By Abu Shekara.
New and continuing governments of 2023 are over one month old across Nigeria. At all levels, first term and continuing administrations ought to have begun bracing up for the task of delivering on their mandate to their people. ElectedElected officers, particularly those in their first term, will soon realize, if they have not already, that pre-inauguration impressions of leadership are nothing compared to the realities of governance on the ground.
It is not a bed of roses, not in contemporary Nigeria, where limitless and increasingly complex socioeconomic challenges attend to every action of government. Sooner than later, the fact will occur to winners of elections that it is far from a winner takes all situation and if Nigerians are fortunate, politicians will be compelled by those realities to rise above partisan sentiments and close ranks in order to acquit themselves of the tasks ahead of them.
There is some cause for confidence that cross-partisan synergy is possible, as the President and virtually all governors, are extending the olive branch and chorusing the willingness to embrace other sides of partisan divides. And if President Bola Tinubu’s declarations on the inclusive composition of his potential cabinet are anything to go by, Nigerians may well witness the much desired synergy at the national level.
It is a lot less certain that the spirit of inclusion will cascade to the level of states, where political rivalries and hostilities are more intense, especially where power changed hands between opposition parties. This is made apparent by the scenario in some states since May 29, with the test case for post-takeover acrimony being mainly in the Northwest states of Sokoto, Zamfara and Kano.
As the demolition bulldozers roll in Kano, policy reversals, mass sackings of appointees ensue and marauding vehicles seizure squads go on rampage in Sokoto and Zamfara, states like Lagos and Kaduna are hitting the ground running from Day One, by directing their energy towards the search for blueprints on which to pursue their development drives. Even the fact that in the two latter states it is the same political parties that have succeeded themselves does not eliminate this contrast between two sets of leaserships.
At any rate, and for whatever reason, the governments of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara will be the least in the subregion to afford indulgence in divisive politics, considering the challenges they face in all aspects of socioeconomic advancement. There must be synergy both within and between these states to deal with among other problems, the high indices of poverty low level of education.
These three states, along with others like Kaduna and Katsina, are also the flash points of banditry, a scourge that has further thwarted the efforts of the geopolitical zone to make any appreciable development headway. Ironically, in Sokoto and Zamfara particularly, insecurity has been used as cannon fodder for partisan hostility, instead of being a cause for the closing of ranks across polltical divides.
Politics has indeed, deprived the subregion the capacity to form a common front against banditry, both within and between states. It is for the same reason that the Northwest has failed to find a common voice at the national level, to prevail on the Federal Government to take drastic measures against the menace.
In Sokoto and Zamfara States, even public commentators and social critics have ironically localized their criticism on the situation. They have thereby failed to direct their agitation at the federal authorities, who are constitutionally the responsibility bearers for the protection of the citizens’ lives and property.
In 2016, when gun men began to consolidate their hold in Zamfara, politicians in the state were pointing fingers at the-then governor of the state, Abdulaziz Yari, as the man to blame for the situation, while Muhammadu Buhari, the President at the time and Commander-,in-Chief, secured widespread ovation for merely donning camouflage unuform on a brief visit to the few troops deployed to the state. Amazingly, Buhari’s Interior Minister, Lawal Danbazau joined in the chorus by attributing banditry in Zamfara to what he called, “bad governance” in the state.
In 2019, Bello Matawalle, the PDP Governor of Zamfara State, decamped to APC because according to him, the move was exigent to guaranteeing the security of his people against the gunmen. Similarly, in 2023, a PDP legislator for the bandits-dominated Sabon-Birnin Local Government in Sokoto State, Amiinu Boza, joined the APC due to what he described as his concern about banditry ravaging his constituency!
Even in other aspects of development, It is this same attitude that made these three states the least beneficiaries of the previous administration of Muhammadu Buhari. While road networks and rail lines were being laid to connect other states to the rest of the country and federal institutions were being established in other areas, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara had little or nothing to show as dividends of democracy, except the jostling by their political elite to gain affinity with the presidential Villa.
These three states will lose much more for the same reasons. After elections for National Assembly leadership positions, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara have so far recorded yet another success in missing out on opportunities at the national stage. It may be inconceivable for Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State to become the Senate President, considering the issue of regional balance in the sharing of political offices but all said and done, the three states are out in the cold, ending up with nothing, even from the share of the Northwest.
Even though the cross-partisan solidarity with Abdulaziz Yari in his bid for the Senate Presidency failed because it could not prevail against the might of the ruling party and the Presidency, subsisting division amongst the subregion’s political elite was actually more the cause of the failure of that project. Cohesion cannot be built over night, a fact that was amply illustrated by the circumstances that secured the position of Senate Minority Leader for the Middle Belt, who got their way in the fierce contest because they have always presented a common front.
The concessionary posture of front line contender, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal after the emergence of the dark horse, Senator Simon Mwadkwon, captured the situation rather aptly. By backing the Plateau State Senator to occupy the position, since he had “this number of signatures”, Tambuwal must actually be saying that anyone, who had such block support from his zone, had earned the leadership position, even if he did not enjoy the backing of the party.
Tambuwal is indeed versed in the desirability of unity in the pursuit of objectives. As a past beneficiary of the solidarity of his colleagues, when he emerged as Speaker of the House Representatives against the wish of his party in 2011, Tambuwal was merely exhibiting respect for the cohesion of the Middle-Belt in their quest for self-assertion.
Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states, which constitute a huge chunk of the Northwest geopolitical zone, may be consigned to bringing up the rear, as the rest of Nigeria get their act together, get what is their due and make progress. This is mainly because the area is still entangled in the same divisive mentality that has hindered it’s people from harnessing their shared strengths, which is ultimately proving be the major drawback to the collective progress of it’s people.
