When the western world and the exponents of democracy were busy leveraging on the system for rapid economic development and massive citizen participation and enlightenment, Africans, precisely Nigeria, as the giant of African nations, still calls a system that was resurrected since 1999 a nascent democracy. This is simply due to the incongruous manner in which our nation has been playing the system.
If a child was born in 1999, today that child will be 20 solid years old and by all standards and definitions, such individual has become an adult. They had fallen into adulthood – the very category of youths that have reached a voting age as enshrined in our constitution and electoral laws. This, therefore, presupposes that such a person is now able to differentiate what is good from what is bad.
In fact, based on the United Nations definition, a youth is a person between the ages of 15 and 24. Although with all UN statistics based on this range, the UN also recognises that this definition is without prejudice to other age groups listed by member states such as 18–30.
But sadly, here is a democracy which pegs the voting age at 18 and still continues to call the system nascent. This, of course, is due to the aberrant deployment of the electoral processes, lack of voter education, and lack of defined principles guiding the voters on the character of persons they supposed to elect as their leaders.
Although the 2019 election has come and gone but the memories of what took place in Bauchi state still linger in the minds of many of us not because the process wasn’t conclusive but because of what it has created, and, its future, and possible ripple effects on the development and sociopolitical process of our darling state.
The reoccurrence of these political miscarriages can sometimes lead the most careful commentators to to question why we are yet to be able to discern the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Still, also, the issues challenging the process and the outcome of the 2019 governorship election is before the constituted election tribunal and we are very certain that we will reclaim our mandate at the end of the day.
Yet, the agony and anguish of the past is still haunting us and we need to get more enlightened to avoid the reoccurrence of similar circumstances.
It is a fact that prior to the 2015 general elections, we’ve been praying and yearning to get someone who will emerge to liberate the state and unshackle us from the comatose status in all the sectors of economic development and we couldn’t hide our happiness when Barrister M.A Abubakar got the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket.
To justify our acceptance of his candidature and absolute conviction that he had all it took to move the state forward without prejudice, we massively voted both President Buhari and Governor Abubakar, defeating their opponents in the PDP controlled state with a massive margin.
As expected, when he assumed the leadership of the state, he was able to bring out the state from the woods by changing the ugly trend where the state coffers will be surrendered to few individuals that felt they owned the state in which political appointments and major contracts would go only to their cronies and bootlickers at the detriment of the state and the majority of the population.
As a matter of fact, there was not much development when Barrister Abubakar took over and we were very envious of our neighbours in Gombe which was carved out from Bauchi in 1996 but had rapidly developed more than Bauchi simply because they were lucky to have good, passionate, and prudent leaders.
Of course, that is why the state remained underdeveloped while the retrogressive elements in the state, who considered themselves as elite, shared what belonged to the state with their banking holes stocked with cash and they were seemingly happy.
No one will forget when the payment of workers’ salaries was a serious issue and how the ugly trend was reversed and corrected immediately Governor Abubakar took over.
But extremely unhappy and uncomfortable with the prudent management of the state’s resource by the M.A Abubakar administration, a gang was formed to not only fight him but to make sure they dethroned him by whatever bogus means at their disposal; hook or crook, fair or foul. These cabals were sordidly obsessed with a singular aim of bringing someone they felt can toe their ignoble line. They wanted their egos massaged with atrocious mendacity while the majorities suffer.
It was not the least surprising how they all threw their weights behind someone whose image is regrettably fouled with series of corruption cases; ominous allegations upon allegations.
As very principled leader who aligned and identified himself with President Buhari’s fight against corruption and impunity, Mr Abubakar’s outright rejection of all their enticements fuelled the fights and acrimonies. It aggravated it to the election day and they succeeded in their scheming. But posterity will sure expose what is hidden.
It was with connivance with some disgruntled elements in the APC who lack strong party ideology and they were firmly sitting on the fence and masquerading as APC members while in actual sense, they were working with the PDP against their own party for no just cause. Theirs was, and certainly still is, the very definition of selfish interest which made what has happened to happen. Wolves in sheep’s clothing they are!
Like President Buhari, Governor Abubakar has stood firmly on the side of the truth and the masses in defense of his party’s ideology.
It’s certainly not over until it’s over!
Those who worked against the APC and Governor Abubakar are still trying to fake their allegiance with the party in seeking any possible favour and as far as the APC is concerned in Bauchi state, Barrister M.A Abubakar is the party leader and the Presidency and the party hierarchy should know the real APCs and the political masquerades.
Some of them have followed former speaker Yakubu Dogara while others are still in the midst of the APC.
If at all they did work for the party as claimed in 2019, it definitely would have been a different story today.
Barrister Abubakar is humble, self-possessed, trustworthy and passionate about his party and President Buhari’s fight against corruption and entrenching good governance. These are attributes that will keep him moving amidst all the adversaries.
Sani Bauchi writes from Bauchi.
