Borno PDP and the fallacy of mandate
Those who won are savoring the sweetness there from, while those who were not too lucky are either licking their wounds in silence or have gone to the appropriate tribunals in the hope of getting victory through the courts. It is not an anathema to do that. However, many of the cases before the tribunals […]
Those who won are savoring the sweetness there from, while those who were not too lucky are either licking their wounds in silence or have gone to the appropriate tribunals in the hope of getting victory through the courts. It is not an anathema to do that. However, many of the cases before the tribunals or that may go in the future can be easily predicted even by a layman, given the clear courses available on them. While some of the elections were in clear violation of the rules and may be upturned, many others were clear cases of electoral victory at the polls, and cannot be easily annulled. The case of Borno belongs to the later.
Borno lived up to its billing as a melting pot, during the just concluded general elections. Not only did it record a number of upsets, Nigerians also know that the battle in Borno, given the security situation in the state and the characteristic complex nature of Borno politics, was fiercest. The traditional bitter rivalry between the old conservative forces and the young revolutionary politicians was at its behest. Those who were witnesses to the elections, especially in Maiduguri Metropolitan Area and the neighboring Jere Local Government Area can testify to apparent desperation with which the elections were approached, all in the bid to dislodge the ruling All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP.
In the build up to the elections, the Governorship elections in particular, analysts of Borno politics had virtually written off the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, based on their erroneous evaluation of the earlier elections, in which other parties made some impact and in which the Incumbent Governor Senator Ali Modu Sheriff lost the bid to represent the Central senatorial zone in the senate for the fourth time. Going by discussions taking place in beer parlours, and various idling places, in and around Maiduguri, the PDP was coasting home to victory. Only a few of those who understand the dynamics of Borno politics attempted to explain otherwise, but nobody seemed to believe them.
Based on certain historical facts, the characteristic wrong approach by the PDP and the attendant confusion in that camp, the outcome of the elections was not different from the predictions of people who understood it, with the party winning only three out of the twenty-seven Local Government areas. On the other hand, it was a rude shock to others, who inspite of the glaring inadequacies of the PDP stakeholders wished that the PDP won. Against the background of the huge financial backing the PDP got from the Federal Government, and the plans to rig out the ANPP if necessary, stakeholders of the PDP made mouth watering promises to Mr. President and the leadership of the party that there was going to be a change in Borno.
With the results out, which have exposed all the PDP stakeholders to the effect that none of them won in his or her unit, none won in the wards, and none delivered their local government areas, right thinking people expect them to hide their faces in shame, and not attempt to further heat up the polity with issues of rigging and an imagined mandate somewhere. If the PDP had managed to win even ten local government areas, one can justify the noise they have been making. While one appreciates their predicaments, having failed to justify the money they collected, one cannot however pity them, for the unbridled display they have been making from the money they siphoned out of funds meant for the elections. I know of a particular stakeholder who had been habitually broke even as a Board member, and could not even pay rent, or buy a house in Abuja, but who is today roofing his abandoned bungalow in the village.
It sounds rather funny that, the PDP under the illusions that they were going to win elections in Borno had long before the polls constituted a shadow cabinet, earmarked appointments and compiled a list of Permanent Secretaries and Directors they planned to flush out of the system. It was not surprising that in the face of the glaring facts of their loss, they are talking about recovering a mandate which all right thinking people know exists only in their imaginations. As far as Nigerians are concerned, the mandate they talk about is a fallacy that may continue to trail their imaginations in the next four years when they may have the opportunity to try again. When the Governor elect, Kashim Shettima extended the hands of fellowship to them, we had expected them to grab it quickly, with the hope that they could be part of the government, but they wasted the opportunity, hiding in vulnerable trenches.
Cashing in on the perilous security situation, several attempts were made to scare ANPP supporters from the polls. Despite all the mayhem unleashed on leaders and loyalists of the ANPP in the MMC and Jere in particular, the elections went on, with the ANPP winning in 24 out of 27 Local Governments areas against PDP’s 3. It also returned 22 members of the state House of Assembly against PDP’s two. Earlier, the ANPP won 8 out of the ten House of Representative members against PDP’s one. How they muzzled themselves to get two senators out of three has remained awonder, which may not immediately be known. Time will however tell the magic.
Bwala is the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Information and Culture in Borno State