Taking unity for granted in Kano
Unfortunately, despite the confirmation of Mohammed victory by INEC and a Federal High Court in Abuja, some of his opponents are still working tooth and nail to throw a spanner into the works. Those who lost the primaries should have the humility to swallow their pride and concede honest defeat. A political party can only […]
Unfortunately, despite the confirmation of Mohammed victory by INEC and a Federal High Court in Abuja, some of his opponents are still working tooth and nail to throw a spanner into the works. Those who lost the primaries should have the humility to swallow their pride and concede honest defeat. A political party can only produce one candidate for any particular elective office and that is why primaries give voters the freedom to choose one out of the many aspirants hankering for power. The CPC supporters settled on Mohammed Abacha and he won fair and square. You can only go to court to challenge the outcome on the basis of concrete proof of being rigged out. No one should go to court for the sake of defending his pride by telling the world that he thought he was a better candidate. The beauty of democracy is that it confers powers on the voters to choose who they want. And the greater beauty of democracy is that such choice must be respected.
Unfortunately, the supporters of Colonel Lawal Ja’afaru Isa didn’t want to respect that choice; instead they are busy on newspaper pages calling Mohammed Abacha unprintable names. Such malicious propaganda is inconsistent with decent political culture. A CPC Board of Trustees member, Alhaji Buba Galadima, recently told the BBC Hausa Service that any candidate that goes to court to challenge the unjust and indefensible policy of imposition and substitution would be expelled. He arrogantly declared that the court can go to hell because the party, in his strange logic, is superior to the courts! Yet he forgot that General Muhammadu was repeatedly in court to seek justice in 2003 and 2007. If, indeed, the courts are irrelevant in the preposterous logic of Buba Galadima, why didn’t he advise Gen. Buhari not to challenge the decision of the ANPP (his former party) to withdraw from its court case in 2007, contesting the election of the late President Umaru Yar’adua? Wasn’t the ANPP supreme over its presidential candidate? Was Galadima in the moon when this controversy was raging? Why didn’t Buba Galadima order the arrest and prosecution of the voters for electing candidates of their choice other than those preferred by the party?
How can anyone rationalize Galadima’s curious threat to expel any candidate that goes to court to protect his right? Why did General Buhari insist on continuing his legal battle against the late Yar’adua, despite his party’s official decision to withdraw from the case? Buba Galadima has never gone through any democratic contest; therefore, he wouldn’t appreciate the power of the people’s mandate.
General Buhari recently committed a tactless political error when he refused to address thousands of CPC supporters who turned out to attend his presidential campaign. These ordinary party supporters abandoned their businesses and defied the harsh weather condition to attend his campaign. But Buhari abandoned them in the scorching sun because he didn’t want to come face to face with Mohammed Abacha who is the party’s biggest asset in Kano State. General Buhari’s political false step in Kano was a reflection of the kind of wrong advice the party are giving him. Right from the airport and the major streets of Kano, General Buhari could clearly read the extent of Mohammed Abacha’s popularity. How then could any leader who wants his party to prosper declare war against its most popular candidates?
How can you willfully destroy what you have built to satisfy your whims and caprices? Poor crisis management and anti-democratic tendencies are the biggest threats to CPC’s unity. General Buhari’s indifference and silence to these issues is leaving many people to wonder whether he privately evaluates the consequences of internal contradictions and conflicts in the CPC and stop them at once. Mohammed Abacha, has however, remain undaunted by the needless and ill-motivated conspiracies against him. His campaign train has been cruising through Kano State and wherever he goes, he is swarmed by thousands of his supporters who see him as a compassionate leader, a young man with a large heart and man who symbolizes generational change. The biggest attraction of his programmes for transformation include youth employment, women economic empowerment, resuscitation of cottage industries, free education, free medical care for children and mothers. Above all, his commitment to help small and medium-scale businessman and women has won him the hearts of the people. The resuscitation of infrastructure as the foundation for development is another aspect of his blue print that also won him the hearts of his people.
No man can rise beyond what God has designed for him. God gives power to whomsoever he wants and takes it away when leaders abuse such power. Fighting Mohammed Abacha out of petty jealousy is not too good for the progress of the CPC. Engineer Magaji Abdullahi was a former contestant against Mohammed Abacha, but unlike Colonel Ja’afaru Isa, he has now decided to accept the will of the people. In fact, he is always conspicuously present at Mohammed’s rallies in Kano State. He told the former party aspirants to forget personal interest and work for the larger well-being of the CPC. According to him, there is no point going to court to contest against an honest defeat.
Despite the seeming efforts of the party leadership to isolate him, Mohammed Abacha forges ahead with his campaign across Kano State. During his recent campaign tour of Sabon Gari, the enclave of ethic minorities such as Yoruba and Igbo, the CPC gubernatorial candidate came with a message of love and unity. He assured them of his commitment to achieving tolerance and harmonious coexistence among all Nigerians, despite our diversity. According to Mohammed Abacha, a good leader should protect the interest of all Nigerians without discrimination, saying this is a necessary condition for promoting nationhood. The Yoruba and Igbo leaders pledged to support his ambition and said he is the first candidate to ever visit ethnic minorities in his campaign. The success or failure of the CPC in the gubernatorial election will be determined by the attitude of the party leadership to candidates who are its biggest assets such as Mohammed Abacha. Despite the conspiracies against him by opponents who are reluctant to accept honest defeat, Mohammed Abacha is not looking back in his determination to make the CPC the party of choice from the people of Kano State. He has committed his political capital, goodwill, energy and resources to ensure it takes power from the ruling ANPP in Kano State. Therefore, the CPC leaders should not take unity for granted or else they may play into the hands of the PDP and destroy the party.
Kofar Mata wrote in from 202, Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Road, Victoria Island, Lagos