The 2015 elections have come and gone. Winners have emerged while losers are licking their wounds. The summation is that truth has prevailed because Nigerian masses have spoken and loudly too. We believe for the first time our votes have counted particularly here in the North. The outcome of the election is a rebirth of Nigeria which came about from the determination of the masses who defied all odds including refusing inducement from the PDP political jobbers to assert their rights.
In Sokoto the situation is akin to the 2007 revolution which swept away the tyrannical government of Bafarawa who prior to that election was forced to limit his movement to certain parts of Sokoto due to open hatred and harassment that usually accompanied him any time he ventured out. Indeed this election is no different from that of 2007 and 2011 because people came out en masse to vent their anger on the series of provocative statements and actions Bafarawa made soon after he joined the PDP.
The worst was when he promised Goodluck Jonathan at Shehu Kangiwa square, where the President abandoned state duties to receive him into the PDP, ostensibly to deliver Sokoto to him hundred percent. He not only promised him complete victory but asked him to go to sleep because Sokoto is securely in his hands. That promise infuriated Sokoto people who waited patiently to give Bafarawa the final bashing that should send him to retirement.
The election is a loud statement of dissent against Bafarawa who has refused to accept that Sokoto people have completely forsaken him. Before now three elections were held between 2007 and 2011 (and) on each occasion he was vehemently rejected. His refusal to accept the verdict of the people as the fate he deserves for his maladministration and tyranny against the people, their cherished traditional institutions and revered symbol of the caliphate Sultan Maccido further infuriated them. It is therefore foolhardy for the PDP and Jonathan to believe that Bafarawa has any electoral value or wields any political influence to turn the cart against the people of Sokoto.
It is surprising that the PDP stalwarts failed to appreciate the fact that Wamakko injected life into the comatose PDP in Sokoto in 2006 leading to its electoral victory in 2007. The increased fortunes of the party in the State improved tremendously when former President Obasanjo through the promptings of other elders of Sokoto convinced Wamakko to join the party. Wamakko finally left when the impunity in the party continued unabated. This was despite several overtures to the party leaders and President Jonathan himself urging them to turn a new leaf by addressing the glaring problems within the party.
The PDP didn’t care a hoot when Wamakko and his likes left. The arrogance of the party further jeopardized any likelihood of reconciliation. Rather than the party seeing the exit of Wamakko as threat to its hundred percent dominance in terms of positions at state and National Assembly, it went shopping for Bafarawa, an avowed enemy of the party, to checkmate Wamakko and deliver Sokoto to it. The bickering within the party in Sokoto after Bafarawa joined did not send any signal to them of the impending disaster that awaits the party. Bafarawa is a spent force as far as sokoto political calculation is concerned.
The desperation of the party and President Jonathan himself blinded them and hence they went on …empowering Bafarawa, the erstwhile Deputy Governor of Wamakko, NSA Sambo Dasuki and others (ostensibly) to wrest power from Wamakko. Wamakko is the party of sokoto people. Where-ever he went, they went with him. This is the truth about Sokoto politics for now. The PDP has been made to pay dearly for refusing to behave reasonably by holding on to its popular and crowd pulling members, instead it went on to fraternize with paper weights in a bid to embarrass their so called ‘renegades’. This action certainly has led to the party’s woeful performance in this year’s general elections.
Now the question is that since Bafarawa and his cohorts have succeeded in deceiving President Jonathan and his party leaders and yet couldn’t deliver Sokoto, what else can those writers and columnists such as Amanze Obi write about Bafarawa and his seeming political clout? Jonathan’s reliance on Bafarawa to deliver Sokoto to him is part of the overall problems that led to his dismal performance in the Presidential election because he placed his hopes on similar light weights, including some very garrulous and despicable characters, in other parts of Nigeria who have received excellent press reviews and phantom analysis. In reality, these so called valueless big fishes have since been consigned to the dustbin of history in their various places for betraying the confidence of the people.
It is obvious that Bafarawa has to lose because he faced fierce resistance from Sokoto people who have openly and in private expressed their dislike for him. With the resounding beating and overwhelming rejection of Bafarawa and his cohorts, his promise to retire is the best option otherwise he should be prepared to slug it out now with his very junior ones who are the symbol of new Sokoto that is the dream of all.
Mohammed Kabir Hassan
Sokoto Democratic Front
No 78 Nakasari Layout
Sokoto
