Political permutations in Kaduna State
According to the results released by INEC, over 67 million Nigerians registered to vote, with Lagos state in the South West topping the chart followed by Kano state in the North West. Interestingly, Kaduna State also in the North West emerged third with a total number of about 3.9 million, accounting for about 6% of […]
According to the results released by INEC, over 67 million Nigerians registered to vote, with Lagos state in the South West topping the chart followed by Kano state in the North West. Interestingly, Kaduna State also in the North West emerged third with a total number of about 3.9 million, accounting for about 6% of the country’s eligible voters. This indeed is quite impressive and commendable.
As expected, the release of the INEC results has been trailed with comments and debates from politicians and political pundits in the state. To many, the number of voters is an advantage to the state, especially in terms electoral value and as a tool to earn additional developmental projects from the central government. A breakdown of the eligible voters in Kaduna State revealed that about 33.35% of the voters reside in Northern Senatorial District, 42.95% in Central Senatorial District and 23.70% in the Southern Senatorial District. A total of 84,887 registrations made up of multiple and underage registrations were cancelled.
From the above analysis, political analysts postulates that the southern zone of the state which has all along played the position of the joker in the State’s politics, with the positions of Deputy governor, Deputy Speaker, SSG, and a ministerial nominee all regarded as an exclusive preserve of the zone (while the other two larger zones jostled amongst themselves for the position of Governor and speaker), would most likely now be reduced to that of a mere player, as the two other zones; Northern and Central can contest and win elections as Governor and Deputy and vice versa without the input of Southern Kaduna.
For people in the northern and central zone, pundits say that the outcome of voters’ registration has put to rest the argument of which region has the majority of voters and/or even population. However, this to some people in the southern zone is a conspiracy to make the area irrelevant in the political scheming in the state. In fact I was amazed at comments made by some people of southern Kaduna extraction on popular social networking platform, Facebook, who have blamed the low figures on poor voter turnout, political delineation in the state, and others, as ridiculous as this may sound, blame it on the State Governor, Mr Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa who happens to be from the area. They claim that his trip to abroad at the instance of President Goodluck Jonathan during the 3 weeks exercise was responsible. Others even alleged that the governor used the number of voters from his native zone as a bargaining chip in order to clinch the PDP ticket.
It is certainly unfair to blame Mr Yakowa for the outcome of voters’ registration from southern Kaduna, as he did all he needed to do as a leader. The Governor inaugurated a special task force headed by the Deputy Governor, Alhaji Muktar Ramalan Yero and the Secretary to the State Government and other government functionaries to ensure that all the eligible voters in the state are duly registered. The committee was tasked to traverse the nooks and crannies of the state to mobilise people to register as well as identify and resolve hitches facing the initial conduct of the registration.
Before the ascension of Governor Patrick Yakowa to the exalted office at Sir Kashim Ibrahim house last year, the people of southern Kaduna have always cried of marginalization and suppression by their brethren in the northern zone. And I quite agree with the developmental plights of the area. But this is not unique to the area, as the challenges faced by the man in Jagindi in Southern Kaduna are not different from that of a man in Wuchichiri in Northern Kaduna.
The farmers in Gabas in Birnin Gwari local government area buy fertilizer at the same price with their counterparts in Gwanto in Sanga local government area. The same applies to the pregnant woman in Gidan Maigamo who has to trek a distance of over 10 kilometres to Panhauya in Giwa local government area to attend antenatal services due to lack of a basic health facility in the area and poor access road, and this account for the high rate of maternal deaths in this part of the country. And the woman in Yarbun in Jaba local government area does not have a better access to healthcare services.
Sadly enough the people in Marsa community in Zangon Kafat have been living with lack of portable drinking water and other basic amenities just as their counterparts in Limanci Kona in Zaria who have lived for almost two decades without water running on their taps in spite of the purported huge ‘investment’ in water project by the government in recent time.
As the 2011 general polls draws nearer, we must look out for credible candidates to represent and lead us towards a responsive and result oriented leadership anchored on trust, transparency and accountability. We must beware of politicians who are just bigots that cannot win on clearly contested elections except on sentiments. They have sharply divided our people on religious and ethnic grounds. To ensure good governance, we must play our own part to make it happen. Anything short of this will spell doom for us and generation yet unborn.
Maiyaki is based in Kaduna ([email protected])