On Senator Albishir’s comment on Yobe ANPP

Although not all politicians seem aware of this imperative, discerning members of the public can and do note the difference when a politician was right on point and when they were simply flip-flopping and being economical with the truth. This is the situation in Yobe State at the moment as various peple ponder an interview […]

Although not all politicians seem aware of this imperative, discerning members of the public can and do note the difference when a politician was right on point and when they were simply flip-flopping and being economical with the truth.

This is the situation in Yobe State at the moment as various peple ponder an interview granted by Senator Usman Albishir to the Leadership newspaper with the headline ‘ANPP now shadow of itself’.

In the said interview, Albishir claimed that he had decamped out of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in Yobe State with (sic) 90 percent of its founders and following; that he had carried the burden of the party all along until he decided to move to the PDP; that Yobe ANPP is today agitated because he had left the party and that as a result of all these, the ANPP in the state is now ‘a shadow of itself’.

In my opinion, a man of Albishir’s age should not go about making such wild and unsubstantiated claims when the people concerned are alive to explain the true situation of things. First, Senator Albishir knows better the people he relied on to win his senatorial elections from 1999 to 2007. He knew full well that without the support of those people, he wouldn’t have gone anywhere. These are people with solid, democratic support base in their localities and communities. The question is have these people followed him to the PDP? No!

Let’s take the six local government areas of Yobe State that made up his Zone C senatorial district. In Machina Local Government Area, for instance, Albishir depended on House of Representatives member, Baba Bukar Machinama, House of Assembly member Zanna Machina, and others. In Karasuwa, Albishir relied on people like Hon. Sidi Yakubu Karasuwa, Deputy Assembly Speaker Adamu Dala Dogo, Alhaji Mustapha Babagana, Alhaji Mele Wachakal, and Alhaji Dala Dogo, amongst others. In Yusufari local government, he relied on Hon Ahmed Wakil Sarki, Alhaji Zanna Abba Yusufari, Hon Zakariyya Maimalari, Hon Tijjani Zakariyya, Hon Abbani Gambo, Mallam Mustapha Maina, Ballama Alhaji, etc.

In Bade local government area, Senator Albishir was beholden to the likes of Senator Ahmed Lawan, who is now the chairman of the senate committee on public accounts, Hon Surajo Wakil, Hon Shettima Mohammed Saleh, and Alhaji Ado Isyaku, amongst others. In Jakusko Local Government, also being one of the local governments in Zone C, Albishir relied on people such as Alhaji Manu Girgir, Alhaji Adamu Lamido, Hon. Waya Dagari, Hon. Yau Dacia, Alhaji Baba Namalia, and Alhaji Bula Kobo. Even in Albishir’s own Nguru Local Government, he would not have made even a grain of electoral success if he had not relied on people like Alhaji Danladi Hamza, Alhaji Abdulhamid Nuhu, Alhaji Kyari Adam, Alhaji Jinjiri Abubakar, and a lot of other ANPP stalwarts.

It is amazing and mind boggling that Albishir would claim to have moved to the PDP with 90 percent of the ANPP when all of these people mentioned and so many other ANPP stalwarts who are founders of the party, including Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim are still very much active in the ANPP. NO, Albishir got it wrong! He went to the PDP solo, except for Alhaji Tijjani Zanna Zakriyya and Hon. Yau Galadima, who decided to move with him.

The PDP will come to realise very soon that Senator Albishir is politically an empty shell; he is a spent force who only contributes in taking out rather than bringing in any benefit to the people. He was senator for eight years. I challenge him to tell us what he did for his constituency in these eight years.

Let the PDP field him as a candidate even for senator in the forthcoming elections. That is when it will realise the empty stuff of which he is made.

Talking about Albishir’s comment that he had carried the burden of the ANPP before he left the party, nothing can be further from the truth. Everyone in Yobe State knows that between 1999 and 2007, he was the greatest beneficiary of contracts from the Yobe State government. It is therefore surprising that Albishir will lacerate the years of ANPP rule in Yobe State given that he is one of those who contributed to bringing the state to its knees between 1999 and 2007.

However, we give glory to the Almighty that as the ANPP remains strong in Yobe today and is even waxing stronger, so is the state government under the amiable and hard working leadership of Governor Ibrahim Gaidam also working successfully to change the face of Yobe.

New schools and hospitals; roads and drainages and bridges, tractors and implements and fertilizers, thousands of housing units and a 50% housing discount – these and many more are the new stories coming from Yobe today. I doubt if any of these landmark achievements would have been possible if Albishir remains around in the ANPP. So, glory to the Almighty that he left.

Let me conclude by saying that the ANPP remains strong because, against Albishir’s claims, the founders of the party in Yobe State are alive and vigorously working for the party with loyalty and commitment. Their loyalty and sacrifice will continue to bear fruit, Insha’Allah. So, no one is agitated or worried because he left. As for him, the PDP knows no doubt that if the truth be told, he is not worth a farthing in the land of the beneficial. And time will tell!

Karasuwa, former Yobe State ANPP Chairman, is commissioner for housing and writes from Damaturu