Matawalle may succeed Yari as Zamfara APC crisis deepens

By Umar Farouk IFEANYICHUKWU NWANNAH
There are clear indications that Zamfara state chapter of the ALL Progressives Congress (APC) is seriously swimmiñg in troubled waters following a titanic political battle between Governor Abdulaziz Yari and a pressure group popularly known as the G8 even though Governor Abduaziz Yari claims he is the alpha and omega in the state. But the event that denied his anointed guber candidate the ticket Governor Yari vigorously fought for has proven otherwise.

This friction has invoked great fear in the party at the national headquarters of the party forcing the leadership of the party to seek for a redress as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and it’s candidate, Hon Bello Matawalle is close to becoming the land lords of the Gusau government house. Matawalle, a former House of Representatives member has attempted without success over the years for Zamfara’s most coveted political seat. In the absence of a credible candidate that will engage him at the polls, Matawalle will eventually emerge without any intimidating opposition to his long battle to Gusau Government House.

As at press time, it was not clear who would be the APC’s governorship candidate even though the Governor claimed that he is the alpha and omega in the party, pointing out that the election was marred with irregularities and went to the court for the court to declare the election illegal due to lack of constructional process.

But then, political analysts are of the view that no matter what happens, the friction that has been created has the capacity to cause damages to the party in 2019 general elections. Even before now, political observers had already predicted the fall of APC in the state. And in view of the unprecedented killings and insecurity under the APC government of Governor Yari couple with the millions of naira he continued to waste on frequent foreign jamboree trips, the people of Zamfara has vowed never to elect anything that has to do with the outgoing governor. Mr. Yari is the most widely travel governor in Nigeria. It is conservatively estimated that Yari used to travel out of the country at least two times a month and mostly on a chartered aircraft. This is happening at a time his government has failed to settle backlog of workers salaries and other allowances despite receiving bailouts from the federal government. His Commissioner of Finance who supervises the financial malfisance and who Yari tried desperately to install as governor is said to worth billions of naira in cash and assets with properties and edifices in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano.

The problem began during the state APC congresses when the governor hijacked the whole party structure to enable him create his own political empire in the state to the extent that he had to retire his political god father, Senator Ahmed Sani Yarima, who brought him into political limelight, throwing the Senator into a political waste paper basket. However, the hijacking of the party structure did not go down well with Senator Kabiru Marafa, who conducted his own parallel congress.

It was noted that Senator Ahmad Sani Yarima had a bitter confrontation with the Governor when he the Governor anointed his boy, Alhaji Lawal Liman Laura, as the state party chairman. However, both the governor and the senator pretended as if nothing was happening as the senator had to swallow the bitter pills but the cold war persisted until it got to the point that Governor Yari had to retire his political god father from active politics and hijacked his ticket to the senate since they are from the same Senatorial zone.

But Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa, former Governor Shinkafi and other six aspirants for the Governorship position refused to swallow the bitter pills of Governor Yari, hence they forced the popular G8 to neutralize the Governor’s plan. No sensible person in Zamfara state would argue the fact that Senator Marafa and former Governor Shinkafi are not a political force to reckon with in the state.They fought back as the national headquarters of the party rejected the primaries conducted by Governor Yari and his camp. They therefore headed to the court while Governor Yari dragged APC and INEC to the Federal High Court in Gusau, the state capital.

As for Senator Ahmad Sani Yarima, the game is up for him in the state. Most of the people interviewed by DESERT HERALD said they have woken up from their slumber, pointing out that since the beginning of the mass killings and kidnappings in the state, the senator has not made any official statement to that effect or even visited the affected families even though he claims to be their political leader.

They noted categorically that there have all along been no political will and that it was a sheer political recklessness as only one party is dominanting Zamfara politics since 1999 without any achievement to show for it since the creation of the state in 1996. Metaphorically, most of the people interviewed by this reporter said democracy in the state has become idle.

According to them, the leadership is very imperfectly understood in Zamfara state than anywhere else and many of the statements about it are utter nonsense but the state has only been led down the primroses, saying that the tenacios hold to the property and resources of the state by a clique is not only primitive but simply a lost of stricken concept of democracy and transperency substituted for empty meaning of influence and authority not suitable for the new age and global village.

There is no doubt that the APC in Zamfara has been polarized along various groups due to some negative factors that are fast pulling down the walls of the party. Internal crisis has consumed the party of which no one needs to be a prophet to know that the party is heading for the rocks. Keen political observers of Zamfara politics opined that big political nemesis owing to their crimes against the people is awaiting the Zamfara APC and it’s top gladiators in 2019. They said citizens are now praying earnestly for the crisis in the APC and it’s battle with INEC to be unsolvable ahead of the 2019 elections so as to try the style of governance of the PDP under Bello Matawalle in the state with former National Security Adviser, Gen. Aliyu Gusau as the godfather of the party in the state. It is expected that since Gen. Gusau was largely behind the emergency of Mr. Matawalle as the PDP guber candidate in the state, the retired army general will ensure that Matawalle as a governor performs above the type of dictatorship and ineptitude seen under Mr. Yari.

It could however be recalled that Zamfara state before 1999 was originally a PDP state but the internal crisis pulled down the walls of the party as Mallam Abdulkareem Yahaya and Ambassador M.Z Anka engaged in a political war over who would control the soul of the party in the state.

As the national headquarters of the party waded in and gave the ticket to Ambassado M.Z Anka, internal crisis began to reign supreme which saw the end of PDP in the state in spite of the PDP federal might. This time, the tide is fast shifting to the favor of PDP if only PDP can utilize its chances very well.

There is every indication that the PDP is coming out in full force to take total control of the state as the party has woken up from its many years of slumber, signifying that it can no longer be relegated to the background considering the wounds and woes within the APC circle. If that happens, Mr. Matawalle who was almost forced into political retirement in 2015 is on his way to become the PDP first elected governor in the state. Many have described former Governor Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi’s decision to left the PDP for APC in anticipation of getting the APC guber ticket as a big political blunder that might caused his troubled political career after series of betrayal by those he hitherto gave so much powers to when he was a governor. MAS as he is fondly called would have emerged as the PDP guber candidate in the state with so much ease considering his popularity and credibility in the eyes of many in the state.