The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Councils’ elections have come and gone, leaving the winners jubilating and the losers groaning in pains.
The results of the elections show that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) won the chairmanship seats of three area councils, including Gwagwalada, Abaji and Kwali, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) coasted home with the chairmanship seats of Bwari, Kuje and Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
Of all what happened, the most surprising one to many Nigerians is for the PDP to have sacked the APC from AMAC, which houses the seat of the nation’s power: Presidential Villa, federal ministries, boards, commissions, National Assembly and apex courts. Many Nigerians wondered what had happened to federal might, which would have been deployed to keep the APC in office in AMAC.
In 2016, after careful and thorough planning, the APC defeated the PDP that had been in office for 16 years, with the digital and conceptual Chairman, Hon. Dr. Abdullahi Adamu Candido in the saddle on the platform of APC. Candido, who came up with three points agenda of security, education and empowerment, had turned the AMAC into construction sites, providing so many infrastructure and services that have direct impact to the people of the area council. In addition, he has established four legacy projects, which are the first of its kind in the anal of local government administration in Nigeria. These are: AMAC Microfinance Bank, AMAC Marshall Guards, AMAC- IPDC and AMAC Community Radio, Karshi. Candido, indeed, is generally referred to as Mr. Projects. It was his remarkable performance that enabled him to win his second term in office in 2019.
Candido’s achievements in office would have been enough and sufficient for APC to retain its AMAC Chairmanship seat, had it been there was no internal crisis that bedeviled the party.
The crisis festered for too long, without concrete plans to settle it. And it finally engulfed the party at the recently concluded AMAC election, where the APC lost the chairmanship seat and managed to secure three ward councillors, out of the 12 ward councillors in the Area Council. The cause of this crisis is, however, not unconnected to the succession bid in the party. It all started shortly when Candido came back for his second term in 2019.
In that year, two high ranking members of his cabinet, the Deputy Chief of Staff, Hon. Hashimu Angama, and the Supervisory Councillor for Education, Hon. Murtala Usman Karshi, were in haste and began nocturnal meetings in preparation for their contest to succeed their boss.
Interestingly, these two men are extractions scheming hard to implement the Gwandara Agenda that poised to continue grip hold of the Chairmanship seat, even when Candido, the first Gwandara man to ever occupy the seat must have left power. As the contest progressed, it later turned messier between the two brothers as intolerance and mistrust became the order of the day. Even, the Boss himself intervened and cautioned them to stop the contest at the time as it was too early to begin such race.
Going by the rating, Hashimu Angama, the party’s State Secretary and former AMAC APC Vice Chairman, had enjoyed the support of party executives and delegates more than Murtala Usman Karshi, who had never held any party position before.
On several occasions, the leader of the party, Hon. Candido, had received in audience party executives and delegates across the wards, who informed him that Angama was their choice for the AMAC Chairman 2022. Angama’s antecedent as a grassroots politician gave him the upper hand over any other aspirant at the time. What Murtala had was the support he got from a wealthy money bag, who has never been in a party structure, but only to support a candidate with cash. How such a candidate plots his success was entirely his (the candidate’s) business.
The groundswell support Angama enjoyed at the time must have changed the mind of Hon. Candido, who had in 2019 placed embargo on discussing the 2022 Chairmanship race, to have lifted it on September 1, 2020, making it public his endorsement of Angama for the AMAC plum job.
To streamline the contest between the two brothers, so that a Gwandara candidate emerged better than to have two brothers fighting dirty for one position, the former Nassarawa State Governor and Senator representing Nassarawa West, Tanko Al-Makura, stepped in to mediate and ensure that the Gwandara nation would not lose the position. Several meetings of Gwandara political class were held at his instance. Many people looked forward to seeing a popular and acceptable candidate emerge.
Unfortunately, the coming of Al-Makura that would have been a blessing, sooner than later turned to be a disaster to the party as the senator had colluded with some few lightweight politicians in the fold to frustrate and humiliate Angama, the most popular candidate, out of the race with unsubstantiated allegations.
Candido, who did not want grandstanding on the issue, as there was only little time left, counselled Angama to step aside and subsequently, Hon. Suleiman Alhassan Gwagwa, a one-time AMAC Council Secretary, was thrown up to replace Angama in the race. But, many expected Al-Makura to have also prevailed on Murtala not to contest as equally a serious allegation was also levelled against him. This Gwandara national leader failed to provide a level playing ground so that a more popular candidate would have emerged.
Al-Makura has never played Abuja politics and he can’t know Abuja politics more than a seasoned and avowed political strategist, Hon. Candido, hence he helped destroy the party in AMAC, with his support to keep the aspiration of Murtala alive. Less than two weeks to the primary election that Alhassan Gwagwa entered the race, he made a meaningful outing as he floored Murtala and others that have been in the race for upward of two years. One would also have expected Al-Makura to stop Murtala and his desperate backers to accept the outcome of the primary election in good faith and pledge to work for the real winner of the party, Suleiman Alhassan Gwagwa so that the party will coast home to victory today.
Kelani, a political analyst, writes from Abuja.