In Zamfara, Mahadi Aliyu Gusau just got ousted as deputy governor. But another Gusau, Hassan Nasiha, a sitting senator of the Federal Republic, just got put in his place.
Gusau out, Gusau in, you’d say. So, what’s the big deal? Good question! It is the sheer barrenness, of the cheap pretence, of Nigeria’s power politics.
Some back-grounding would be apposite here. None of all these power players — old PDP men now sworn APC neophytes — won any election. Ironically, the only guy that tried live his true essence, Mahadi Aliyu Gusau, ended up sliced and served for cynical political dinner, for staying loyal to his original PDP platform. Politics!
Both Bello Matawalle, the PDP Zamfara gubernatorial candidate and Gusau, his running mate, were sound losers in the 2019 governorship election. But both were declared winners — no thanks to a court verdict that ruled that the ruling Zamfara APC, under outgoing Governor Abdul’aziz Yari, didn’t obey its own laws and processes in choosing the party’s candidates. So, the court voided the votes of the winners.
Perhaps for the first time in Nigerian history — or of any democracy’s at that — comprehensive losers at all levels (governorship, National Assembly and state legislature) became stunning winners, with President Muhammadu Buhari’s win the only exception.
Fela would have called all of that “government magic”. It certainly was some judicial magic!
But then, more drama! PDP Governor Matawelle suddenly decreed himself APC. He therefore moved the entire PDP judicial tally — governor, national and state legislators — into his new partisan heartthrob, APC. Well, for PDP, it was snatching partisan defeat from the jaws judicial victory — and just as well!
When everyone runs amok, it could be fatal to stay sane. That was Mahadi Aliyu Gusau’s ultimate crime. He balked and remained in PDP — honour suicide! — and just paid the supreme political price: impeachment!
Aminu Sani Jaji, an APC chieftain, just claimed the deputy governor was removed not because he refused to defect to APC but because of sundry political offences. He can tell that to the marines!
As for Hassan Nasiha Gusau, the new deputy governor, how does anyone throw away a position as elected senator to embrace the whims and caprices of Nigerian governors, notorious for their general monarchical arrogance and hauteur? But maybe it’s safer in a governor’s court than remaining a “court” senator, who won no election and therefore lacked any organic link to his senatorial constituency!
Ironically here too, the judiciary had a crucial role in the procedure, no matter how skewed. Yes, the politicians do the dirty job of impeachment railroads — in a few days shuffling poor Gusau into his political grave, in a process that could have lasted no less than three months.
But the charter came from the judiciary, though by law, it has pretty little choice in the matter. February 10: Zamfara legislature called for an investigation panel. February 14: Chief Judge Kulu Aliyu obliged it with one, under the chair of Justice Haladu Tanko. February 23 (after the February 22 release of panel’s recommendation): swift impeachment and political Golgotha for Mahadi Aliyu Gusau.
But who the bells tolls for here is not the “buried” Mahadi Gusau. It is rather the harried and pilloried political party system. Pray, how can you deepen democracy when you daily subvert and maul its soul, the political party system?