Being a Communique issued at the end of an Emergency Meeting on the state of our Party – the PDP – in Kano. Held on Monday, August 21st 2023, at the State Party’s former Secretariat, Ahmadu Bello Way, Kano.
Issues raised:
It seems every election cycle, State House of Assembly Candidates, are treated with contempt, cynicism and neglect in comparison to other categories of aspirants and candidates, notably Gubernatorial, House of Representatives and Senatorial candidates both in moral and financial terms.
The irony of it all is that the SHOA candidates are the quintessential, real term grassroots politicians within the political space of the State, who are day in day out approached by the electorate with all manner of enquiries and demands, hence easier to be criticized, found wanting and fall out with them, which inevitably has the most detrimental effects on the party in terms of political capital and victory at the polls.
By all implications, this situation was the main threat to voter for the party this election cycle as campaigns did not go all the way down to the grass roots as intended.
Members of this Forum (State Assembly Candidates Forum “SHOA”) to put it mildly, have since 2015 been the worst hit, least praised and compensated vis-a-vis our outstanding diligence, loyalty, tenacity and endurance, but are usually blamed whenever the outcome of any election turns out to be less than favorable.
Equally disturbing is that despite being rated as the most vulnerable players to hazards posed by hoodlums and other violent characters from other political parties, we are nonetheless made mere floating objects on the ocean of uncertainty as far as all political considerations go.
Members of the press, ladies and gentlemen, may we at this juncture say that with all the hurdles mentioned above, we lack access to the party structure, where we could register our grievances for redress, or get a listening ear in order to get some sort of relief in our daily political struggles to maintain and uplift our great party.
Instead of the party and elders being our comforters, such quarters rather take delight in looking and talking down at us as if we are nothing but a nuisance to them.
Consequently, many of us were, during the recent elections literally sabotaged, after several attempts to disqualify or induce us monetarily to withdraw from the contest had failed.
Series of misinformation, acts of blackmail and cooked up damaging stories by some of the influential members of the Party and their cronies were freely propagated and documented by our members just to destroy our chances with the electorate and lose our elections. This was tantamount to derailing confidence in our party in general.
These machinations by all implications only smack of attempts to make us lose the elections in 2023, dent the image of our Party so as to pave the way for their favoured ones to dislodge us in the political space and party.
Needless to say, we feel excruciatingly pained by the lowly betrayal, just as we’re concerned that those behind it could get away with it and consequently deny us a chance to Contribute our quarter to the party and our society as the same people are positioning themselves to take over the party they actively demarketed in the just concluded elections.
To further expose these elements, our category of candidates has never been recognized as part of the States stakeholders forum, hence have not been invited to attend its meetings.
However, the uncomfortable truth is that our members are the most qualified to provide solutions to the Partys stubborn crisis by bringing to bear our bitter experiences to avoid a recurrence of what transpired and are the most conversant with and closest to the grassroots in the last twenty-three years.
The foregoing grim picture naturally brings us together in solidarity to assert ourselves in every respect to essentially salvage the party against such fifth columnists and the resulting poor performances.
Recommendations:
1. The National Leadership of our great Party expected to be in Kano “SHOULD CONSIDER GRANTING US AUDIENCE” to hear our greviances and take necessary disciplinary measures against those responsible for destroying the chances of our party in the 2023 elections.
2. Henceforth, the Stakeholders’ Forum, should consider accommodating State House of Assembly Candidates at least whenever the agenda is on ‘How to find solutions to the Party’s nagging problems or challenges, militating against the Party, ahead of 2027 general elections.
3. Compensation for being the only category of candidates not to receive any support by the Party and its Presidential Candidate. Unlike Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates.
4. Fresh hands should be not only injected into the State’s Executive Committee and sub-committees, but allowed to head some of them.
5. Congresses at Ward, Local Government and State levels be conducted at soon as practicable post haste.
6. The state executive committee should immediately start to prepare for a possible Presidential election rerun which should be all inclusive.
7. We need representation in the State Party leadership.
We believe these recommendations, would go a long way, to return normalcy to the Party, and boost its chances to win all subsequent elections.
Sign by the Chairman of the State house of Assembly Candidates Forum Hon Muzakkir Rabiu Garko and Hon Lubasatu Ibrahim Tumfafi Secretary.
