There were shockwaves in Nasarawa State last week after the presidential and National Assembly elections. National chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, lost his polling unit to the Labour Party (LP).
SIGNS that APC would pay the price for its divided house dawned on all with the defeat of the three APC Senators by candidates of relatively smaller parties, especially the SDP. APC’s oldest rival, PDP, also posted impressive showing in the NASS election.
The inability of APC and Governor Sule to manage the disaffection after the party’s primaries contributed the spanking of the party. For instance, the likes of Senator Godiya Akwashiki, Ahmed Wadada, Muluku Mohammed and others did not survive the primary politics. They were forced to leave APC, only to join alternative platforms and win the main election at the expense of APC.
As a result, SDP has produced two Senators-elect out of the three slots available to the state, leaving the other seat to PDP. The perception is that the recent victory of the Labour Party has altered the mood and calculation of politicians. There is fear that PDP, which has widespread structure in the state could benefit from APC’s self-inflicted confusion.
PDP’s gubernatorial candidate, Hon. David Ombugadu lost to Sule in 2019 because the bulk of opposition votes were split between him and Maku of APGA. With both men now united in PDP and APC stalwarts engaged in wit games, it is possible that unless APC patches every crack, it may suffer again in the hands of its major rival.
One other factor playing to PDP’s advantage apart from its new-found unity, is the existence of former APC stalwarts on the governorship ballot of other parties.
There have been accusations levelled against Al-Makura to the effect that he was behind the SDP governorship candidate, Muhammad Alfa Mustapha. But, while Al-Makura continued to deny such, the gubernatorial candidate himself has never relented from showering accolades on Ta-al.
Peeved by the growing support for Mustapha among his aides, Governor Sule recently warned his appointees engaging in such anti-party machinations to resign. Despite that warning, sources said most of Sule’s commissioners are merely waiting for the inevitable.
None of the cabinet members ever campaigns or promotes their principal all through the election season. As if the entire cabinet has resolved to serve for just one term, even the Governor himself on several occasions declared that he was not bordered about second term.
When the governor swore that he was not perturbed by concerns for a second tenure, it was circulated in the state to the extent that some beggars along the highway became fond of singing ‘one term governor’ every time the governor’s convoy drives past and fails to pull over to give them alms.
Even political hangers-on and thugs are not left out as they shout ‘one term governor’, when they are not given attention at political gatherings. The governor’s case is made more complex by the fact that he has two other contenders who share same faith with him.
It is expected that Sule and the two other candidates would split votes among the Muslim community the same way PDP and APGA fragmented the Christian votes in the past.
While the PDP standard bearer, Ombugadu, is the only Christian on the governorship ballot, the other three contenders are Muslims. Unlike in the past when members of same faith collapsed their structures to support one against the rival, it is not happening in APC this time around.
That gambit, which gave APC the chance to triumph in the past, has not been adopted, perhaps due to the clash of interests among the party bigwigs.
