BY: LAWAN A. KAZAURE.
It is with utter dismay and disgusting apprehension for one to read Senator Sabo’s shameless rebuttal of the 60/40 Sharing Arrangement, he willingly signed! Principally and vividly, part of the arrangement has allocated the Running Mate/Deputy Gubernatorial slot to Matawalle’s bloc. This was not a Document forced on him at a gunpoint. It was a sacred political covenant, enforced into with all open eyes of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of our great Party under its National Chairman Sen David Mark, solely to legitimize his gubernatorial candidature ahead of 2027! Secondly, it was to allow peace to reign over bitterly disputed ADC Gubernatorial elections where Petitions rained and Reports of both the Electoral and Appeal Committees respectively proved beyond doubt that the conduct of the exercises were characterized by gross irregularities beyond comprehension.
Call it what it is, Senator Sabo knew he could not win the ticket on his own merit or grassroots strength going by his popular coinage that, “he only buys rams on Sallah day” meaning that he only believes in buying votes at the polling booth. Typical of his antics, nurturing a Party Structure at a formative stage notwithstanding, is a bad business!
The 60/40 formula was the price of peace. It was the compromise that might ultimately prevent ADC in Jigawa State from tearing itself apart before the real battle of the electioneering campaign begins. Sen. Sabo signed the document with the hope of being the ultimate beneficiary to it, while ushering him into the realization of his long-term ambition come 2027.
Now that he has secured what he wanted after an amicable resolution and rancour free atmosphere. Ironically, the very moment of his endorsement, he turns around to deny every agreement that makes his candidature possible. This show of meanness conduct is bad political maneuvering or scheming! It is a sheer treachery of the highest order.
How can ADC ever hope to challenge APC or PDP in 2027 when its supposed flag bearer cannot honor a simple internal arrangement encored by the National leadership of the Party. If a man cannot keep his word to his own party allies in a closed-door meeting, how can the people of Jigawa trust him with the State’s resources and their future?
Senator Sabo’s rebuttal does not bring about peace, but only assures and guarantees war. It tells every other stakeholder in ADC that agreements with Senator Sabo are worthless and his signature is as unstable as his principles, after all good manners maketh man!
He has single-handedly re-ignited a dispute instead of resolving it by his humble self but unfortunately he turns to building a political structure on the foundation of deceitfulness.
It was an utterly miscalculation for Senator Sabo to have crawled back to the man who humiliated him in 2023, anointing Malam Aminu Ringim as his Running Mate at the expense of truncating the signed Sacred Document. Really it is this pathetic spectacle we are witnessing today.
It is still fresh in our memory, the episode that had happened. The intervention of Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to persuade and mediate between Aminu further polarised Aminu Ringim’s proteges. What Sabo wanted us to forget so soon was how Aminu Ringim stripped him naked, blocked, sidelined and rendered him irrelevant even after his decampment to APC where at a later time he secured the Senatorial seat as a result of a vacuum created with the Hon. Tijjani Gaya’s death. Ideally any man with a sense of pride, high moral principles, and with a shred of some political dignity could have learned a lesson and moved on without Aminu Ringim under whatever political circumstances!
It was surprising to note at this point, how after the frantically securing of the ADC ticket for 2027, Sen. Sabo could not hesitate, but runs back to the same tormentor, anointing him as his chosen Running Mate, an act contrary to the signed Sacred Document. What this tells is a clear demonstration that, Sen. Sabo has no political base of his own. It also tells us that he has no convictions. It further proves that, Sen. Sabo is willing to lick the boots that kicked him just to remain relevant. This is not a shrewd strategy but rather a blanderous surrender.
Therefore insisting on Aminu Ringim is an admission to the whole of Jigawa that Sen. Sabo cannot win on his own merit ; he needs the validation of the man who once deemed him unfit to contest. Much as it is often said in politics there are no permanent enemies or friends, however the discarding of genuine allies to embracing a former humiliator is a betrayal of his supporters who first followed him to APC from NNPP on the eve of 2023 general elections.
The good people of Jigawa State need a leader who commands respect, not one who begs for it from those who once disgraced him. If Sabo could not stand his ground in NNPP in 2023, how can he stand for Jigawa in 2027 with Aminu Ringim pulling the strings from the deputy’s seat?
The dangerous gamble to which Senator Nakudu play was, his latest attempt to suing his Party to Court which is a political suicide. It is in a history a political self destruction, reckless and dangerous. Sen. Sabo must understand how utterly the consequential damages will this be to his action. Dragging the very institution that sponsored his ticket to court for a simple reason of implementing the power sharing arrangement between his bloc and that of Hon. Bashir Adamu (Matawallen Kazaure) bloc. is nothing but a clear declaration of war against unity of the party. And this will in the end, bring doom to the ADC in Jigawa State! Hence, Sen. Sabo can never win an election with a divided house he deliberately sets on fire.
The power sharing arrangement was not a punishment, it was a recipe to peace, it was a careful negotiation deliberately designed with a view to reaching a compromise with the merging of the two Blocs(Nakudu and Matawalle) into one formidable front. As such, rejecting it in Court is nothing but telling every supporter of Hon. Bashir Adamu, (the man who financed the Party from the coalition stage), that their sacrifice meant nothing to the victory of the Party at the polls. Further to that, it is a calculated attempt towards orchestrating an agenda dearest to their mind inorder to weaken the minds of the majority of voters sympathetic to Matawalle in Kazaure, Gumel, Hadejia, Dutse, and Ringim where Matawalle constituted and control the majority of followership from those zones.
It is an undeniable truth that, without Bashir Adamu’s financial support, structure, logistics, and his personal sacrifice right from the coalition stages, there would be no ADC worth fighting over in Jigawa State today. It was glaring to state that, when others including Sen. Sabo and Malam Aminu Ringim were sitting on the fence, watching and calculating, Matawalle opened his wallet and his heart funding meetings, mobilizing Wards and bankrolling the Registration Drive. He kept the coalition alive when it mattered most, indeed when it was nothing more than an idea!
ADC owes Hon. Bashir Adamu justice and respect, not sabotage or ridicule! Unfortunately there was an ungratefulness and political machinations that was carefully planned and executed under a breach of trust with active connivance between ADC State Caretaker Executives and one of the perceived treacherous leaders who was a party to building the coalition from scratch. On the eve of the Primary Elections, the Party State Executives claim to be neutral arbiters, but their later actions reveals a breach and clear script to undermine Matawalle having manufactured obstacles in order to clear the path for a preferred, weaker candidate who did not invest a penny at the formative stage of making ADC strong.
It is unfortunate Jigawa State has missed a humane candidate with a capacity to serve the State with his heart! Hon. Bashir did not just fund the Party. He demonstrated those fine qualities needed in a Governor who has sincerity, vision, empathy, commitment and willingness to spend personal resources for the collective progress of all. If he could build a party from zero level, one could imagine what he can accomplish with the machinery of the state. Those Party Executives including the agent who recruited them into Nakudu’s Bloc should remember, political parties are not built on betrayal.
If ADC rewards its financiers with ridicule and disgrace, what message does that send to future investors, future aspirants and the electorates that, in ADC Jigawa State, loyalty is punished and treachery is rewarded!
LAWAN A. KAZAURE
AN ADC STAKEHOLDER, JIGAWA STATE CHAPTER.
