Victory and success they say, have many relatives, unlike defeat and failure from which even close associates of the victim keep their distance. The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) which was just trying to open its Nasarawa State secretariat in Lafia, only on the eve of the January congresses and primary elections of the out-going ruling party – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is today the ruling party, making the former an opposition.
The CPC is, for now celebrating six individuals who made what has now come to be known as “the giant kill”, ending the 12-year rule of the PDP. These men are Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, the governor-elect and Barrister Solomon Ewuga on whose name the party won the Nasarawa-North senatorial seat, although the court is yet to decide the dispute over who is the actual candidate: Ewuga or Dr. Musa Nagogo who is claiming the seat. The others are Dr. Joseph Kigbu who won the Lafia/Obi federal constituency, Musa Awana for Nasarawa/Toto, Ishaq Kana for Keffi/Kokona/Karu, and the youthful David Ombugadu of Akwanga/Nasarawa-Eggon/Wamba who is still contending with Idris Yahuza on who actually won the CPC ticket.
The Victims
Two kids, namely Dayabu Usman, six, and Fatima Nasir, also of the same age, were shot dead point blank by armed policemen and soldiers on February 9, when violent demonstrations hit Lafia in protest against the police arrest and detention of Al-Makura the previous day. A truckload of security operatives stormed Kofar Zanawa section of Lafia and opened fire on a calm street where the two kids were walking. The bullets got them. They fell, but struggled on for some time while the police van drove past them. They died before adults could rush out of hiding to pick them to the hospital.
Another child, Ali Salihu and a 36-year-old man, Hamza Ibrahim, were also shot, but they survived. All of them, especially the deceased, have not received justice, but they are martyrs and heroes of the great wind of change that is blowing the way of Nasarawa now.
A supporter of the CPC, Muhammed Mustapha of Sarkin Jama’an Gayan community of Agwada, is still treating the machete cut on his left wrist after he was attacked by thugs who were allegedly sent after him by a traditional ruler in the area. He survived as a hero.
Seven young workers of Agwada Development Area in Kokona Local Government Area, a place notorious for election crisis, were suspended by the local government authorities for alleged “absenteeism from duty”, but it happened that their disciplinary action came as victimization because they had resisted official coercion for them to trade their votes for their job in the Tuesday governorship poll. This is just as from the same Agwada, community members in droves had fled their homes and left them in the free hands of thieves suspected to be political thugs when traditional rulers in the area, and local government officials told them they could not guarantee their security during the election because of their political affiliation.
Not far from Agwada, eight traditional rulers lost their March salaries for refusing to coerce their community members during the first two elections, to vote according to a pattern adopted by Panda Development Area of Karu, allegedly to rig votes. They are Emmanuel Achucha of Avep village, Musa Jatau of Dutsen Gogo, Yohana Abeh of Kogon Musha, Angulu Ogi of Oyibo, Bawa Bore of Kubang, Tanko Baba of Konkon, Ishaku Sabo of Shinkafa and Maikasuwa Adam of Ashort village.
A National Youth Service Corps member who presided over a polling unit in Agwada, was framed up and detained for days by the police. He had refused to take bribe to allow local government officials there the privilege to rig votes in favour of the PDP, an observer, Victor Ndubuisi of African Youths for International Development Foundation (AFRYIDEF), told this reporter. “In the governorship election, I observed the same youth corps member allowed for free rigging at his polling unit. But he still refused to take money, just to save his head”, the observer added. In the same Agwada, Tony Daniel Osarati, an observer also with AFRYIDEF, escaped narrowly from armed thugs who threatened him because he refused to take bribe to look away from a primary school building where women were carrying out illegal balloting while men supervised. He told this reporter that a civil defence man there rebuked him for refusing good money.
The people of Nunku have lost their ancestral kingdom from an alleged arbitrary delisting of their first class status from government books. Doma had announced this last year, in what their kingmakers alleged to be political, in order to pacify the majority Mada people for votes in the last election. But government agents denied this allegation. The people of Wamba are suffering like them; they welcomed Al-Makura during campaigns and what followed was the arrest of their people including campaigners of the governor-elect.
The five who originated a petition seeking the impeachment of Doma over alleged disappearance of US$89 Paris Club refund to the state, as well as N9 billion LG funds, which government denied, were like an energizer for the change process. They are Alhaji Ishaka Salihu Oga Doma, Samuel Alu, Pastor Daniel Ogah Ogazi, Mallam Mohammed Bala and Philemon Eka. The die-hard broadcaster, Yusuf Musa (A.K.A Snake) of the state owned NBS, who defied all alleged restrictions and invited Musa Illu Mohammed, the Director General of Al-Makura campaign organization, for a live talk in his studio, is being hailed for the bravery of a hero. The studio lights went off soon after Illu began to criticize government for alleged non-performance.
The 104 local government councillors who were sacked last year, one year to the termination of their tenure, came out on the eve of the elections and declared they were going to campaign for Al-Makura and the entire CPC in their areas, while still remaining in the PDP to stop riggers. But they were countered by another group of councillors. The two groups now belong to different boats.
Malam Abdulkareem Abdullahi Mohammed, a socialist and veteran broadcaster who has continued to root for change against Doma, his associate, is one man who did it all for rural communities to stand and protect their votes.
The career politicians come last here, but they were the actual mobilization force for the change process. They are Musa Illu Mohammed, who dumped Doma, his associate, for change, Hajiya Rakiya Haruna Kassim Idris, a former PDP women leader, retired General Ahmed Abdullahi Aboki, who threw his weight to make things happen, Halilu Bala Usman, a former Plateau State deputy governor who ploughed in his experience and two former ministers: Dr. Mohammed Hassan Lawal and Barrister Solomon Ewuga, who have been kingmakers since their days in the PDP. Barrister Mohammed Sani Bawa, Barrister Abdullahi Mohammed, Tanko Wambai, Ishaq Kana, Hamza Elayo, Silas Agara, have been veterans in providing roadmaps to election victories. Al-Makura, who turned in the “giant kill’, used the map.
