2023: Between Bauchi and Katagum

In Bauchi, like other states elsewhere in Nigeria, the ward, local government and state congresses of All Progressives Congress (APC), the biggest opposition party in the state, were relatively peaceful and as usual, winners declared and inaugurated.

Since the beginning of the fourth republic, Bauchi South political oligarchy has held sway over the governorship position in the state, alienating Bauchi North and Bauchi Central. It is a politics played to dominate, perhaps perpetually without conscience for equity and justice for other blocks.

Former Governor Ahmad Adamu Mu’azu governed the state for two terms from 1999 – 2007. He was succeeded by Isa Yuguda, who also reigned for two terms from 2007 – 2015. Muhammed A. Abubakar took over from Isa Yuguda but had his second term bid truncated by incumbent Governor Bala Mohammed in 2019. 

All these chief executives hailed from Bauchi South. It is still doubtful if such an age-long trend can be reversed so easily, only time can tell. It is widely believed that the prevailing political disequilibrium in the state can worsen the rivalry that ensued and widen the already cracked wall between the divides including that of the already disenchanted electorate, now craving for change to better their lots as proletariats.

As a party poised to wrest power from the ruling PDP in the 2023 polls, the APC has not as a matter of policy, adopted power shift or consensus as a strategy for the party to choose flag bearers for contestable offices in elections or as a measure to address its emerging internal squabbles. But as an institution, the party is working assiduously to tailor its fragmenting parts occasioned by the conduct of the state congress. Perhaps when that is achieved, the party may consider all options at its disposal so as to keep its fold intact and face the elections head on.

So far, three notable heavyweights from Katagum are flying kites to contest the state’s governorship primaries; Dr Musa Babayo, a politician, business man and one-time chairman of Tetfund, Nigeria’s immediate former Chief of Air Staff and now the country’s ambassador to Chad Republic, Air Marshal Sadique Baba Abubakar and another non-career diplomat, Nigeria’s ambassador to Germany, Yusuf Tuggar Gamawa.

In Bauchi Central, however, Senator Halliru Dauda Jika had also declared intent to participate in the primaries.

The story is not different with another aspirant within the same APC in Bauchi South, Dr Danjuma Dabo, a former banker and proprietor of a private school in Bauchi. Both Jika and Dabo, like Babayo and Tuggar, have made appearances for the governorship primaries but only Jika made it to the Senate. The rest could not.

Apart from Air Marshal Sadique, who, perhaps will feature in primaries for the first time, Dr Babayo and Amb. Tuggar had attempted to secure tickets under the PDP and CPC respectively but failed. They had no sufficient spread across Bauchi’s political divides which perhaps accounted for the minimal they got during the primaries.

Again, the oligarchy also found them not suitable for permutations they plotted, thus, failed to support them. Bauchi South will always want to ensure political superiority over other blocks attributing their continuing grip on power in the state to the large voter population it possesses. 

But this time, pundits say it won’t be business as usual. They opine that one of the aspirants, a novice in politics from Bauchi North has inroad into both Bauchi North and Bauchi South political blocks, saying if the gladiators and other relevant stakeholders leverage on that, wresting power from an incumbent, is achievable.

What is fundamental for the gladiators to do is to close their ranks, harmonise their interests, reach out to all divides of the state’s sociocultural and political settings and deploy all essential strategies and armories for winning political battles.

The fact that there are so many underlying factors highly likely to work against Bala Mohammed in getting a second term, pundits believe wresting power from him is the easiest feat to achieve. They say because there are stronger contenders for the slot in the PDP, like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the pending corruption charges against him, would mar his chances of getting the presidential ticket, not to mention the internal rift over rotational presidency that is set to rock the party.

With so much of such issues and problems of trust in governance hunting PDP government in the state, the APC whose majority of aspirants are from Bauchi North, has the opportunity to get back the power wrested from it in 2019. But the road to achieving that is most tasking. The people of Bauchi North must not repeat mistakes of the past where the aspirants maintained a hard stance in the negotiations that was to produce an acceptable candidate to them. They need to leverage on shortcomings of PDP to be able to have a stronger APC flag bearer in the coming contest.

Certainly, PDP may not conduct primaries but give an automatic ticket to Governor Bala. Leaders of thought from the whole of Bauchi North must be guided by patriotism and not individual selfish interest as obtained in previous attempts. The aspirants should be assessed by their records of previous endeavours and by their wide acceptance and ability to deliver if voted. Those tested and found to be complete must not be discouraged.

The battle to wrest power from an incumbent must not be dealt with kid’s gloves. The time to achieve this is now. And when victory finally comes, governance must be discharged with prudence, transparency, humility, adherence to campaign promises and rule of law and above all with inclusiveness. This would vindicate the Bauchi North hitherto perceived erroneously by a clique of a cabal as narrow minded with leadership.

Baba wrote from Bauchi