel of progress of the party in the state said. However, several stakeholders of the Cross River State All Progressive Congress (APC) kicked against the suspension of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani. They declared the purported suspension as a nullity. But all is not well with the party which houses Senator John Enoh that defected to the APC from the PDP. Although, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has started reconciliation work, many are doubtful his efforts would yield any tangible dividends.

#political entity #unity

0 notes

blueprintnewspapers-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Zamfara killings and Yari’s politics of survival, by Zainab Suleiman Okino

New Post has been published on https://www.blueprint.ng/zamfara-killings-and-yaris-politics-of-survival-by-zainab-suleiman-okino/

Zamfara killings and Yari’s politics of survival, by Zainab Suleiman Okino

The killing of 41 people in Birane village of Zurmi Local Government of Zamfara state, last week, whether by bandits or herdsmen goes beyond our weak policing system. It is an indictment on the governor of the state, a further fillip to the hollowness of our political class, and in this case, Governor Abdulaziz Yari, who would rather hobnob with Abuja than take charge of affairs in his state.

While Birane community mourns, Yari jets in and out of Abuja to Daura (not Gusau) to genuflect before the president. The social climber, who got lucky by strings of circumstances, and, of course, providence, has no scruples dining with the devil to get what he wants, yet he does not seem to have the capacity to govern his state well.

A good mix of deftness, bootlicking, treachery and god fatherism propelled him to become the primus interpares of the exclusive king-making and powerful governors’ club. How this little known and non-performing governor has remained relevant in the last 10 years or so may not be unconnected to some untoward qualities that can make people cringe in some political settings.

Between 2007 to 2011, Governor Mahmud Shinkafi , the erstwhile deputy governor to then Governor Ahmed Sani, Yeriman Bakura, fell out with his former boss and decamped to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Yari, who was then a federal lawmaker, became the poster boy and beneficiary of the SaniShinkafi feud.

For pitching his tent with former Vice President Abubakar Atiku in the bitterly fought PDP primaries between him and President Jonathan, Shinkafi became a marked man that could be dealt with at the appropriate time. That time came during the elections of 2011… Shinkafi lost and paved way for Yari.

Although a APP candidate at a time, the party had lost appeal and popularity, Yari got the tacit support of the PDP leaders; his election was financed by an Abuja-based real estate mogul from the East and an associate of the first family (the Jonathans).

And so it was that the PDP government rejected their own (Shinkafi ) to support Yari, coupled with the open support and overriding influence of their god-father, Yariman Bakura, who has always dined with Abuja irrespective of the party in charge in Zamfara. Leaning on Jonathan in Abuja and Yeriman Bakura back home, Yari, like the proverbial phoenix, emerged from the ashes of conflict of interests and forces outside the control of the electorate in Zamfara state.

His second term in 2015 became an easy ride because of the merger of the three political that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC), Buhari’s ready popularity and moving train that he jumped into in spite of the fact that his election was underpinned by PDP leadership and their money.

From the foregoing, Yari was never a man of his own and for want of a better expression he has always leaned on people to get what he wants. Former minister and PDP chieftain, Senator Adesewe described this kind of people as lean-onpeople politicians as against real grassroots politicians.

While commenting on the amended election sequence on Channels recently, he described politicians who won election based on their alignment with the government of the day or Buhari in 2015 as ‘lean-onpeople’ politicians, who cannot stand on their own without a political colossus behind them, adding that real grassroots politicians need not fear whether presidential election comes first or not. Considering the manner of his rise to prominence, and the disasters that have occurred under his watch as governor in Zamfara, it won’t be out of place to say Yari owes no allegiance to the people of Zamfara and perhaps does care about their welfare, security or development of the state.

It is also not a surprise that he suddenly woke up from his slumber last week, in the wake of the latest Zamfara killings to indirectly blame the Buhari government for the state’s woes, and feeling ‘let down’ after, adding that the killings in the state have deteriorated under President Buhari: “I feel let down facing the people of this state whenever I remember the promise I made to them that when they elect President Buhari into power, these killings will end. But unfortunately, things are now getting worse.

As such, I urge you security agencies to up the ante so as not to lose this war. If you let us take issues on our hands, anarchy will reign which is not what we hope for”. When will this man be able to stand on his own and take responsibility?

Well, talk of blame game by a supposed chief security officer of his own state who can neither provide security nor development. There are even arguments over the incessant killings in the state and whether it is an extension of political wranglings between the governor and a senator from the state. Even before the latest killing spree, Senator Kabiru Marafa had described the Zamfara issue as a national emergency as armed foreign militia groups now dispense justice on behalf of the aggrieved members of the society.

He accused Governor Yari of romancing with criminals, forcing people to resort to self-help. Buhari himself had launched a security operation about two years to combat banditry in the state all of which have come to zilch in the face of the continued killings.

In 2010, unsafe level of lead poison found in homes, dust in the air, contaminated foods and well water as a result of illegal mining ore killed 300 people in the state, among who are 111 children. After the Lead poisoning epidemics, came meningitis outbreak that killed over 200 children but Yari ascribed the incident to God’s wrath on the people for turning away from Him, even as the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in the state blamed him for not responding adequately to early warnings about the epidemic. Under Yari as chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum, billions of bailout funds meant for states to cushion the effects of recession and to pay salaries were mismanaged and/or diverted. Zamfara’s share was alleged to have been diverted to a mortgage bank, besides other under-hand deals that are being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). For not settling outstanding salaries and pensioners’ entitlements, misappropriation and poor budget implementation, lawmakers in the state once threatened impeachment of the governor.

Again, the last NECO examinations also showed misgovernance and absence of investments in education by successive Zamfara leaders including Yari. Zamfara performed so poorly that only 24 candidates out of 186 obtained five credits and above. So, what is Yari’s staying power? Perhaps his capacity to be in the right place at the right time, knowing when to abandon a sinking ship, or subterfuge and even loyalty to a cause, who knows.

The only thing that is certain is Yari’s inability and his failure to convert his enormous goodwill and good-luck to good work, proactive governance and development for the people of Zamfara state.

#Birane village of Zurmi Local Government of Zamfara

0 notes