Niger North: Why Sen. Sabi’s return ticket excites us

Baraden Borgu stepped out of the ragging political whirlwind clutching his party, All Progressives Congress (APC)’s ticket. His survival didn’t come as a surprise to a few of us who witnessed the gradual rise of the Chairman Senate Committee on Media and Publicity to political limelight. To us Abdullahi Sabi is a cat with many […]

Baraden Borgu stepped out of the ragging political whirlwind clutching his party, All Progressives Congress (APC)’s ticket. His survival didn’t come as a surprise to a few of us who witnessed the gradual rise of the Chairman Senate Committee on Media and Publicity to political limelight.

To us Abdullahi Sabi is a cat with many lives. We knew that the cloud over the just concluded primaries of our dear party won’t consume him. We waited patiently for the cloud to clear; it ebbed, and as we have predicted, Baraden stepped out unscathed.

As the storm raged, tension heightened across the eight local government areas that make up the Niger North senatorial district. Many youths, women and the elderly whose lives Baraden touched chanted the war songs, but he applied the rein and calmed the fraying nerves even when the odds seemingly piled against him. Such is the disposition of Baraden. In the face of high provocation, he keeps his cool, exploring the diplomatic option. It was the characteristics that endeared him to high and mighty in our society. It was the same disposition that earned him the title of Baraden Borgu from the revered the late Mai Borgu, Alhaji Haliru Dantoro himself.

But the affront was not targeted at Baraden alone but the party itself. Before going into the party primaries, the rules of engagement were spelt out according to the party’s constitution. The Adams Oshiomhole-led National Executive Committee, NEC, settled for direct primaries as the mode of choosing the party’s candidates, from the president down. All registered members of the party were to participate in the process of determining who their standard-bearers would be.

Some state opted for indirect, even as some settled for consensus. Niger, like some others states has the option of settling for either consensus or indirect but went instead for the direct primary alternative. As the event leading to the main exercise indicates, the party top echelon in the state had thought the option would work to their advantage. The underlying plan was to edge out the “perceived enemies” through the process. Lists of voters in some cases were doctored, while in some others, outright substitution took place.

Even at that, the actors were clever by half. In areas considered to be the strongholds of the “perceived enemies” elections materials never get to the designated centres, while in some cases fake materials were circulated. In Borgu such fake materials find their ways to some polling units across wards, while in some voters waited for materials which never get to them.

The same scenario was replicated in virtually all the local government areas within the senatorial district, even as complaints and protests trailed the conduct of the senatorial primary in the other two zones of the state.

The anomaly had elicited questions on why the governor in connivance with the party leadership in the state would be bent on derailing the process in desperation to foist their cronies on the people. They had queried the underlying motives behind the moves which are apparently anti-people. They questioned why the state executive and by extension, the chief executive would opt for direct primary when they can pushed for the indirect option where delegates could easily be manipulated, especially with their imperial control of the delegates.

Like in many states the party echelon refused to strictly adhere to certain spelt-out procedures. They failed to comply with the standards set out by the party leadership in the conduct of the primary election. They did not submit themselves to the process conducted and supervised by electoral panels mandated by the national working committee for that purpose. This in itself was an aberration.

That is why we must commend the national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole for stepping in promptly to avert anarchy and the consequent backlash.

Come to think of it, Niger North and indeed the entire state stand to benefit from Senator Sabi’s return to the Upper Chamber where he has distinguished himself as a worthy representative for the past three years. Even though a first timer, Sabi warmed his way into the hearts of the leadership and the power that be, clinching the Chairmanship position of the Media and Publicity committee in the process.

Many first timers were not that fortunate, yet some party spoil-sports would want us to miss such golden opportunity to assuage their ego.

Baraden, no matter anyone would say, is an asset to the party and the state because as the altercations between the executive and the legislature raged then, even as a spokesman of the Senate, he was careful not take side.

At the state level he was always on the side of the governor, realizing all those times that his relationship between him and the state chief executive dated back many years. Baraden it bears reminding was one of the few friends at the forefront of the governor’s campaign and among the trusted allies who drafted his development blueprint. That is why Bello must be wary of the sycophants who are bent on undermining the existing relationship between the two of them for their own selfish purpose.

Having navigated through a potentially explosive phase in the party’s life ahead of a critical general election, it is critical that the governor and party executive reach out to Baraden and others to forge a common front towards returning the party to power at all level. In doing that, the experiences and exposure of Baraden and others would be handy.

To us in Niger North, there is hardly an alternative to Baraden at least not yet judging by his track record of performance as our representatives especially the many bills he initiated and several others he co-sponsored.

Among such bills were the Tax Incentive Management and Transparency Bill; Nigerian Tax Academy Bill;;Open Distance Learning Bill; Public Service Efficiency Bill; Independent National Commission for Hate Speeches; Federal University of Education Kontagora; Agriculture, Industry and Modernization Bill; Animal Disease Control Act (Repeal & Harmonization) Bill;. Health Record Officers Registration Board of Nigeria (Registration Act 2004 Amendment Bill) and the Veterinary Teaching Hospital Establishment Bill.

Inuwa wrote this piece from Wushishi, Niger State.