Two days to primaries, delegates are missing

Since the ward congresses were held two weeks ago we had been trying to get the list, without success. When we saw that time was running out we went and hired a big lawyer, a SAN. He then walked into the office of our state legal adviser who is a small lawyer that graduated only […]

Since the ward congresses were held two weeks ago we had been trying to get the list, without success. When we saw that time was running out we went and hired a big lawyer, a SAN. He then walked into the office of our state legal adviser who is a small lawyer that graduated only three years ago. He was made the legal adviser because his father was the Governor’s campaign coordinator in Marmaro Local Government four years ago. The boy began shivering when he saw a SAN in his office. Our lawyer brought out a copy of the party election guidelines and underlined to him the section that said the congress could be annulled if aspirants are not given the authentic list of delegates. He quickly went to the state secretary’s office and came back with the list.
But that was only the beginning of our problems. How to find the delegates mentioned in that list now became a problem. We found that Government House has collaborated with Goshin Bauna’s campaign team and they spirited away the delegates and hid them. They also gave instruction to Local Government chairmen all over the state to impede our movement so that we cannot find the delegates. For example, my top campaign aides and myself set out from our state capital, Birnin Tafki in two cars and two small buses very early in the morning. We wanted to make a quick trip to four local governments that day to meet with and “greet” delegates. We soon arrived in Bulbuli Local Government but just outside the town we encountered a road block mounted by local vigilantes. They stopped us and said we could not go into the town. We asked them why, and they said that is the order they were given. We asked them who gave the order, they refused to say. Luckily, our second bus was full of our Youth Wing members. Our Youth Wing leader Maitawaye was dozing but he woke up and asked what was happening. He said to his boys, “Remove that roadblock.” Five of them jumped out with clubs and the vigilante men took to their heels.
We went straight to the party secretariat in Bulbuli town. We found only our campaign manager standing there. He said he actually went round the previous night, met all the delegates, delivered to them my message and urged them to be present at the secretariat by 7am. All of them promised to be there but he said the Local Government Chairman, under instructions from Government House, went round at dawn, collected all of them in a bus and they sped out of town. Maikahon Karo asked, “In which direction did they go?” The man pointed northwards so Maikaho said, “Jump into the vehicles. I know where they are.” We entered our vehicles and Maikaho began to give directions to the driver. We left the town, took a country road, crossed some farms, left our vehicles, waded across a small stream and emerged inside an orchard. Lo and behold, we came upon them. They were all sprawled on mats and sleeping.
I was very surprised and said “Maikaho, how did you know this place?” He smiled and said, “Leave the foolish chairman. He forgot that four years ago we did this together. We brought all the delegates from Birnin Tafki and hid them in this same orchard.” When they saw us, they all sat up. The Local Government Chairman was shaken and he began blurting out apologies but Maikaho cut him short. He said, “You are the one who did this hypocrisy because Goshin Bauna promised to make you a special adviser. Don’t you know that Goshin Bauna has made the same promise to your vice chairman? How many promises has Goshin Bauna ever fulfilled? When he promised you the contract to construct ten culverts in Bulbuli Local Government, did he give you? Listen, forget about Goshin Bauna, Alhaji will make you a commissioner.” The man’s face quickly lit up and he began telling the delegates that he knows me very well, that I am the most honourable among the aspirants!
From Bulbuli we drove to Tama Local Government. We had sent a message to the party chairman that we were coming. He said he was going to assemble all the delegates in his house to wait for us and he even demanded money to prepare food, buy drinks and kolanuts and even do barbecue with a large ox. But when we arrived at his house we did not see anybody. The house looked like a freshly swept mosque. We sent a boy into the house to call the chairman. We waited for 15 minutes and he did not come out. When one of our boys went behind the house looking for a bush to ease himself, he saw the chairman sneaking out of his house, dressed like a woman and was walking fast towards some farmlands. The boy raised an alarm and our Youth Wing members quickly ran over and captured him. In fact, I cannot count the number of slaps that he got that day.
When we went back to our state capital Birnin Tafki, we found that the party secretariat had many more cases of perfidy and hypocrisy in store for us. As soon as I entered my house I was told that the party treasurer Musa Kutunku was at the gate. He came in brandishing a receipt book. He said the state working committee just met and decided to levy each aspirant one million naira because it didn’t have enough money to finance the state congress. I said, “Kutunku, you are not serious. What of all the money we paid for expression of interest and nomination forms? I am not giving a kobo; go and tell the chairman that.” He took his receipt book and went out grumbling, saying I am not a serious aspirant.
An hour later the party legal adviser came in, this time with a file jacket under his armpit. He opened it and brought out a form, saying the working committee decided that every aspirant must sign a pledge to accept the result of the congress, that he will not decamp to another party, that he will give full support to whoever emerges as the winner. I took one look at the form and threw it into the legal adviser’s face. As he stumbled out I said, “You want me to promise to respect the result when I cannot even find the delegates to campaign?”