22032019- INEC holds make-up polls in 17 states, FCT tomorrow

36 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2019
Inconclusive Vote: Buhari’s Disclaimer
IDON'T know why a few
s t a t e
governors are running
around, dragging President
Muhammadu Buhari by the
hem of his agbada to save them
from the misery of inconclusive
election in their states. Their conduct
reminds me of the days
when lazy neighbourhood kids
used to run home to Big Daddy
to save them from the street bully.
The only difference is that
these governors created their
own bullies for four years and
entrapped themselves in their
own catastrophic failures. Big
Daddy won’t save them now:
they have to fight for their own
lives.
Take the Bauchi State Governor,
Mohammed Abubakar, for
example. If any prominent politician
in the state was expected
to have a reelection problem, it
was supposed be Speaker Yakubu
Dogara.
With the elections less than six
months away, Dogara cast his lot
with Senate President Bukola
Saraki and switched from the All
Progressives Congress, APC, to
the opposition Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, effectively tipping
the leadership of the 8th
National Assembly in favour of
the opposition.
That hurt the APC badly and
the forecast was that Dogara
would be punished at the poll.
But the pollsters failed. The
Speaker skillfully exploited Bauchi’s
triangular political minefield
and retained his spot, even
if his speakership would be a
long shot.
But the sitting governor, an
APC blue-blood who ought to
have profited from Buhari’s earlier
victory, is in soup. And it’s
not necessarily because of the
malicious rumour that the son of
a former policeman is from
Okene, not Bauchi. The real
problem is that Abubakar does
not even know where his problem
is coming from.
The moment it became clear to
him after the rescheduled election
that his opponent and
former FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed
of the PDP, might
emerge winner, the governor
has been running from pillar to
post.
By Tuesday, he secured a curious
court order stopping the
Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, from
continuing collation. This is another
Godsday Orubebe, with the
sophistication of hindsight, at
the state level.
No one knows how long
Abubakar will twist in the wind
by a slim judicial thread. But it’s
a big shame that after four years
of being governor he had to
grasp at the straw of judicial intervention
for relief. And to think
that he resorted to this level of
desperation to save himself from
defeat at the hands of Mohammed,
one of the most incompetent
FCT ministers in recent
memory!
The new change agent
I don’t know what Mohammed
did for Bauchi South in his
first life as senator. But I’ve
stayed Abuja long enough to
know that it was under him that
this city really began to go down.
Refuse collection and disposal
got worse. Street lights began to
pack up, while racketeering on
market stalls and land speculation
hit the roof. I can excuse him
from the Abuja CCTV $470m
contract, which didn’t work for
one day, because it was supposed
to be a Federal Government
scam in FCT’s name.
But given the kind of bazaar
that went on inside the government
he served, it’s doubtful if
Buhari must not
yield to blackmail
or allow his office
to be used for vote
trafficking; that’s
the only way the
disclaimer issued
by the Presidency
on the matter will
be taken seriously
Mohammed would have lifted
a finger, even if he had been
beaten on the head with the
scandalous CCTV contract. How
could he? The honourable minister
was too busy chasing choice
properties 14 of which the succeeding
government later confiscated
by court order.
If the same Mohammed has
wrestled Abubakar to the
ground, poised to become Bauchi
State governor, then it’s the
governor’s poor performance
that we must thank for making
the former minister great again.
Bridge-building is a virtue in
politics. But even the governor’s
staunchest supporters are concerned
that in four years, the
governor has not only burnt the
bridges he met, he has also
alienated the few who could
have carried him on their backs
over the chasm. It was a surprise
that he could still find his way
to the Villa last week.
When to stop
But he’s not alone. Plateau
State Governor Simon Lalong is
also in trouble; in a different
kind of trouble. In the deadly
farmer-herdsmen clashes, his
servility rubbed his people the
wrong way, leaving them feeling
exposed and unprotected. It
was OK for him to toe the party
line, but up to a point. In the
heated debates over cattle colonies
and grazing rights, for example,
Lalong did very little to
assure citizens that he had their
backs.
Isn’t it a shame that Jeremiah
Useni, one of the decorative
pieces of the 8th Senate, who
could quite frankly be Lalong’s
grandfather, is the one who has
sent the governor scampering for
help at the Presidential
Villa?
I’m not suggesting
that Lalong
should have
spent his time
distributing
wheelbarrows
or playing hideand-seek
with
the conflict like
his neighbour in
Benue.
But unlike Kaduna’s
Governor
Nasir El-Rufai
who has
been perhaps
more relentless
in requesting
extra security for
the state, Lalong
has been resoundingly
silent,
always appearing
content
with the crumbs
from Abuja. And
he expects to be
reelected, just
like that?
Plateau was
always a PDP
state. The seat
was handed
over to Lalong
in 2015 as a result
of the rebellion
against the
obduracy of
former Governor
David Jonah
Jang that a Berom
man must
succeed him,
whatever the
cost. The cost, in
an ethnically
charged state,
was that the PDP was a divided
house and the sentiment was
anyone but a Berom.
Under such circumstances,
you would expect that Lalong,
the beneficiary of the rebellion,
would demonstrate, by performance,
that his choice was not a
mistake.
But he did not. He spent the
better part of his first term in office
chasing Buhari’s coattails
and now he’s about to find out
what he didn’t know in four
years: all politics is local.
Inside his agbada
We don’t know if Kano State’s
AbdullahiGanduje also went to
see President Buhari. If he did,
it may have been at night, when
the nosy press would be unavailable
to report the size of his agbada.
Ganduje and others like him
who think they can do what they
like for four years and all their
sins would be forgiven in one
magic moment when Buhari
raises their hands to recontest,
are finding out that voters are
developing a mind of their own.
If Ganduje served Kano conscientiously,
he would not find
himself in this tight spot, needing
help from gurus, marabouts
and just about anyone he can
find, to reach the finish line.
It’s ironic that those who want
to drag Buhari into Kano are not
talking about what he has done
for Kano people and why they
should vote him again. Instead,
they’re interested in what will
happen to the party in 2023 if
the APC loses on Saturday.
Let me repeat what I said last
week, “whatever Ganduje has
told Buhari or whatever he
thinks Buhari owes him, the
governor has forgotten that in
Kano politics, it’s charity and
honesty, above all. That’s how
it’s been since Aminu Kano.
Kano does not follow the crowd;
it creates its own crowd and
makes its own choice.
“Kano voted Buhari not because
of what he has done or not
done, but because Buhari promised
to jail thieves. Now, voters
are pointing him to a piece of
red meat in the Kano Government
House.”
In all the states where the elections
were inconclusive, it seems
obvious that desperate politicians
want to bend the vote, they
want an outcome other than
what the people want. That’s
asking for trouble. Buhari must
not yield to blackmail or allow
his office to be used for vote trafficking.
That’s the only way the
disclaimer issued by the Presidency
on the matter will be taken
seriously.
Anyone who helps insert an
unpopular candidate may arm
twist the people to win the vote,
the real difficulty would be how
the beneficiary of such fraud will
govern.
Ishiekwene is the Managing
Director/Editor-In-Chief of The
Interview and member of the
board of the Global Editors Network