Nigerians, especially keen observers of Gombe politics, know that the rift between Inuwa Yahaya who is governor of the dtate and Senator Danjuma Goje has reached its deepest low, and the fact that the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Gombe state is ostensibly being sacrificed on the altar of needless political power play.
Recently, news broke and started trending that Senator Danjuma Goje has been suspended, expelled by the ward and subsequently local government executives of his party, the APC.
The ironies and contradictions surrounding the purported suspension, very convincingly spotlights the grey areas for ease of possible resolution if at all the expediency of political alignments and realignments towards the new administration would not come in the way of the wellbeing of the party. But we leave that for the party to decide.
However, while we leave the bereaved to bury their dead, it is valuable to bring to the fore certain dynamics which served as fuel that kept the strange fire of APC crisis in Gombe raging and unquenchable. It is no news that a major cause of rifts within political parties is the struggle for dominance among key stakeholders.
As it happens in Edo state so it is in Rivers state. You see it in Zamfara state as much as it is in Imo state. It’s found in any party, APC, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), name it. But any fair assessment of the Gombe fiasco cannot put the entire blame on Senator Goje who had endured covert and overt persecution in the hands of Inuwa and his aides including his official security operatives as he alleged during the attack on his convoy.
But even under an impossible political atmosphere apparently occasioned by the governor, Senator Goje continues to labour hard not merely to keep his head above the waters but to ensure that his party remains vibrant and formidable in the state. This is why he was able to emerge victorious in an election where he was practically hounded around the country and prevented from undertaking any real campaign by the power that be.
Recall, November 5th 2021, Senator Goje’s convoy was reportedly attacked by thugs who are said to be loyal to Inuwa Yahaya. It was reported that police operatives stationed in the area did not make any effort to stop the chaos or at least rescue the former governor from the thugs. It was a Friday morning while he was making his way into the state he had once presided over as governor and in which the incumbent was his former commissioner and his party man. Sadly, lives were reportedly lost.
The entire party structure in Gombe was alarmed by the dimension of Goje’s political persecution in the hands of someone he nurtured in politics. Goje joined the APC in the build-up to the 2015 general elections. It was him (Goje), as the leader of the party in the state, who supported and introduced Inuwa Yahaha’s aspiration to the people of Gombe.
And even though the 2015 attempt was not successful, as Inuwa lost to Ibrahim Dankwambo for obvious reasons, Senator Goje has been instrumental to the political realignments in the country that brought the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to power. In spite of the iron grip and dominance of the PDP in Gombe state, Buhari won with 361,245 votes against then President Goodluck Jonathan’s 96,873 votes.
As APC leader in Gombe state, Goje led a strong opposition that wrestled power entirely from the then ruling PDP and saw to the emergence of the incumbent Governor Inuwa Yahaya of the APC in the state in 2019.
He went round with Inuwa to all the 114 wards in the 11 local government areas of the state campaigning and ensured he united the party so efficiently that after the primaries that produced Inuwa, among other aspirants, none of them defected from the party. This is why some worry about the quality of thoughts that go on in the mind of the governor. They say that anyone who can turn against a benefactor unprovoked may very well pose a danger to any other person.
But one must also understand Inuwa Yahaya. It takes a real leader to comfortably cohabit with a personality as overwhelming as Danjuma Goje who clearly remains the single most significant asset the APC has in the Northeastern state. In fact, some have suggested that Goje needed to come up with a continuous political therapy for his erstwhile political grandson just to allay any fear or panic that Inuwa may be nursing. While this may seem laughable if not ridiculous, the citation of the former governor, we must agree, is massive.
A former member of Gombe state assembly, former minister, two-term governor of the state, and now a fourth term senator, Danjuma Goje is by all measure a political general. He is a brand that has invested so much in terms of outreach, impact, accessibility and acceptance. Apart from his enormously successful political outings over the decades, Goje has trained many politicians not only in his Gombe state but across the North-east geo political zone and around the entire nation.
The state witnessed good governance under his reign both in human and capital development indices. He mentored virtually all the present key political players in the state, removing those he trained in the current administration, the government almost all will go including Inuwa himself. Goje nurtured Inuwa Yahaya politically when he won the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) government of late Abubakar Habu Hashidu in 2003. However, there is no record of Senator Goje making attempts to undermine the governor or his government.
For clarity, Goje made Inuwa his commissioner for finance for seven years before resigning to join the array of contenders for the PDP gubernatorial ticket in 2011. This was at a time when Goje had taken over the state from ANPP to the PDP.
Former Governor, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo won the ticket apparently because he was the choice of the incumbent PDP stakeholders, but out of about 12 contenders, it was only Inuwa and Bayero Nafada who openly challenged Goje over the primaries.
More than a decade after, Inuwa has continued to haul contempt, hate and violence to unimaginable degrees at his benefactor. He frustrated Goje to such a ridiculous extent that the latter had to announce that he would no longer contest any elective post in the state, ostensibly to allow peace to reign.
While this decision may have elicited a feeling of satisfaction in Inuwa’s camp, Goje’s very own camp would have none of that. His decision was vehemently rejected by his supporters and beneficiaries of his numerous human capital interventions. Press conferences, rallies and protests were organised to force him to drop the idea of resigning from active politics.
Some even threatened to explore legal options should he fail to heed their calls. He was ‘forced’ to promptly rescind his decision for the best interest of the people of his constituency and the entire state. In all of these, state sponsored attacks did not abate.
And so, avoiding an eminent clash, Senator Goje did not participate in the 2023 electioneering campaigns of the APC at any level including his own but because of his popularity and goodwill of his people, he was the only APC candidate returned to the senate out of the three.
The other two were won by the former governor of the state, Ibrahim Dankwambo and ace banker, Anthony Yaro of the PDP to represent Gombe north and south senatorial districts, respectively.
In the House of Representatives, of the six House of Representatives seats in the state, only Hon. Usman Bello Kumo of Akko Central won from the APC while the rest were swept by the PDP.
The question is now being raised about the worth and loyalty of Inuwa Yahaya’s position as Tinubu’s North-east campaign coordinator. APC presidential candidate Bola Tinubu, as he then was, lost at Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s own polling unit and in the entire state. If not for Goje, the entire APC structure would have been swallowed up by the opposition PDP.
But aside from Inuwa’s poor outing as chief coordinator in the presidential election, other pertinent questions are now being asked as to how Inuwa won his own election while he scuttled Tinubu’s chance. Was it true that he truly engaged in anti-party activities? Was the anti-party accusation hurled at Goje only a ruse and deliberately hyped to eclipse more sinister activities undertaken by Inuwa himself? Why would Inuwa insist on expelling Goje despite a court order restraining such action? Shouldn’t Inuwa himself have been the one to be accused of engaging in anti-party purportedly targeting Tinubu and not Goje who won as the only symbol of the party during the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections?
Today, the futile efforts to undo Goje is depleting the APC so badly in the state. The party is losing a lot of its membership and support base and the consequence of the folly is better imagined. And unless an urgent action is taken, the APC may well be digging its own grave, courtesy of Inuwa’s vindictiveness.
Michael writes from Lagos.
