Shakarau’s defection to PDP

According to an adage, integrity is like milk, once spilt, it cannot be reclaimed. Undeniably, the manner in which politics is played in Nigeria is repulsive. Nevertheless, the public does hold some people in such high esteem that certain things are unexpected of them.Malam Shekarau has apparently betrayed this esteem among his followers who thought […]

According to an adage, integrity is like milk, once spilt, it cannot be reclaimed. Undeniably, the manner in which politics is played in Nigeria is repulsive. Nevertheless, the public does hold some people in such high esteem that certain things are unexpected of them.
Malam Shekarau has apparently betrayed this esteem among his followers who thought he was different. With total disregard to principles, Shekarau went nude in the market place simply because he feels intimidated by Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s leadership of the party in Kano State.
At the birth of APC, naive Nigerians like you and I began to fervently pray that a party has been born, which perchance, can rescue peasants from the evil dictatorial and callous grip of the PDP. Despite knowing what the politicians are, one would have expected that anyone fighting for a cause would not dump his struggle over as cheap a matter as who should be leader of a party in a state. In a real war situation where the collective interest of the army is to conquer and subdue the enemy for the preservation of its citizens, who cares who leads the team? Where no material reward is expected, who cares who delivers us from evil? Fighting and winning formula is collective strategizing.
Besides, what moral justification does Shekarau have to insist upon being recognised as the APC leader in Kano. Perhaps he has forgotten so quickly that he merely benefitted from a party structure in which he wasn’t even among its builders.
Coming directly from the state civil service, a teacher, Shekarau was embraced with open arms and ardent support to become a state governor under the platform of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).Thereafter, maybe he needs to be reminded that he was made party leader above all those who actually midwifed the birth and growth of ANPP in the state. He also needs to be reminded that he enjoyed maximum support to transform from governor to presidential candidate under a ready-made platform. If he enjoyed these privileges without rancour, why shouldn’t he return the gesture with something better?
Maybe Shekarau is deluded by the cache of parasites hanging around him to believe he, and only he, deserves to lead APC in Kano state. Thus, he might have not asked himself what his real values are to APC in Kano state? How influential is Shekarau to delivering Kano to APC when his anointed candidate for governorship was defeated by Kwankwaso-despite Shekarau’s incumbency as of then. If as a sitting governor he could be defeated flat, of what value is his leadership now that he is out of government house?
A principled politician would rather remain in his party and fight his cause not sleep with the enemy he set out to defeat in the first place. If PDP was really right from the start, why did Shekarau join the APC wagon? The questions are endless indeed; so are the lessons for followers.
Hussaini Muhammad, Kaduna.