Nasarawa APC: Putting Gov Sule, Almakura on anti party scale
By Muazu Abari
This is actually not the best time for the governing All Progressives Congress ( APC) in Nasarawa State. A party that was founded on democratic and progressives ideals in tandem with the aspirations of the common man has now been basterdised beyond repairs.
APC is not only witnessing its worst moment of rejection and abondonement, but also, fast loosing it’s grip in the political equation of my state, with its committed and dedicated members, supporters, ward excos and critical stakeholders abandoning the party in droves on daily basis.
This ordinarily should be a cause for concern to every patrotic and descerning leader with the interst of the party in his heart and wish the party a successful outing come 2027 election. I must state in clear language that APC’s misfortune is a function of leadership failure punctuated by arrogance, politics of exclusion, pull him down syndrome, abuse of democratic processes, imposition of candidates, lack of level playing field, absence of fairness, equity and justice and above all, poor knowledge of party management, incoherence, dearth of communication and policy summersaults.
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Regrettably, our noise maker governor known for double speak and inconsistencies in words and in actions could not fathom that he is subjecting the party to the worst existential dangers till this time. And to make matters worst, he seems not to give a hoot about how the party is sinking under his watch. Instead, he was busy planting, nurturing and expanding the seeds of hatred, discord and divisions within the party for his selfish political interest at the detriment of party unity and survival.
At a time when the party is already on a life support and apparently sinking to the abyss and loosing what remains of its dwindling fortune and depleting followership, our governor is fast consumed by primitive political interests.
It is preposterous that when most APC governors in Nigeria especially in the north are busy strategizing, healing all wounds and mending fences with aggrieved stakeholders in their quest to deliver their states to Tinubu and other party candidates, Governor Sule and his handpicked state party excos are more concerned with sponsoring protest against Almakura at the detriment of the party and it’s winning streak.
Reliable information from the corridors of power indicated that the governor is mobilising his misguided supporters to protest against Almakura by accusing him of anti party activities. These fifth columnists have perfected a devious plan to blackmail Almakura by fingering him as the brain behind the massive wave of defections currently depleting the party.
The plan is expected to precipitate actions that will lead to the suspension of Almakura from the party and pitched him against president Bola Ahmed Tinubu who appointed him the North Central cordinator of the renewed hope ambassadors.
Sule has since declared total war against Almakura and sponsoring his attack dogs to malign him on social media space for his boldness in telling him the bitter truth and coaching him on how not to run the party aground.
This is an irony coming from people who have no sense of history and who always act before they think. Llike many of their previous plots, it is my belief this too shall fail. They would learnt politics by force but in the hard way because their worst moment is yet to start. What is befalling them now will be a child’s play compared to what awaits them in the coming weeks and months.
Incase, they have forgotten, they need to be reminded that what binds Almakura and Tinubu is beyond their myopic thinking and too strong to be compromised even by a moving train much less by people with zero intergrity who did not even believe in the president in the first place.
Almakura and Tinubu share a common destiny and they have come a long way as trusted and dependable partners in the service of humanity. Their relationship is not based on political exigency or opportunism. It is a long standing relationship build and sustained through mutual love, trust, respect for each other, confidence, passion for development and progressives ideals.
The pertinent question to ask is, between Gov Sule and Almakura who is the father of anti party activities in Nasarawa APC? The only way to objectively answer this question is to put both leaders on scale of anti party and weight them by looking at how the party fared under their separate watch as well as their roles, actions and antecedents of anti party activities for the public to judge.
Almakura was elected Nasarawa State Governor in 2011 under the platform of the then CPC, the first time in the history of the state for a ruling party to be defeated with only four out of twenty members of the state House of Assembly to his side. Despite all the political witchhunt, frustrations, sabotage and failed impeachment plot, he was able to return the state to APC.
He handed over a complete APC state to Governor Sule with three senatorial seats, four out of five House of Reps seats and twenty out of twenty four House of Assembly members.
But within just four years in office, Gov Sule completely killed the party in the state with the party’s fortune dwindling to the lowest ebb due to his leadership incapacity and failure to live up to his responsibility of giving the party a sense of direction when it mattered most leading to subversion of the peoples will, imposition of unpopular candidates, replacement of candidates who won primaries with losers among other anti democratic tendencies which triggered massive defections out of the party.
By the time 2023 elections was conducted, APC under his watch lost all the three senatorial seats two out of five House of Reps seats ten out of twenty Assembly seats. Even president Bola Ahmed Tinubu lost the state to the Labour Party despite all the noise making before the election. The crisis nearly consumed the governor himself by newrly losing to PDP if not for the last minutes political gimmicks in two wards of Lafia which revived him back to political life.
Even with that political magic, his election was subsequently annulled by both the governorship election tribunal and the appeal court and he would have been history by now if not for the magnanimity of the supreme court which came to his rescue. It was the same Almakura he worked against, Abdullahi Adamu and other stakeholders outside the state who stood by him when he was running from pillar to post crying like a baby looking for salvation when his stage managed victory was under serious threat during and after the election
Governor Sule who is chanting Tinubu slogan today as if he loves the president more than the president’s biological parents worked against him during the APC presidential primaries in favour of former vice president Yemi Osibanjo believing that he would be made the vice presidential candidate.
In fact, that was his first altercation with Almakura when he tried to cornered Almakura delegates for Tinubu to Osinbanjo an altercation which he later apologised to his benefactor.
Thank God, Sule himself has publicly admitted of being a supporter, advocate and beneficiary of anti party activities especially in 2023 election, during one of his appearances on channels television while answering questions about 2023 election.
The governor to the hearing of the world said, “For us in Nasarawa State we actually voted for candidates not party. We have people who contested for senatorial elections under SDP somebody like Wadada, he will go in and actually during the campaign and said am campaigning for myself in SDP but am also campaigning for A. A Sule because he is the most competent person among all the Gubernatorial candidates.”
It is also an open secret in the politics of Nasarawa State that Gov Sule supported Wadada’s senatorial bid from the backdoor against his own party candidate Architect. Shehu Ahmed Tukur, among other opposition candidates. In fact, some of them left the APC to other opposition parties with his endorsement, support and encouragement leading to abysmal performance by the party in the state among many other acts of his anti party activities.
When Governor Sule miraculously returned for the second term and within just two years of his second tenure, he started promoting Wadada’s gubernatorial aspiration even when the latter was still in SDP and at a time when so many individuals including his appointees have indicated interest to succeed him.
He utilised every opportunity given to him either in media interview or public functions to eulogise Wadada and showers encomiums on him which gave people an inkling into his political direction in 2027.
The entry of the former IGP Mohammed Adamu Abubakar into the gubernatorial race of the state under APC seem to be what finally broke the camel’s back in the party making the contest more dicey and complicated.
When he initially joined the race Sule’s government and his handpicked excos who have Wadada in their minds to succeed him underrated the former IGP and did not see him as threat believing that he is a new comer in the politics of the state who would not go anywhere in the contest.
But within the shortest time of joining the gubernatorial race, the former IG re- awakened the politics of Nasarawa State from its slumber making the race a two man race where he immidiately embarked upon grassroots engagements across the length and breadth of the state to interface with the people, party excos and stakeholders at the grassroots.
He eventually endeared himself to the hearts of the people especially Almakura supporters and those who are not happy with the administration and how the party is being run in the state. The situation further divided the party into two antagonistic camps.
Since then, the party has shown significant intolerance to the other camp and discriminate against them with some government appointees who identified with the former IGP sacked from their positions and with Sule formal decision to endorse Wadada as his preferred successor, the internal wrangling within the party worsened as Sule and Almakura drew the battleline. While Sule is supporting Wadada, Almakura is believed to be supporting Adamu which make consensus option impossible leading to the so-called direct primaries.
The primaries which was supervised by the governor and the party excos as directed by the party National Headquarters was believed to be staged managed and rigged in favour of the governor’s candidate as election is alledged not to have taken place in most of the electoral wards in the state but result were written in favour of Wadada which forced Adamu and his supporters to moved to, SDP which added to the woes of the party in the state.
Since Adamu’s defection to SDP, the politics of Nasarawa State has become more complicated surrounded with uncertainties and surprises, with APC counting losses almost on daily basis as party followers, critical stakeholders, community mobilizers including wards excos dumped the party in their numbers depleting APC ranks seen as a serious threat to the party’s chances in 2027 hence the ongoing calls for protest and suspension against Almakura.
Prior to this unfortunate situation, Nasarawa APC found itself today, Almakura in one of the stakeholder’s meeting of the party at Government House Lafia before his relationship, with the governor and his handpicked party excos deteriorated have warned and raised concern over the state of affairs in the party when he said, ” I want to appeal to people who were going round the corridor of power to distort issues and give wrong advice to leaders whether the governor or the chairman please and please let the party survive, you have no stake when you go in the middle of the night and insinuate, brainwash and indoctrinate leaders and when the party get it wrong nobody will see you. But the Abdullahi, Adamu’s, the Tanko Almakura”s, the A.A Sule, the Aliyu Bello’s will be called somewhere to answer the offence they did not committ. Please allow us stop speculating let us not be our brothers enemies? But his advice was ignored.
The question to ask is that between Almakura and Sule who institutionalised anti party activities in Nasarawa APC and led it to where it is today and who deserves to be suspended from the party? Your guess is as good as mine our politicians must learnt from the lessons of history and take responsibility for their actions and inactions rather than shifting blames.
Abari writes from Yola.
