Although the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cleared 17 candidates for March 2, 2019, governorship election in Katsina State, events have shown that only two candidates are really serious in the contest, ANDY ASEMOTA writes.
Governor Aminu Bello Masari is obviously the man to beat in this year’s election. This is not just because he can ride on the back of Daura-born President Muhammadu Buhari’s cult-like followership in the state and the North in general or the fact that Masari is the incumbent, who has the state resources and machinery at his disposal but also because his achievements appear to have gladden the hearts of many in the state.
His Restoration Agenda has been quite effective in many sectors. In the area of agriculture, the improvement in agricultural produce and standard of life of many in the agrarian state since the inception of his administration three and a half years ago, pundits claim, is a testimony that the Agricultural Restoration Agenda of Masari administration is on the right track. The government has provided facilities, incentives and enabling environment to ensure small scale farmers in the state are engaged massively all year round.
Education, health and infrastructure are other areas Masari administration has been attracting praise to itself. The governor and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) believe the present state government has recorded more achievements than any other administration in the state.
However, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that was in power for 16 years in Katsina, between 1999 and 2015, still lays claim to the feat of developing all sectors better than any government in the history of the state. Despite what people would see as the performance of APC government, the PDP remains a crowd puller any day in Katsina.
The gubernatorial candidate of PDP, Senator Yakubu Lado, is a household in Katsina. Although he has endeared himself to the heart of many in the state, Lado never-the-less stunned many when he emerged victorious at the party’s governorship primary elections which led to serious acrimony and divisions in the opposition camp. Ever since he got the PDP ticket, the party has not been the same; two of the front runners for the ticket: Engr. Musa Nashuni, the 2015 PDP guber candidate and Alhaji Umar Abdullahi Tata, who had made impact within the limit of his resources in philanthropy and partisan politics across the state, promptly defected to APC in support of Masari candidacy.
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Also, all but one of the PDP governorship contenders caused jitters in the opposition’s camp as they denounced the emergence of Lado because he was reportedly pushed to the top in the contenders’ list. The acrimony over the primary election has further put Lado in bad stead for good showing in next month’s election.
His formidable political structure and resources to execute election notwithstanding, it’s pertinent to observe that the strength and spread of PDP in the on-going campaign within the state suffered huge loss last year following the defection of most of its big wigs to the APC. Granted that the contest for the governorship position is simply between APC and PDP flag bearers, Lado cannot be said to stand any chance to prove bookmakers wrong.
Many feel Masari has been tested and trusted and should be allowed to complete the good works he started by giving him a second term in office. However, if the choice of Lado as PDP governorship candidate was a mistake, the party needs such mistake to go to battle against APC winning machinery. The resources at Lado’s disposal to execute this election are second to none in PDP. His campaign strategy is to go from ward to ward and convince people that he is the best man for the job in 2019.
As a politician, only few people have been able to achieve his feat.
From a naïve young councilor in Kankara Local Government, Lado, a senator from 2007 to 2011, has risen to the great heights in Katsina politics. He began his quest for governorship position in 2011 and came close to realizing the ambition before a court verdict truncated it. He left the then congress for Progressive Change (CPC) at the eleventh hour and joined Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), where he defected to PDP last year and eventually obtained the party’s governorship ticket with lots of acrimonies.
He is always endowed with potential for properly funded campaign with the right structure to aid his ambition but unfortunately, the ambition of this young rich man as slim as a pole, believed to a billionaire, who recently married one of the daughters of late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, crashed in the past like cookies. In 2011, he vied for the plum job, but lost to Ibrahim Shehu Shema. In 2015, he
his quest also failed as Masari emerged the governorship race winner.
For the people of Katsina State, voters will decide who would be their governor on March 2, 2019, among five candidates after 12 of the contenders quit the race last week in favour of Masari. Before they threw in the towel, most of them did not canvass for votes in the true sense of it. A few of them merely displaced some posters and
disappeared while many had no poster or campaign office at all to their credit.
As the paper weight candidates quit the stage, to save their strength and stamina and go home with a promise from APC to reciprocate their gesture, the forthcoming governorship election will be fought between APC and PDP. From all indications, Masari may be coasting home to victory since most eminent indigenes and associations across the state have declared support for him.
