2023: Battle of supremacy between Uba Sani, Zailani heightens

The recent jibes, innuendoes and clear-cut faceoff between the senator representing Kaduna Central, Uba Sani and the Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Yusuf Zailani, have been tagged an egotistical battle. The two high-ranking political officeholders are from Kaduna central.

Pundits describe the strokes and counterstrokes between the supporters of the two legislators as downright battle for supremacy and control for the structures of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the central zone.

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The central senatorial district, which Uba Sani represents, comprises of Birnin Gwari, Chikun, Giwa, Igabi, Kaduna North, Kaduna South and Kajuru local government areas. Zailani is from the same zone and specifically represents Igabi state constituency.

Although the recent scuffle is squarely linked to the speaker’s attack on Sani’s alleged poor performance while speaking to his constituents in Igabi, observers say the real issue between the two goes deeper into more personal ambitions regarding the 2023 general elections.

Sani, a onetime senior special assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo, is said to be eyeing the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna’s seat of power come 2023. Many say Zailani, who became the speaker of the state Assembly on February 25, 2020, is not only being pushed by the powers-that-be in Kaduna to stop him, but observers say he is also eyeing the Senate seat for Kaduna Central come 2023.

There is no doubt that Sani is a political protégée of Governor Nasir el-Rufai, having served as the governor’s special adviser on political affairs and inter-governmental relations during his first term in office. The senator also rode on the governor’s back when it was time to replace Senator Shehu Sani, a onetime friend of Uba Sani, in the Senate. To cement his political loyalty with El-Rufai, Sani made the governor’s eldest son, Bello, his chief of staff. The senator, according to most of his fans, is a brilliant civil rights activist turned politician who is now the chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, and  has sponsored at least 10 bills.

His critics, however, say he is not to be trusted, having betrayed his longtime friend and associate, Shehu Sani for his own political ambition. They see him as one without a solid political standing, who has continued to rely on Governor El-Rufai to pave the way for his political exploits.

Already, speculations are rife from those close to Uba Sani’s camp that if the governor fails to endorse his governorship ambition, he may take his chances within the camp of former Governor Ahmed Markarfi for a deal with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“You know how Nigerian politicians work; if they feel they cannot achieve their political ambition within their party, they find a way to switch camp. Should the APC deny him ticket, Sani will need assurances from the PDP and Makarfi before he takes such a risk, but people from his camp are defiantly reaching out,” said a source close to the camp.

Speaker Zailani, on the other hand, has been an astute grassroots mobiliser for decades and is a fourth time member in the House. Zailani, who is currently the chairman, Northern Speakers Forum, is said to have a mind of his own, and political observers say his mercurial attribute makes him too autonomous. Although he is loved by a lot of youths from his constituency, Zailani’s adversaries view him with suspicion, with some saying, “even the governor cannot readily predict him.”

Sources within the APC in the state told Daily Trust on Sunday that while Governor El-Rufai has been busy focusing on governance and clearing the path for his own future ambition, there seems to be chaos within his political home-front. Others claim El-Rufai himself may be behind Zailani’s attempt to scuttle Sani’s ambition as they claim the governor has expressed doubts in the senator’s ability to captain the state.

But the fact that a larger part of the APC caucus from the central zone, including the speaker’s Igabi Local Government Area, rallied behind Uba Sani, many say, is a plus sign for the senator and an indication that he may be garnering the popularity votes. Chairmen of the seven local governments of the central zone recently lent their support to him in a statement, calling for the sanction of the speaker.

A group of stakeholders also met with the Central Zone Caretaker Executive Committee to press for sanctions against Zailani in a statement signed by a serving House of Representatives member, Mukhtar Ahmed Monrovia and 65 others. The stakeholders said they took exception to the unprovoked defamation attributed to the speaker against Senator Uba Sani as inimical to the progress of the APC.

“We are concerned that the current deliberate targeting of a federal senator, a critical stakeholder in the APC for irreverent treatment by the speaker and his men may represent part of a wider plot to destabilise the party in the state and nationally,” they stated.

The Democratic Conscious Advocate Alliance of Kaduna State also described the alleged innuendo of Zailani against the senator as an attempt to distract him. But in his reaction to the seven local government chairmen, the special adviser on political matters to the speaker, Ismaila Shuaibu Sabon Birni, said the action of the APC Central Zone Chairmen’s Forum was not only null and void but prejudiced and self-seeking.

He said the action was not only contradictory and alien to the noble constitution of the party, but that the speaker had a “non-negotiable right” to freedom of speech, just like Senator Sani, whom he said had been quoted as criticising President Muhammadu Buhari on the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road.

Our correspondent made attempts to reach both Sani and Zailani, but they did not respond to calls and text messages. On a visit to the Kaduna State House of Assembly, our correspondent gathered that Zailani had been in Abuja since Monday, while information from Sani’s constituency office also revealed that he was in Abuja.

In the midst of all the political murkiness, many ask why the state APC leadership has remained mute. Several attempts to reach the state chairman, Emmanuel Jekada, proved abortive, but sources within the party told our correspondent that there was no point for its leadership to step in when the governor had equally kept mute.

“The two legislators are the governor’s protégées and none of them respect the party. This is because the state executive equally does not give the party the needed respect at the state level,” he said.

He stated that the issues around Sani and Zailani were nothing other than struggle for political control of the APC.

Giving a hint on why the legislators were getting a lot of support from certain executive members at the local government level, he said, “The party’s constitution does not allow for executive members to hold two appointments, but some of them at the local government level have been given appointments as aides to these legislators, and when the party asked them to either step down as executives or reject the appointments, it became an issue. It got bad, to the extent that thugs were sponsored to vandalise the chairman’s office.”

Another top APC source within the state put the blame on the feet of Governor El-Rufai, saying the party was facing a lot of problems with members of his inner caucus, which Sani and Zailani are part of because they do not respect the party’s structure.

Although the governor has not made any utterance about the political tension between Sani and Zailani, our correspondent reached out to the governor’s special adviser on political matters, Ben Kure, but he said the squabble between the two legislators was a ‘family affair’ and was being attended to accordingly.