Nasarawa: The limit of sycophancy
I am surprised that a simple analysis by Ahmed T. Ajobe, a journalist with Daily Trust, will be the subject of such reaction by Ilu. Musa Ilu knows very well that Musa Elayo is my younger brother who is very close to me. I was therefore privy to all the happenings in the PDP through […]
I am surprised that a simple analysis by Ahmed T. Ajobe, a journalist with Daily Trust, will be the subject of such reaction by Ilu. Musa Ilu knows very well that Musa Elayo is my younger brother who is very close to me. I was therefore privy to all the happenings in the PDP through him and other people. He consented to my revealing in this write up a lot of the things that took place in the party between the primaries and the local government election in the state.
I started as a member of the PDP and got appointed by Governor Abdullahi Adamu as his Special Adviser on Security Affairs in 1999. While serving Governor Adamu, I resigned and turned down his efforts, to have me back. I then decamped and joined the DPP in 2007. I was DPP’s gubernatorial candidate in Nasarawa State during the 2007 general elections. Considerable pressure was mounted on me by my people in Keana, prominent among whom where HRH, Osana of Keana, Musa Elayo, PDP party officials and some traditional rulers on the need for Keana, as one of the local governments dominated by the Alago people, to support Governor Doma, who is also an Alago man from Doma. It is therefore, out of mischief and lies for Musa Ilu to now write that Doma defeated me at the 2007 general elections.
It is also not true that Governor Doma joined the PDP immediately after the 2003 general elections, as Musa claimed in the rejoinder. Doma joined PDP on the prompting of Adamu in late 2005 – one year, six months to the PDP primaries. He was therefore not even qualified to stand for the PDP gubernatorial primaries based on the party’s guidelines. Adamu railroaded the Yusuf Ayitogo-led state PDP Executive to grant Doma a waiver to participate in the primaries without prejudice to his non-qualification to stand for such an exercise. The party wanted people who could add value to the PDP to join the party and run for elections.
But Doma did not add any value to the party by joining it. For one, during the 1999 elections, and with Doma in ANPP as its governorship candidate, PDP won all the three senatorial seats and all the five House of Representatives seats for Nasarawa State. In the State House of Assembly seats, PDP had a comfortable 2/3 majority of members of 19 to ANPP’s 4 seats. PDP also controlled 11 of the 13 local government areas of the state, leaving ANPP with only two. The same feat was recorded by the party during the 2003 elections. So PDP in Nasarawa State did not need Doma to enhance its electoral fortunes in the state for its 2007 elections.
On the PDP primaries, Ilu knew that there was no free and fair primaries. If PDP had conducted a free and fair primary in 2007 in Nasarawa, it is doubtful if Doma could have won the exercise. The late Senator Emmanuel Okpede was fully in control of the PDP apparatus of Doma’s hometown of Doma. Solomon Ewuga was in control in Nasarawa Eggon and Akwanga LGAs. Musa Elayo was in control in Keana, with Musa Hussain in Giza Development Area among others.
By the PDP guidelines, in the event of the non-securing of 50 percent votes, by a candidate, there should be a re-run election between the two highest candidates.
On the 2008 election, I do not know at what level of the screening Ilu participated. A screening exercise in one out of 13 local government areas cannot be taken to represent a fair assessment of this exercise. Before the local government elections, an enlarged PDP meeting was convened at the Party Secretariat in Lafia, where stakeholders were told that elections into local councils would be conducted and that due to time factor, there would be no primaries to all the congresses to elect delegates to the local government councilors and chairmanship elections. It was stated that those “delegates” elected for the previous PDP congresses would be used for the exercise. The most bizarre aspect of the whole process was that even councillorship candidates would not be nominated by the whole PDP members of their respective wards but by a delegate congress made up of ward officials and 10 delegates i.e. less than 30 persons in each ward.
Ilu knew well that during the PDP congresses to elect its officials, the exercise for Awe, Doma, Keana, and Obi L.G.As, among others, were done in Lafia amidst fracas and lack of transparency. Thus most ward congresses results were changed at Lafia. There were several protests that were never addressed and it was this messy situation that Doma organized his anointed candidates for chairmanship and councillorship election.
At the election itself, in many places, ballot boxes and voting materials were never delivered. The case of Akwanga LGA was the most crude form of political rascality.
On the peace and unity within the party, it is true that there are no factions in PDP in Nasarawa State. But is that the only yardstick for measuring peace and unity of the PDP in the state? Since the inception of Doma’s administration, can Musa tell the public how many stakeholders meeting were held? If there is unity and peace, why is the first Deputy Governor, Solomon Ewugas in ANPP today. The second Deputy Governor Prof. Onje Gye-Wado is in AC. Where are Senators Patrick Aga, and John Danboyi? Where are former House of Representatives members – Hon. Yusuf Suleiman, Yahuza Idris and Salisu Raj? Where are the Tanko Baba’s, Halilu Bala Usman, etc?
On the absence of Hassan Lawal and Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu at the party’s anniversary; it will surely raise suspicion if an event meant to celebrate a party’s achievement is boycotted by its founding fathers. Adamu was the state governor for eight years, while Dr. Lawal was his associate and the person representing the state at the Federal Executive Council. Adamu installed Doma as his successor. So how will such personalities miss an important event like that?
Not long ago, it was reported at its last BOT meeting the PDP raised a reconciliation committee to be headed by Governor Danjuma Goje of Gombe State to reconcile some states governors with their predecessors, towards uniting the party for the 2011 race. Nasarawa State was one of the PDP states the BOT meeting stated PDP will lose in 2011 as a result of disagreements between the former Governor and present governor. Now between Ajobe and Ilu, who is not telling the truth?
Aboki wrote in from Area 8, Wuse, Abuja