We have a Hausa adage which says that” if you plan to dig a hole for your enemy to fall in, dig a shallow one, as you may likely be the one to fall in.” This adage perfectly suits the current imbroglio surrounding the defection of Senator Ibrahim Shekarau from the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Senator Ibrahim Shekarau is the current senator representing Kano Central Senatorial District. He won the seat in the 2019 election on the platform of APC. However, he ditched the party and defected to NNPP in August 2022. Since his defection to PDP and resigning the senatorial candidacy offered to him by the NNPP, the issue remained intractable, with the recent declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that he was the actual winner of the 2023 senatorial election. Shekarau, according to INEC, polled 456,787 votes to emerge the winner of the February 25th election.
Shekarau dumped NNPP because of what he described as “breach of trust” and “betrayal” by the NNPP presidential candidate, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. In a largely publicised defection, Shekarau had told his supporters that from Monday, August 29, 2022, he was “no longer contesting the senatorial position on the platform of the NNPP”. And yet, INEC went ahead to declare him the winner of the just-concluded election. Why?
Reinforcing the INEC stand was a well-articulated and informed legal opinion prepared by Barrister Abdul Adamu Fagge, a former Chairman of Kano NBA. In a four-page document dated September 2, 2022, and submitted to INEC, Fagge brilliantly analysed the provisions of the newly enacted 2022 Electoral Act, juxtaposing it with constitutional provisions and some subsisting judicial interpretations.
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The legal opinion dwelt on some key legal provisions, especially the relevant sections of the Electoral Act dealing with timetable, guidelines and schedule of activities regulating “All political parties’ activities.”
The legal opinion, in its attempt to interpret the INEC powers, opined that INEC timetable, guidelines and schedule of activities have same force with any enabling law and they run pari-pasu and all political parties are under obligation to comply with the said timetable, guidelines, and schedule of activities and it is in that regard all political parties sold their nomination forms, conducted primaries and forwarded the names of their candidates to INEC within the stipulated period as contained in the timetable.
In concluding his analysis, he foreclosed any window for “replacement or substitution” of any political parties’ candidates since the lapse of July 15, 2022 and August 12, 2022, being the last day of the 90 days provided for a withdrawal of candidate, and the 150 days allowed before the date of the general election respectively.
Incidentally, Barrister Fagge is a former associate of Senator Ibrahim Shekarau. He parted ways with Shekarau in May 2022 when Shekarau moved to NNPP from APC.
Shekarau had so far changed parties four times for reasons he often alleged to be “injustice” done to him in his characteristic manner to justify his action.
Despite being a founding member of the APC, Shekarau had, in 2014, defected from APC to PDP. Again, in the buildup to the 2019 election, Shekarau rejoined the APC in 2018 after the National Working Committee of the PDP dissolved the Kano State Executive Committee of the party and constituted a caretaker committee allegedly favouring Kwankaso, who returned to the PDP.
In May 2022, Shekarau again dumped the APC, a party on which he won the senatorial seat, for NNPP. He was thereafter offered an automatic ticket to the Senate after his defection, a ticket his actions now threaten to invalidate.
Surprisingly, both Kwankwaso and the NNPP failed to grasp the damage Shekarau had done to them. Instead of understanding the situation and doing the needful, before and after Shekarau’s defection, NNPP needlessly blames the INEC at every turn of events, leading to the current quagmire.
Sections 31, 32, and 33 of the Electoral Act deal with the processes of withdrawal of candidates, date of final display of candidates and changing of candidates. The question is did Shekarau and NNPP strictly comply with those provisions?
What the Act stipulates is that a person withdrawing his candidature must adhere to the INEC timetable, guidelines, and schedule of parties’ activities. Simply put, the law required Shekarau to write and personally submit his notification of withdrawal to the INEC chairman, and within the time frame provided by the INEC timetable, but had he done that?
INEC, it must be understood, as an impartial umpire and independent body, is legally hamstrung and strictly guided by the powers vested in it by the Electoral Act, other extant laws and legal principles.
Many legal pundits have voiced their opinions by describing the current imbroglio as uncalled for and driven by excessive political vendetta and egocentrism. The blame is on the politicians for refusing to observe simple rules. Had Shekarau conducted himself in a dignified manner, the current fiasco might not have even arisen. Similarly, NNPP has made some avoidable mistakes by skipping some fundamental stipulations of the Electoral Act.
In spite of INEC declaring Shekarau as the winner of the Senate seat, he cannot accept it on moral grounds. In my opinion, he is not even qualified to accept it for not participating in the remaining electoral processes. In the end, still, Shekarau will emerge as the greatest loser.
After obtaining NNPP’s automatic ticket to vie for the Senate, Shekarau moved to PDP where he hoped to gain some personal benefits but ended up winning a Senate seat he cannot claim, while the PDP may feel betrayed for extending too much resources and hope on Shekarau to deliver, but ended up posting the worst electoral results in Kano since the commencement of the 4th republic in 1999.
Now, tell me a pit deeper than this. Shekarau had left APC in anger and dumped NNPP in outrage, but ended up rewarding APC with a Senate seat and lost all credibility with PDP, while retiring into obvious political oblivion. That’s another name for Karma!
Indabawa can be reached via [email protected]
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