CPC: The enemies within
A recent article by one Hamisu Aliyu Ibrahim (Weekly Trust Dec. 18, 2010, P.42) seems to be a very honest effort by a concerned CPC sympathizer to make General Buhari show active interest in how his party is run. Unfortunately, such well – meaning advice appears to have fallen like water off a duck’s back. […]
A recent article by one Hamisu Aliyu Ibrahim (Weekly Trust Dec. 18, 2010, P.42) seems to be a very honest effort by a concerned CPC sympathizer to make General Buhari show active interest in how his party is run. Unfortunately, such well – meaning advice appears to have fallen like water off a duck’s back. With all due respect, General Buhari’s greatest weakness is to allow others to run the show. Though one is not suggesting that he should be a micro-manager, it is nonetheless important that he does not look the other way where the credibility of those leading the CPC at all levels is in question.
General Buhari left the ANPP because of lack of principle, absence of internal democracy and lack of moral fibre by the leadership of the party to command respect among Nigerians. And when he took that decision to quit, Nigerians hailed his courage for doing so. Ironically, however, the new party he founded is becoming worse than the PDP and ANNP in terms of negative features such as manipulations, impositions and the distortion of the will of the people. General Buhari’s greatest problem in the crisis is his sins of omission; his apathy and idealism are simply irritating, especially at a critical time when Nigerians are looking for a credible party to throw the PDP out of office in 2011.
The leaders of the Buhari Organization who were never elected through a democratic process are now calling the shot in the affairs of the CPC. None of them can individually win election in their own right in their immediate neighbourhoods. Yet they are the cocks of the walks that determine who becomes what. Senator Sani Hanga, the national chairman of the CPC and the Kano State chairman of the party chapter, Alhaji Dan Zago are both products of imposition. They used connection with leaders of the Buhari Organization to get into office.
With their undemocratic origin or antecedents, it is not surprising why they have now plunged the CPC into crisis in Kano State and elsewhere. It took massive protests to force the CPC leadership to cancel the recent ward delegates’ elections. They attempted Obasanjo’s do-or-die politics and the resistance of the CPC supporters was firm and irrepressible. Elections were supposed to hold in 484 wards in Kano State but at the end of the day, they took place in less than 50 wards! Thousands of CPC supporters turned out for the elections but the election officials didn’t show up for the whole day. Yet results were being declared for elections that never took place. It was clear that these fraudulent results were prepared in advance with the intention of ramming them down the throats of the voters.
Naively, however, Senator Hanga and Dan Zago, in collusion with some Buhari Organization leaders, underrated the reaction of the voters. As a result, they got more than they bargained for. The results were forcefully rejected by the people and Alhaji Buba Galadima of the Buhari Organization was compelled to swim with the tide and announce the cancellation of the fraudulent results. The national chairman of the CPC appears to be on a mission to destroy the party by making the freedom of choice impossible.
For example, he has a systematic agenda to disenfranchise genuine CPC supporters by denying them registration. After the cancellation of the fraudulent elections he conducted in Kano State, he had made a radio announcement to the effect that only registered CPC supporters can vote in any re-scheduled election. What he didn’t tell the people of Kano State, however, is that he is working in concert with Kwankwaso PDP group to frustrate CPC. In fact, the CPC has three million supporters eagerly waiting to be registered but Senator Hanga frustrated them because of his fears that they are loyalists of other aspirants contending for CPC governorship ticket with him. He has registered only 45,000 out of three million that applied for membership.
How can 45,000 voters displace three million others that were deliberately denied registration? There is widespread suspicion that Senator Hanga is conspiring with Kwankwaso of the PDP to frustrate CPC by creating internal crisis. And this agenda of denying registration to three million willing supporters of CPC has confirmed this allegation. The national chairman of the CPC has allegedly vowed to frustrate any gubernatorial aspirants other than him and his strategy is to deny their supporters registration.
Nigerians can recall that this was the same strategy former President Obasanjo adopted when he introduced his policy of de-registration and membership re-validation as a prelude to his third term agenda, which was intended to frustrate any potential opposition to his tenure elongation ambition. By packing the PDP with his loyalists, the former president fooled himself into believing that the coast was clear for his third terms gamble. But the obnoxious political project crashed on May 16, 2006 because it was widely unpopular. It remains to be seen whether Senator Hanga will succeed where General Obasanjo had failed.
Senator Rufai Hanga is not comfortable with the idea of registering three million CPC supporters in Kano State when he is not sure of their support for his governorship ambition. But if he truly loves the growth of the CPC as a national political force, he should have looked beyond his narrow ambition. Without numerical strength, how can the CPC displace the ANPP or PDP in Kano State come 2011? It is clear that Senator Hanga doesn’t care sabotaging his own party if he has no guarantee about achieving his governorship ambition. General Buhari’s silence over this serious issue is disturbing and, if he allows the CPC to be humiliated by rogue parties like PDP and ANPP in 2011, he himself will be demystified and forced into irrelevance. According to Edmund Burke, the growth of evil feeds on the silence of good men! These profound words should serve as instruction to General Buhari.
Garba wrote from 33, General Hassan Usman Katsina Road, Funtua, Katsina State.
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