By Surajo Mallam Erena
PDP governorship primaries is just a few days away. As is the norm, the political waters in every state is now stagnated. In Niger state, things are not different. A horde of aspirants have been cleared for the ticket zoned to Zone C. Among the contenders, the odds favour of Umar Mohammed Nasko, the state’s former Chief of Staff and governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu’s ‘anointed candidate’, to clinch the ticket. Nasko is the most popular gubernatorial aspirant in the state; APC’s Abu Sani Bello, who has been campaigning since three years ago, is gradually getting drowned by him.
In PDP, Nasko has Engineer Mustapha Bello, NIPC boss; Musa Ibeto, present deputy governor; Senator Nuhu Aliyu Auna, trailing him. On permutations, all other candidates are in the race merely to announce their presence in the political landscape of the state.
Nasko’s popularity, some analysts believe, is because he is the state government’s candidate; however, to weigh the facts a second time, this is not wholly true. First, the youths, who are the most populous, are in support of him; secondly, the sort of campaigns his candidacy was unveiled with won him a wide acceptability in the state.
As politics is worldwide, even when a candidate clearly knows that permutations are not in favour of him he will clutch the thinnest branch available, even when it would lead to his destruction, to win himself some reckoning. That is the case in Niger, as many thumbs are up for Nasko to emerge victorious. Appraising each of the aforementioned trailers critically; Nuhu Aliyu Auna is one man PDP shouldn’t dare give its ticket to otherwise APC’s dream of wresting Niger would be realised with just a few punches.
In 2011, after three terms as senator, he was defeated by Ibrahim Musa who was a novice in politics by a wide margin. Since then, the former senator has been in search of relevance, hence his joining the governorship race. PDP shouldn’t just heed to his ‘scheme’ because he does no electoral value. The dream of every political party is to see its flagbearer winning at the general poll. In case of the former senator, he cannot do it for Niger PDP because he is not popular in Zone A and B. However, in Zone C where he is, Senator Musa sculpted his political funeral in 2011.
Ibeto stopped being a politician with relevance after becoming Aliyu’s deputy. This is because, after being a deputy governor for almost eight years, he’s got no support base and save for former governor Abdulkadir Abdullahi Kure, he is not popular among the stakeholders. Appraising him with a frontline stakeholder a few days ago, he noted: “Ibeto’s unpopularity is due to his mean personality. If you are mean in spirit, even when you have viable policies, you won’t go well with politicians.” I do not know what he meant with ‘mean spirit’ and I didn’t ask him to elaborate.
The stakeholder also hinted of Kure’s covert ‘schemes’ for Ibeto because he wants ‘his godson’ on power to increase his influence in the state. Kure’s body language says he is in Nasko’s camp but if truly is gunning secretly for Ibeto ticket, he is not appreciating the fact that the state government ditched former PDP state chairman, Abdulrahaman Enagi, in order for his wife, Senator Zainab, to clinch Zone A senatorial ticket for the third term. Wherever Kure’s loyalty is in this race, he ought to make it open, at least for the army of Nupe followers he has got.
Last year, because of his credentials, Mustapha Bello was my favourite candidate. When columnist Mohammed Haruna wrote a prognosis in his much-followed Wednesday Column in Daily Trust and pitched him ahead of others, my excitement knew no bound. However, I found out he is not the sort of grassroots and pro-people politician we need in Niger. That is because, recently, a friend who is in his camp showed me an sms he sent to him intimating of Nasko’s “fast increasing popularity”, and the engineer, from what I read in my friend’s phone, replied: “they are just ranting. The who is who in the state have not sat down to decide; before their decision, forget all you hear or see.”
What I depicted from that sms is that Mustapha Bello is hoping for Minna hilltop residents to help him clinch his party’s ticket and pave way for him to win the main election. Let’s see if that will happen.
More so, the most disturbing intent of all the PDP aspirants from Zone C, except Nasko, is the divisive government they are waiting to run if they become governor.
I got this revelation last month from a friend who is a confidant to Saleh Sahabi Darangi, one of the fringe aspirants. According to my friend, Sahabi was discussing with a group of his supporters from Zone C that they (all the aspirants except Nasko) met in Abuja and forged an agreement that “if any of them wins and goes on to win the main election, they will team together and take massive development to Zone C.” What about other zones?
Erena wrote from Angwan Daji, Minna
