BEVERLY HILLS, April 18, (THEWILL) – As the politics of the 2023 general election hots up politicians in the country are using every chance and means to advance their interests.
More so for Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state whom THEWILL learnt has been uncomfortable since warring leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in his state settled their differences and closed ranks to reposition their party and possibly reclaim the power they lost through a Supreme Court ruling in 2019.
Matawalle, the People’s Democratic Party candidate, who came second in the 2019 governorship poll was handed the governorship on a platter, when the Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the appellate court in favour of APC faction led by Senator Kabiru Marafa.
The Senator, rejecting appeals from party leaders, had relentlessly pursued his case that the party failed to conduct a post-election primary according to its constitution and thereby merely allotted victory to candidates of the rival faction led by Governor Abdulkadir Yari. Apart from Matawalle, the federal and state lawmakers were equally affected, thus boosting the PDP’s image and power in a state that was structurally APC’s.
Investigation reveals that political calculations in the state may not favour a second term for Matawalle. Faced with a brutal banditry ravaging the state, partly inherited from his predecessor and partly fueled by politics as he disclosed after the serial kidnapping of school children in the state though he failed to carry out his threat to name those behind it, Governor Matawalle has been unable to assert his party’s dominance in the state.
Confirming the current political reality in the state, Sanusi Maradun, a former commissioner for Social Welfare in Zamfara state, who defected from the ruling PDP in the state to the opposition APC a fortnight ago, said;
“I am in politics because of development of my people. l decided to join APC based on the party’s successes in retaining grassroots politics in the state.”
Worse for his political return match in 2023 is the trending news that the warring APC leaders in the state have cemented their reunion with a symbolic outing during the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim Holy Month.
On April 11, 2021, Yari and Marafa, who had since agreed to the intervention of the Governor Mai Buni led APC Caretaker Committee, showed up at the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress in Gusau on Sunday, April 11, during the distribution of N1.3bn assorted grains he purchased for the APC supporters as Ramadan gift.
The ex-governor, who was represented by his former arch rival, Senator Marafa, used the occasion to hit Matawalle. He reminded his successor that his rumoured attempt to defect to the APC was stalemated by the Supreme Court ruling.
“As such, until after that period, any PDP elected officer who defects to another party must also vacate his seat going by the court’s judgment,” he said.
Yari asked Matawalle not to listen to those who wooing him to join the APC, “forgetting the circumstances that have made him to become the governor of the state.”
The APC could only wax stronger and consolidate while Matawalle is forced to make all kinds of compromises and forge alliances with strange bedfellows.
If he is not accusing his party leaders for not sympathizing with him as he did during the recent abduction of 234 school girls from Jegenbe and a fire outbreak in a market in the state, he is up stoking sectarian differences. Or playing the major parties against one another.
The March 20, 2021 fire which gutted Tudun Wada market and 60 shops were destroyed provided the occasion for him to play the PDP against APC. The All Progressive Congress (APC) Governors Forum which beat the rival PDP to visit him at Government House , Gusau on March donated the sum of N50 million to assist in rebuilding the market.
The forum was led by its chairman, Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State with his Jigawa counterpart, Mohammadu Badru Abubakar and acting National Chairman of the party and governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni.
Though he expressed doubts whether the donation was not a ploy by the APC Governors to lure him into their fold, Matawalle used the occasion to run his party down.
He said; “Still I commend the APC because I am not an APC member but they paid a solidarity visit to me and my state with N50 million”.
“As I am talking to you, no PDP state has visited Zamfara since the inferno occurred in Tudun Wada market last week.”
Taking the hint, the rival PDP Governor’s Forum wasted no time in sending a delegation led by Governor Aminu Tambuwal to visit Gusau where they made a donation of N100m towards the rebuilding of the burnt market.
Tambuwal, how ever saw through Matawalle’s gimmick the statement was spot on. While making the donation alongside his Adamawa counterpart, Umar Fintiri, Rivers State’s Nyesom Wike, Oyo’s Seyi Makinde and Darius Ishaku of Taraba, he said, “politicians must not use the fire incident to advance political interests.”
Undone, Matawalle in a statement on Thursday, April 8 on the state of the nation, drove a wedge between the South and North in his attempt to condemn the attacks on northerners in parts of the south, stating that the south should not think it has a monopoly of violence.
Accusing the south of becoming increasingly unfriendly, he said that, “northerners’ lives, dignity and possessions are being threatened even as we try as northern leaders to always calm the situation and to protect the interest, businesses and dignity of all southerners in the north.”
“We will not tolerate any form of intimidation any longer.”
Even a civil protest in London by Nigerians against President Muhammadu Buhari’s medical tourism, was interpreted by the governor as a Southern sponsored agenda.
“:…I am sure they wouldn’t have done that to Buhari if he is from the South as we have seen severally on matters of their interest and agenda…”
Excerpt for the dissenting voice of Arewa Youths Consultative Forum which endorsed his statement, all the influential social and political organisations in the country saw through his aim and condemned him in harsh terms. The Arewa Consultative Forum, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, said the governor call to self-help would further worsen the insecurity in the country and push the country to the war.
For the Arewa Consultative Forum’s Spokesman, Emmanuel Yawe, “ACF does not recommend or support self-help.
. That is the easiest way to destroy this country if everyone takes the law into his hands and decides to revenge. We are completely against that.
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF), spoke in the same vein: … “The North urges Northern communities to continue to exercise restraint and continue to be good hosts to Southerners living in the North.”
Ohanaeze Ndigbo National Spokesman, Alex Ogbonnia, hit the proverbial nail in the head in his statement.
He said: “It is unreasonable for the governor to be accusing the south of attacking northerners. He is not talking like a leader.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Ken Robinson, stated that Matawalle was acting irresponsibly.
He said among others; “As a governor who is the chief security officer of the state, he should be ashamed of himself, to say the least, and I say this with all sense of responsibility.”
When THEWILL contacted the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr Kola Ologbodinyan for comments, he asked to be called at an appointed time but refused to answer further calls or reply WhatsApp messages sent to his phone.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
