Bello Gusau, in this report, examines how the perceived lack of internal democracy is threatening to tear the Sokoto State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apart, even as a likely primary between an aspirant, Senator Abubakar Umar Gada, and the incumbent governor, is generating ripples.THE lack of internal democracy, especially within ruling parties where incumbent political leaders are seeking re-election or bent on sponsoring someone they prefer, is undoubtedly one of the factors militating against the success of our nascent democracy. This ugly trend has, over the years, taken centre stage in the politics of Sokoto State.The first time it reared its head was in 2007 when the ex-governor of the state, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, tried to make it impossible for his then deputy, Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, who is the present governor of the state, to succeed him under the banner of the party on which platform they contested and won election in 1999, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). This was the case, even though the constitution of the ANPP gives the right to deputy governors to contest gubernatorial election without let or hinderance.Wamakko's insistence on actualising his gubernatorial ambition under the party worsened the already sour relationship between him and his then boss and, by the middle of 2006, the state ANPP leadership sacked him from the party preparatory to the commencement of impeachment moves against him. Soon afterwards, the state government sponsored a motion for his impeachment.He, however, escaped impeachment at the Sokoto House of Assembly by the whiskers on the first day of sitting on the matter, when half of the membership in attendance voted in support of him while half voted in support of Bafarawa. This was a result of the fact that even while out of government, Wamakko was keen on the activities of the House and was thus able to secretly cause the sponsorship of a motion against the sale of the then Attahiru Bafarawa Institute for Qurn and General Studies Sokoto, now Sultan Muhammadu Maccido Institute for Qurn and General Studies, Sokoto, which was believed by many not to be in the interest of the state.Through this, he was able to win the support of some of the state legislators as the bill for his impeachment coincided with the bill for the sale of the school. But still, the voting pattern could have been in favour of the ex-governor if not for the inability of one of his disciples at the House to attend the session on the first day, as he travelled out of the state. When it was clear that Wamakko would lose out on the second day of the voting, he cleverly tendered his resignation and Bafarawa was prevailed upon to accept same by some of the respectable personalities in the state. These personalities later on supported Wamakko to clinch the governorship seat of the state.However, before this happened, in late 2006, the sacked deputy governor, in company of some disgruntled members of the party in the state, attended the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the ANPP where they lodged a complaint on the denial of Wamakko's right to vie for the gubernatorial ticket of the party as well as the refusal to conduct the state executive council (exco) meetings by the Alhaji Mohammed Tori Aliyu leadership of the Sokoto ANPP, which was aired live by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA. Consequently, the Chief Don Etiebet-led National Executive Council of the party dissolved the Sokoto State executive council and put in its place, a caretaker committee under the chairmanship of Alhaji Tsalha Sidi Mamman, a former Commissioner for Social Welfare under the Bafarawa administration, who was sacked on account of his perceived loyalty to the then deputy governor while serving as commissioner. However, soon after this, Chief Etiebet defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while Bafarawa, who was apparently unhappy at the turn of events, dumped the ANPP for the new party he floated, the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP). Not quite long after, precisely in early February 2007, Wamakko too dumped the ANPP to join Etiebet and others in the PDP. It was on the platform of the PDP that Wamakko contested and won the Sokoto gubernatorial seat in 2007 after defeating Bafarawa's preferred candidate who served as the Secretary to Sokoto State Government (SSG) for eight years, Alhaji Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi.Throughout the electioneering period, Wamakko had been complaining of the lack of a level playing field for the state gubernatorial contest under the ANPP turned DPP administration of ex-governor Bafarawa.However, five years now in the life of his led administration, the incumbent governor has now come under sharp criticism of alleged moves to suppress his lone challenger, Senator Abubakar Umar Gada, who is all out to slug it out with him at the upcoming gubernatorial primary of the PDP. In a press release tagged 'Wamakko's use of apparatus of state to subvert healthy and legitimate competition' issued on Thursday, October 6 and signed by the protem secretary of Senator Gada's gubernatorial campaign organisation, Alhaji Muhammadu Wadata Usman Gwiwa, it was alleged that pro-Wamakko supporters harassed and intimidated Gada's supporters while he was pasting his campaign posters in Sokoto metropolis as well as in Kware, Achida and Wurno towns in the state.The press release was sequel to developments in the last one month since Senator Gada addressed a press conference to debunk the insinuation by the PDP North-West zonal vice chairman, Ambassador Ibrahim Kazaure, who was in the state as part of his tour of states in the zone, where he said Governor Wamakko was the lone gubernatorial aspirant of the party.Worried by the statements credited to the PDP chieftain, Gada said it was unfair for Kazaure to say there was no aspirant beside the incumbent governor. He said the pronouncement was unbefitting of the personality of Kazaure as well as his office.Gada further stated that he personally complained to Kazaure as a friend and he said he was not aware if anyone was running for governorship in the state under the PDP in the state, as such was not communicated to him. However, according to Gada, the North-West zonal vice chairman promised to retract the statement he had made.On why he decided to run for the state gubernatorial seat, he said it was because the people of Sokoto were tired of Wamakko's administration and therefore deserved a change. He said he was in the race to salvage youths in the state who, according to him, were being compromised by the state government, and to revamp the educational, economic and social sectors for rapid development of the state.Barely a week after, a former Isa Local Government Council chairman, Alhaji Yusuf Abdullahi, also addressed another press conference where he alleged that Gada could not vie for the ticket of the PDP as, according to him, he had been suspended from the party by the party's executive in the Sokoto-East Senatorial District, the zone he hails from. He added that since his suspension as a result of alleged anti-party activities after the state PDP primaries where he lost the senatorial ticket of the zone to Senator Abdullahi Ibrahim Gobir, he was not aware of the time Gada was recalled back into the party.Abdullahi further stated that Gada was a non-issue when compared to Wamakko in view of the governor's track records in the area of education, health, water supply as well as the open-door policy of his administration.Responding to Yusuf, the sacked Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Sokoto PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Babangida, said the PDP was a party with a national spread that should lead by example and, as such, nobody should claim a monopoly over it no matter his position. He said the PDP was a truly democratic party that must avail all its members of the opportunity to seek to actualise their legitimate ambitions under its banner. He dismissed the claim by Yusuf Abdullahi, describing it as baseless and unfounded, and saying that politics was about popularity and the people should be allowed to make their choice.Furthermore, the Sokoto State chairman of the All Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and chairman, Gwadabawa Local Government Council of the state, Alhaji Garba Sidi, in company of other local councils' chairmen in the Sokoto-East Senatorial zone addressed a press conference at the state PDP headquarters, where he said he had met with the 23 local councils' chairmen as well as 23 local government PDP chairmen in the state and they all agreed to support the candidature of Governor Wamakko in the upcoming primaries in the state. He said the meeting was necessitated by the agitation of their people to prevail on the governor to contest the March 2012 election in the state.However, observers say that Wada still has many hurdles to cross in order for him to succeed in the actualisation of his gubernatorial ambition under his party. This is more in view of the fact that the release has alleged the use of Shari court Judges to suppress his moves to challenge the state governor.The release cited the case of one of his supporters, Mallam Faruk Kware, who was allegedly attacked and his car smashed by pro-Wamakko supporters while he was pasting the campaign posters of the senator, and that when he went to report the incident to the police, he ended up being locked and later arraigned before a Shari court while his attackers walked freely. It further alleged that thugs and government officials were in the habit of removing Gada's campaign posters as a way to provoke his supporters.The release concluded up by urging Shari court judges to resist attempt by the state government to bring them to disrepute by involving them in political matters just as it expressed its confidence on security operatives to be above board by not being partisan in the state.From the foregoing, it can be seen that the Sokoto PDP is now a house divided against itself. With the hues and cries coming from one of its members who is trying to secure the state gubernatorial ticket under its platform, and given the equally potent machinery of the current administration, analysts are left wondering what the upcoming polls in the state would actually look like.
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