Since the breakup of the G-7 governors from the PDP, into the nPDP, Governor Aliyu Wamakko Magatakarda has been known to be a strong member of the group. Before then, Alu has never been known to soften his stand on Nigeria’s attainment of internal democracy.
Wamakko was away in Senegal when the nPDP finally declared its merger with the All Progressive Congress (APC) but soon as he came back, he confirmed his being part of the decision of G-5.
It was a bare eighteen hours after the G-5 governor’s meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan that the Sokoto State Executive Council (EXCO) sat to formally endorse G-5’s merger and Sokoto nPDP’s defection to the APC.
To further authenticate the defection, the EXCO meeting was made an expanded one that included all state commissioners, all special advisers/assistants and all local government chairmen. But it did not get the backing of the Deputy Governor of the state, Mukhtari Shagari.
The Secretary of the PDP in the state, Aminu Bello Sokoto; Sabon Birni local government council chairman, Idris Gobir and Sokoto state Commissioner of Information, Danladi Bako jointly briefed Journalists shortly after the Executive Council meeting.
“Having made wide consultations with all stakeholders in the state, the state executive council formally sat to endorse Sokoto PDP’s defection to the APC,” Bako said.
They emphasized that as far as they were concerned, there was no PDP in the state. “When we moved from the ANPP to the PDP, there remained no ANPP in Sokoto state. Today that we moved to the APC, there is no more PDP in Sokoto state.”
Shagari was said to have raised his hand to lament that Wamakko did not consult him on the matter.
Beyond Party Politics
Political students in Sokoto and beyond would report that Aliyu Wamakko’s political prowess transcends beyond party politics.
Firstly, in the 1999 governorship election, it was Wamakko’s popularity as deputy that sprung Bafarawa’s acceptability as governorship candidate of the ANPP. By God’s providence for Wamakko’s popularity, they won election.
Before then, Bafarawa was an ordinary businessman engaged in oil transportation. Although he was seen as a successful businessman, he certainly was not a popular politician.
As it is in any tradition, no wise and popular man relates with a power-wielding man peacefully. This was the case of Wamakko (wise/popular deputy) and Barafawa (power-wielding governor).
Secondly, Bafarawa would have got Wamakko impeached if the latter were not popular enough. Behold, Wamakko resigned as deputy governor. A poor deputy governor at that, he sprung up to contest the Sokoto governorship against his former boss. He won overwhelmingly. Although court cases ensued against him, Wamakko came out victorious.
Wamakko substitutes Shagari
That Obasanjo would ask the then PDP flag bearer, Mukhtari Shagari relinquish his ticket for Wamakko in 2007, was an indication of the later’s outstanding record of political prowess.
There is no doubt that Obasanjo went for popularity in Wamakko. Certainly, the PDP would have been a loser if Shagari was allowed to face Alu in the 2007 contest.
As the APC debuts as the official party of Sokoto state and as deputy governor Mukhtari Shagari decides to remain in the PDP, political observers see some dangers for Wamakko.
But no! Mukhtari’s decision is politically inconsequential to the overwhelming strength of Wamakko’s ever-growing popularity and the acceptability of the ACP in the state.
Wamakko is himself, a political party. The teeming supporters of the Governor would tell you that our party is Alu.
When the steam was still up, asked which party he now belongs, Alhaji Umar Wali, Chairman of Isa local government said: “My political party is Alu. I don’t have any other party. He is what I play as a party. Anywhere he goes, I will be there. There is no political party I cherish but him.”
Any supporter of the governor will tell you the same thing. Wamakko is their ideology.
Recall when Obasanjo wooed Wamakko from the ANPP to the PDP, it was reported that the then ANPP state party chairman, Tsalha Sidi was asked to remain in the party. Sidi said he would never remain where Wamakko had left. The entirety of members of the party left ANPP to the PDP.
The Bafarawa factor
There is no factor as Bafarawa in the politics of the APC in Sokoto state much as the former governor fails to align with Wamakko in the new party. It is good if Bafarawa sees reason in pitching tents with the popular governor. But if Bafarawa fails to do so, it will definitely undo him politically.
Pundits feel that Bafarawa may not do so. But reason may not also allow leaders of the APC to be so myopic as to bestow the virtues of the party in hands of other than Governor Wamakko. Already, the governor has turned the hitherto PDP structures to the APC.
Bafarawa’s spite on APC national leadership
The leadership of the APC, on two occasions, had come to Sokoto first, to commission and inspect projects executed by Governor Wamakko and the other, to woo the governor to the party. Bafarawa was absent from the two visits. He claimed he was not notified and took offense by the act. But correspondences are there to show he was but declined. Reason? “I don’t want people to think I came to beg the governor.”
When a team of APC leaders that included Zamfara state governor, Abdulaziz Yari, came to Sokoto to implore Bafarawa over the alleged non notification, he was said to have allowed some disgruntled elements at the occasion to spite the national leadership for coming to woo Wamakko without informing him.
That did not sit down well with some reasonable APC members who reasoned that, no matter what, the national leaders deserved some respect from the ‘kids’ that were assigned to castigate them.
Well, Wamakko has converted the PDP office for the APC while Bafarawa has turned his filling station to an APC party office. It remains to be seen whose popularity gets the nod of the national leaders of the party.
