Its a fact that the All Progressive Congress APC has overwhelming performance in the last general elections by winning the presidential seat, the majority of the national and state assemblies in various state of the federation with larger and significant impact in the northern part of the country. In the whole northwest, APC has produced all the governors while Gombe and Taraba have resisted the change hurricane by voting the Peoples Democratic Party PDP.In taking stock and reflecting on the events that have attributed to the success of the PDP in the two states of the northeast, Tarabans decided to vote for Darius Isiyaku of the PDP against the APCs Jummai Alhassan for two fundamental reasons, one being a woman and secondly the state has been a PDP state since 1999. While in Gombe State, despite the state being the PDP state, there have been internal factors that truncated the partys victory in the last polls though have a better chance to take the state from the PDP.Its no hidden secret that the APC leader in the state, Senator Danjuma Goje has always thrived on conflict and diehard cult-like adherence to bitterness and rancor as tools for his political domination and subjugation of opponents, especially those that come between his political career.As governor of Gombe State from 2003 between to 2011, Goje never believed in contrary opinion and was known to fire his aides and broke ties with political associates at will at the slightest suggestion of disloyalty or independent thoughts or actions. His word was trite law and order throughout the Jewel of the Savannah and anybody that thought otherwise was free to leave the party.After imposing Dankwambo against most preferred candidates that include Hon. Bayero Nafada, Faruk Bamusa and his 2015 self-imposed candidate Muhammed Inuwa Yahaya, Senator Goje sought to teleguide and micromanage the state activities from far away Abuja, an inelegant move that was ably resisted by the courageous Dankwambo who did not buy into Gojes style of politics. And feeling frustrated at the failure of his political stratagems, Goje jumped out of the PDP into the APC with a few of political acolytes and cronies who were his cabinet members and assistants during his erstwhile regime.Having a massive financial war chest and leveraging on the APCs template, Goje took over the machinery of the state (APC) with the acquiescence of the APC national leadership against the trusted legacy party leaders in the state a continuous with Bobs Your Uncle political antics out of desperate political expediency rather than any shared ideological disposition. Goje had deliberately imposed Hon. Yaya Bauchi on the people of Gombe, Kwami and Funakaye federal constituency, while he couldnt even formally notify state assembly about his decamping from the PDP to APC as a member representing Funakaye in the state assembly and it was the same story in Akko local government where Hon. Umar Barambu who decamped at the peak of the electioneering was favored to fly the ticket of Akko federal constituency.On the other side, Gombe APC had another notable figure in the person of Senator Bayero Nafada, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives in its fold. But Senator Danjuma Goje and Senator Bayero Nafada apart from their inordinate lust for political power influence and patronage did not have anything in common.Crisis started with Senator Danjuma Gojes imposition of his favourite, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya as the APC governorship candidate in the 2015 elections, a precipitate move that deeply offended Senator Nafada and Alhaji Murtala Aliyu who had an interest in occupying the Gombe governorship seat. Bayero Nafada decided to pay Senator Goje and Alhaji Yahaya in their own bitter coin by allegedly engaging in massive subterranean anti-party activities that contributed to the humiliating and colossal defeat of the APC candidate by the PDP. Indeed after the elections, a crisis of confidence brewed between Senator Goje and Senator Nafada to the extent that accusations and counter-accusations and sackings and counter-sacks were traded between the two protagonists and their assorted acolytes thus leading to the intractable rancor, acrimony and bad blood that has brought the Gombe APC structure to the brink of collapse and disintegration. Senator Gojes infamous intolerance of adversity and dissent has come to the fore with the latest sackings of the state party chairman, legal adviser and other officials that differed with him on some crucial policy actions and directions. Indeed Goje was said to have instigated the APC national leadership to visit the big hammer on the hapless officials thus further throwing the Gombe APC aground. Concerned party officials and the teeming supporters in the state have urgently appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief Odigie-Oyegun and other top APC leaders to call the two errant Senators to order while handing over the party machinery to a neutral and objective personality that is not attuned to the crude politics of divide, plunder and conquer that is the hallmark of Gojes and Nafadas arcane and discredited leadership styles. It is clear that the dastardly duo has nothing to offer Gombe State, the APC, and Nigerians at large, so the only alternative is for them to be forced to step aside in order that peace may reign supreme once again in the state APC and by extension the whole of Gombe State. A word is enough for the wise. Sani writes from Abuja.
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