Putting the saddle on the wrong horse
The recent suspension of some chairmen of the party chapters in some states, including Kano State, is a reflection of how far the national leaders are detached from reality. Indeed, the party leaders are looking in the wrong direction to find explanation for the recent dismal performance of the CPC in the gubernatorial and House […]
The recent suspension of some chairmen of the party chapters in some states, including Kano State, is a reflection of how far the national leaders are detached from reality. Indeed, the party leaders are looking in the wrong direction to find explanation for the recent dismal performance of the CPC in the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections. One of those suspended is the chairman of the Kano state CPC chapter, Alhaji Dan Azumi Gwarzo. His only undeclared crime is that the party’s anointed but unpopular candidate, Colonel Lawal Ja’afaru Isa, was resoundingly defeated.
In all honesty, however, every keen political observer in Nigeria knows that Colonel Isa’s candidature was doomed from the start. Mohammed Abacha was the choice of the people but the party national leadership used their so-called prerogative to replace him with Colonel Isa few days to the election. The will of the people is not in their dictionary and, yet curiously, they were expecting Ja’afaru Isa to win the election. Naivety, arrogance, self-righteousness, excessive idealism and utter disregard for the will of the people largely accounted for the defeat of the CPC in the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections. Let the CPC national leaders stop using the garb of rigging to comfort themselves and find a convenient excuse to explain away the unimpressive performance of the party at the polls.
Even slaves will ultimately revolt. When you treat the will of the people with utter disregard, you should expect to face uncomfortable consequences. Why should the CPC national leaders conduct primaries and refuse to respect the results because their preferred candidates lost out? Since the national leaders of the party had their anointed candidates from the beginning, why should they allow primaries to take place in the first instance? Which wise political party could treat the will of the people with such arrogance and not expect a revolt as a result? In Europe and America, every wise politician is afraid of public opinion because tactless mistakes by leaders can lead to voter revolt against the leaders. That is why the will of the people is sacrosanct in any democracy. The CPC national leaders naively took it for granted and the party paid dearly for that shortsighted approach to politics.
Apart from General Muhammadu Buhari, nobody among the national leaders of the party can win election in their own right in their states or local governments. Ironically, they are the same people taking advantage of Buhari’s trusting attitude to impose their own candidates, using the undemocratic party prerogative to cast the will of the people overboard. How can any politician adopt this unrealistic posture and expect the voters not to protest? In Kano State, about 30 CPC House of Assembly candidates withdrew from the election in protest against the party’s injustice against Mohammed Abacha, who single-handedly built the CPC structure into a formidable political force of reckoning. He enjoys the enormous good will of the ordinary people because of his philanthropic activities which predated his entry into politics. He used that tremendous good will to the advantage of the CPC.
His opponent, Colonel Ja’afaru Isa, however, relied mainly on Gen. Buhari’s endorsement to win; he paid no attention to building personal popular support of his own, which could have given him added advantage. Unlike Mohammed Abacha who had worked so hard in his own right, Ja’afaru Isa left everything to chances and Buhari’s good will to win. He forgot, however, that even the late Chief Moshood Abiola won widespread national goodwill because of the extent he touched the lives of the ordinary people. Mohammed Abacha, Lado Danmarke and Danchina in Kano, Katsina and Bauchi States respectively, are the biggest assets to the CPC; they hold the key to the party success. Yet, the party national leaders buried themselves in the illusion that they could treat the will of the voters with contempt without a political backlash. How can you undermine grassroots politicians who have a firm grip on the hearts and minds of the people and expect the voters not to revolt? How can you be a master that destroys his slaves? And that was precisely what the CPC national leaders did to popular CPC candidates in Katsina, Bauchi and Kano States. These popular politicians like Mohammed Abacha, Lado Danmarke and Danchina are the pillars of support for the party in these CPC strongholds. Yet they were humiliated despite spending millions to build the party and putting their political capital to the advantage of the CPC.
When leaders refuse to see reason and regard themselves superior to the voters, reality will eventually force them to open their eyes. The poor performance of the CPC at the governorship and House of Assembly elections is a rude awakening to the party’s national leaders. If there are people to be removed from office for the miscalculation that led to the party’s fiasco, it is the national leadership of the party, mainly Alhaji Buba Galadima, Alhaji Sule Hamma and other members of the Buhari Organization (TBO) who have remained a drag on Buhari’s political career.
Unfortunately, however, General Buhari has become a hostage to their manipulation by exploiting his trust to impose hair-brained decisions that could harm the party as it ultimately did. If honour is in their dictionary, these men should have bowed out long ago and allowed the CPC make progress. The recent suspension of certain chairmen of the party chapters in the country is a diversionary ploy to prevent the real culprits from being sent packing. The Kano State chairman of the CPC, Alhaji Dan Azumi Gwarzo is a mere scapegoat in the attempt by the national leaders of the party to gloss over their own incompetence and costly political blunders. Let them also go ahead to expel the entire voters that revolted against the party’s unjust replacement of Mohammed Abacha. Leadership entails taking responsibility for failure. If I were these so-called national leaders of the CPC, I wouldn’t have to be advised to quit; I would have done so honorably. The party should be led by those who understand politics, democracy and strategic thinking. If history goes unread, it has a nasty way of repeating itself
Bilyaminu wrote from 201, Warf Road, [email protected]