Ever since the return of democratic governance in 1999, there was no transition that was so confusing to the political parties and electorate in Zamfara state as the current one .
Reflectively, during the 1999 election, two dominant parties, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the defunct All Peoples Party (APP) fielded candidates without any rancour. Though there was a minor disagreement among party faithful, a situation that polarized the party into two factions, one under the then PDP flag bearer, Ambassador MZ Anka and that of Malam Yahya Abdulkarim.
However, the politics went smoothly in subsequent elections such as those of 2003, 2007, 2011 and even in the 2015, when a coalition of political parties formed the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Though, as declared by Governor Abdul-Aziz Yari, the pattern of nominating candidates for political office was merely imposition of candidates but unfortunately, this time around the process faced serious resistance from powerful contending members of the governing APC.
Governor Yari might have forgotten that the traditional system of fielding candidates during the reign of the former Governor Ahmad Sani, Yariman Bakura was simple because, the then ruling party, All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) was under the absolute control of the then governor, thereby his decision could not be challenged at the national level.
This is entirely different from was what obtains now in the ruling APC, because some of the contending members even have more influence than the governor, and therefore, could reject his decision.
Perhaps the crisis in the state chapter of the APC started when APC leadership summoned Senator Kabir Marafa over his alleged comments against the state governor on the issue of insecurity in the state.
Marafa clearly told the party leadership that, “We are in the same party by accident, you came with motor vehicle, I supplied petrol, so we move together to victory”.
He added that “You know I’m older than the governor, I made money before him, I’m more educated than him, but I still respect him as governor. But note, I would never keep quite when it comes to the issue of insecurity affecting my people”. Of course , this altercation between Marafa and Yari which snowballed into the current mess the APC find itself , is the party’s greatest undoing in the state .
With the dozen of court cases in the APC and PDP, it might be the turn of an unexpected party to emerge in the state.
The litigation in the APC emanated from the conduct of primary for the governorship and other elective offices. Prior to the party primary tussle, the Marafa-led executive had filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja challenging the Yari-led faction of the party exco. At one of its rulings, the court ordered the two factions to maintain status quo pending the determination of the suit.
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The Yari-led faction filed two suits at the federal and state high courts in Gusau over the conduct of the party’s primary. Justice Mukhtar Yusha’u discontinue with the suit and announced his withdrawal from the suit.
He claimed his life was in danger and therefore, returned the case to the Chief Judge for reassignment to another judge.
Apart from the suit filed in Gusau, Zamfara state capital, the APC was also pursuing another legal battle in Abuja, challenging INEC’s position for rejecting APC candidates from Zamfara.
On the side of the PDP, the strong opposition party in the state, Hon. Ibrahim Shehu filed a case before the federal high court sitting in Gusau, claiming to be the authentic candidate of the party.
These crises have brought about some smaller political parties to the limelight.
The Action Peoples Party (APP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Advanced People Democratic Alliance (APDA), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA) and a host of others were trying to cash in on the crises of the bigger parties in the state.
The flag bearer of the Action Peoples Party (APP), Hon. Zayyanu Salisu, was a special adviser, inter party affairs in the Governor Abdul-Aziz Yari’s government.
Political pundits viewed his emergence as a safe landing for the governor in case he fails to have his way in the APC.
A top politician in the state described the decision of the flag bearer to ride on the APP platform as the best option for Yari to launch his plan ‘B’.
The APP’s flagbearer, popularly known as Zayyanu Haske may eventually, emerge as dark horse in the 2019, contest as what happened in Jigawa state in 1991 when Barrister Ali Saad Birnin-Kudu emerged as the state governor.
The Governorship candidate of APGA, Alhaji Abdullahi Shinkafi is contesting for the forth time and has been sole candidate for the party in the state. But, not withstanding, APGA had been to the background all this while.The party has never won any political position in all the elections it has participated in.
Even though APC was battling with enormous problem, it is not likely that its leadership will contemplate supporting APGA candidate.
Another figure to talk about is the candidate of the People Party of Nigeria, (PPN), Alhaji Bashir Adamu, popularly, called IMAD, who returned to the political circle after a break for some time. The politician had once aspired for the governorship ticket on PDP platform.
Already, he has started planting structures at various level.
As part of the strategy to woo support, IMAD has promised to reintroduce welfarism to the electorate, by sharing ten percent of the state monthly allocation to the electorate.
But, unfortunately, IMAD is also having problem with the factional leadership of the PPN, under the chairmanship of Mohammadu Sanusi who outrightly rejected his nomination as the party’s flag bearer.
According to him, already, “the party elected its governorship candidate during its primary but just from Abuja we saw the name of IMAD as party’s candidate”.
Other opposition parties jostling for the Gusau Government House are National Rescue Movement (NRM) and Advanced People Democratic Alliance (APDA).
