News Editor
By Gora Albehu Dauda
The year 2019 was an eventful year in the politics of Kaduna State but 2018 was even more eventful. Let us see how?. In 2018, PDP in Kaduna State had spent 4 years in a political wilderness as the APC won in 2015. It was hoped that PDP had learnt her lesson after testing the bitterness of being an opposition party for 4 years. The thinking therefore was that PDP was to do whatever was necessary to throw out the APC from Sir Kashim Ibrahim House in 2019 particularly so that the El Rufai dictatorship was in the first tenure learning how to play around with political power. Political pundits had predicted that if the PDP could deploy a credible, dogged, charismatic and popular candidate to.conrest against El Rufai that victory was a certitude. Every passionate member of PDP in the State and outside of knew there was only one candidate with the pedigree to square up with El Rufai. That individual if he emerged is none other than Distinguished Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi. This individual had to contend with 2 sorts of enemies one within and the other from the outside. Within the PDP were the political cannibals not done yet with consuming their own kind. And so it was that the political cannibals conspired using the curruptly installed delegates ensured that Suleiman Hunkuyi did not get to squaring up against the dictator. The PDP on purpose corruptly threw up a candidate who for all intents and purposes at best was unsure of himself and did not appear to have been prepared to contest against El Rufai. I can remember vividly what happened on the night of the PDP governorship primaries at the International Trade Faire Complex along Kaduna- Zaria road. What played out on the night was a classical display of political alchemy. Care had been taken to ensure that those thrown up and called deligetes were not any better than sheep who could be corralled to any direction. The agent of the character who eventually was said to have emerged as winning candidate.openly help many who could not write do thrley could vote for the favoured contestant. After announcing the results people present were gobsmacked as the winner could not deliver a victory speech extempore to thank those who suppossedly.voted for him. A supporter had to quickly scribble a few lines for him to read . As he.quibbled in the cause of trying to read from the piece of paper handed to him, an aide thought he needed reading glasses and quickly handed one to him but even.so, our man was neither here nor there. This was the first indication that he could not confront El Rufai in anyway.
Had a debate been organized for the governorship candidates in the lead up to the election proper, it would have been a major disaster for the PDP governorship candidates preparatory to the election. This is reason some of us are suggesting that the political debates are necessary for the electorate to watch and listen to the candidates battle it out on important issues affecting the electorates. Had such a debate been organized, you can bet that the PDP candidate would either have gone on AWOL (Absence without leave) or viewers/listers wouldb have laughed themselves to scorn. The media in Kaduna State mudtnendurebthat this time around they organize healthy debates so the electorate can get to listening that the aspirants against what they have or do not have upstairs.The man simply sat back hoping that the seeming popularity and acceptance PDP appeared to enjoy was going to be enough for victory. The moment APC knew it was the other candidate who emerged as PDP candidate for the governorship election, El.Rifai and his camp knew it was time to take a break and to also heave a sigh of relief that it was not the Distinguished Senator who emerged. I cannot remember ever listened to him speak by way of addressing the electorate and population of Kaduna State. The principal enemy of PDP.in Kaduna State is paradoxically the same individual who’s life witnessed a complete turnaround from the stable and subsequent fortunes of the PDP. More than enough evidence existed to prove he acted a dubious.script within the party to facilitate the APC victory for some gratification of sort not necessarily pecuniary. He knew too that the PDP fielded a bad candidate and the thinking was that even if that candidate had.been.pronounced winner, such a victory would have immediately evaporated at the election.petition tribunal without need for intervention in courts of law.
The most tardy of jobs was executed by the.PDP screening committee in the cause of screening as they would have identified the falsehoods contained in the forms filled. Does anybody have any eyes for any detail while doing such an important job any more in 9ja? The answer is an emphatic NO, once they.have decided on their favourite and favoured.candidate. Had the PDP governorship candidate in the 2019 governorship election.in Kaduna State.looked up himself in a giant mirror, he would not have failed to read his unsuitability for the serious job of being Kaduna.State governor. The conspiracy against the candidature of Senator.Suleiman Usman Hunkuyi had armour protection and so the party.headed to a predicted defeat at the polls. This was clearly the fault of the PDP and none other. It is obvious that the PDP in Kaduna State has not learned any lesson from the 2019 conspiracy and.eventual failure. The electorate.in Kaduna simply had the.carpet pulled from under their feet and they were reduced to innuendos, grumblings and side talks. One has to struggle to avoid.describing this as.a classical.beyrayal of the most important elements in a democracy, that is the ELECTORATE Can this possibly be forgiven? Your guess is as good as mine.
That another election year is very much around the corner,the PDP should adopt a pragmatic approach as 2023 inches near. That democracy belongs to the people is a truism, sadly though, it is the party.that is all the democracy that there is in Kaduna State because the executives have taken the party hostage. We, as concerned and pationate members of the PDP.in Kaduna State will.not pretend not to know that a similar conspiracy as that of 2019 is being incubated in preparing for.2023 The.thinking as in 2019 is as naive as ever. It amounts to.repeatimg the same blunders as.in 2019 yet expecting a different outcomes. The PDP does not need a soothsayer to predict the outcome. The party has a duty to ensure that no special candidate is singled out from amongst those interested in the topmost job in Kaduna State. My worry essentially is that extrenuos forces are the Pathfinders in this dubious scheme. Their preferred aspirant at best is a muck like a wheelbarrow bring pushed by the foreign forces. For a reminder, Kaduna State is far too advanced.politically for us to let any governor from somewhere in the Northwest or.Southsouth.to manipulate our politics for the simple reason they are pouring funds into the effort. The electorate in Kaduna have the primary responsibility in deciding who is most qualified to.govern them. The people of Kaduna State have been serially dupped in the past. It is far past time that this nonesense stopped Considering the trauma our people have had to.endure at the hands of this brutish dictator and if future leaders are to deredge our people up from the bottom, it becomes imperetive that those.yearning.for the position of.governor must be ready for all possible compromises so a saviour can emerge from their lot. Selfish interest should be.discarded for.the.benefit of.all.the.prople.of Kaduna State. Let us together prove to the merchants of politics that we require no interference of any sort in sorting out those we want to lead us. Let fairness, equity.and transparency guide the selection process when we eventually get there. To God Be The Glory.
