Lawan versus Machina: The rise and fall of democracy

Democracy refers to a system of government, which is of the people, by the people and for the people. Unfortunately, the practice seems to be reversed in the case of Yobe North’s Senatorial candidature of the APC and Potiskum’s Central House of Assembly. The political culture of Yobe State is deemed to be mostly consensus […]

Democracy refers to a system of government, which is of the people, by the people and for the people. Unfortunately, the practice seems to be reversed in the case of Yobe North’s Senatorial candidature of the APC and Potiskum’s Central House of Assembly.

The political culture of Yobe State is deemed to be mostly consensus of various candidates aspiring for the same seat of different political positions, where the majority of the contestants would withdraw for the sake of the most competent one.

Thus, the dispute over the Potiskum Central House of Assembly’s seat and the recent seizure of the senatorial candidature of Yobe North from Bashir, had disrupted the long-established norm. This time around the candidates that emerged victorious were forcefully withdrawn from the race and different names were announced in their place.

The primary election for Potiskum Central Federal constituency was won by  Ahmed Mohammed (Sarkin Ado) and the senatorial seat for Yobe North was won  by  Bashir Machina.

However, Machina was substituted with Lawan who did not even participate in the primary election.

This decision to hand over the candidature to Lawan is unfortunate; it shows political greediness and selfishness. He has spent 23 years in the Green and Red chambers of the National Assembly.

Those blindly supporting and/or backing his ambition are doing harm to democracy and the people of Yobe North.

This is not democracy but imposition of a candidate who did not participate in the primary election and has lost the support of the people.

I wish to point out that what is happening in the APC in Yobe State, would lead to harm than good to the party, democracy and the good people of Yobe and may fuel party intra-conflicts. 

Therefore, I urge the officials of the party at the national and state levels, as a concerned citizen, to resolve these issues before they escalate to more significantly disturbing drawbacks.

Yakubu Salisu wrote from Potiskum