SIR: 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. The outcome o 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 election is a loud statement of dissent against ex-Governor Attahiru Bafarawa who has refused to accept that Sokoto people have completely forsaken him. Before now, three elections were held between 2007 and 2011 during which on each occasion he was vehemently rejected. His refusal to accept the verdict of the people as the fate he deserved 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 fool hardy for the PDP and President Jonathan to believe that Bafarawa has any electoral value or wields any political influence to turn the cart against the people of Sokoto.
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 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. Rather than see the exit of Wamakko as threat to its dominance in terms of positions at state and National assembly, it went shopping for Bafarawa to check mate Wamakko and deliver Sokoto to it. The bickering within the party in Sokoto after Bafarawa joined did not send any signal to them to the impending disaster that awaits the party.
Now the question is that since Bafarawa and his cohorts have succeeded in deceiving President Jonathan and his party leaders and so couldn’t deliver Sokoto, what else can those hired 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 lightweights, including some garrulous characters in other parts of Nigeria who have received excellent press reviews and phantom analysis. In reality, these so called 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 had 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, Sokoto.