Senator Bukkar Ibrahim’s retirement bombshell against APC

When Senator Bukkar Abba Ibrahim ( APC Yobe East) announced in August in Abuja that he was retiring from the Senate, nobody had the inklings that his  retirement was loaded with missiles against the All Progressives Congress (APC) until he unleashed his salvo last Saturday . Taiye Odewale was there.
Bukkar gets elected
Senator Bukkar Abba Ibrahim, who was born in 1948, hails from Goniri town in Yobe State and became the first elected executive governor of the State in December 1991 during President Ibrahim Babangida’s transition programme.
He served as elected executive governor of the State at three different times from January 2, 1992 to November 16, 1993, May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2003 and May 29, 2003 to May 29, 2007.
Ibrahim’s deep rooted connection with electorate in the State made him to be elected into the Senate to represent Yobe East Senatorial District  in April  2007, got reelected in April 2011 for second term and March 2015 for third term.
Why I will return to senate
Prior to the announcement of his voluntary withdrawal from coming to the Senate for the fourth time, Senator Bukkar Ibrahim had in June this year at an interactive session with senate correspondents declared that he would be coming and coming into the Senate to represent the people of Yobe East as long as he is sound in health.
“To ask me how many times will I come to the Senate having come three times now is like asking me when will I fail in health or die which are in the hands of the Almighty Allah . As long as I am alive and sound in health, I will be coming to the Senate to represent my constituents in Yobe East”, he submitted then.
Even when reminded that the Governor of the state, Ibrahim Geidam, who incidentally have the opportunity of governing the State three different times now having earlier finished the tenure of late Mamnan Bello Ali from 2009 to 2011 first, before contesting and elected in that capacity in 2011 and 2015, was also planning to come to the Senate from the same senatorial district, he said the governor cannot stop him.
Bukkar backs out of senate race
But two months after, precisely in August at his Abuja residence, Senator Bukkar Ibrahim suddenly withdrew from the race by rising up the hand of the governor as consensus candidate for the senatorial position.
In his remarks at the consensus gathering which had in attendance , the then National Secretary of the All Progressives Party ( APC) Alhaji Buni as consensus gubernatorial candidate of the party and other chieftains,  Senator Ibrahim said:
“I voluntarily withdrew from the race to pave way for the younger ones who now see me as their father and leader in Yobe  politics having served in different capacities over the decades in bringing the state to where it is today right from Borno State where as the only educationally and professionally qualified Quantity Surveyor, served as commissioner under different military administrators and contributed immensely to the development plans put in place for the state.
“As somebody getting close to 70, I need to give way for the upcoming generations  to contribute their quota as well,  while as father of all, be at the background to give the required   advice and direction when necessary “, he said.
His missiles against APC
Perhaps, in the light of giving such advice and direction, Senator Bukkar Abba Ibrahim last Saturday in Abuja during the celebration of his 70th birthday and Internet launching of a book written about him titled: ” Poorlitics” , fired missiles at both his party (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari ahead of the 2019 general elections .
Senator Bukkar Ibrahim, whose wife Khadijat Ibrahim currently serves as Minister of State , Foreign Affairs under the Buhari Presidency, in a seventeen paragraphs written speech delivered at the occasion, said the North East should not be taken for granted since it’s not a must for it to support Buhari from the North West as both zones  only came together for the first time under one political umbrella  in 2015 since several decades of party formations and democratic governance in the country from 1950s till date.
His words: “In fact, the politics of the North East has always been different from the politics of the North West and it was under APC that we all united for the first time.
“As we move towards the elections, I have to give a dire warning to the APC that things are no longer the way they were in 2015 when we road to power on a cloud of euphoria believing that things will change for better.
“Simply put, things have not changed and many things are getting worse and the people are bitter. We should not assume that we can win even with massive rigging.
“The economy has gone down because of our action and inaction and we are blaming the past too much rather than solving the present problems.
“I am going to give a dire warning. Let the North East not be taken for granted that we must support APC. Our interest in the North East has always been progressive and I will personally be watching for required improvements in the APC before the elections.
“Improvements that can guarantee victory such as respecting the rule of law and releasing political prisoners as well as unselective war against corruption as against one sided witch hunt”.
Pointedly Senator Ibrahim in the missiles firing speech declared that if APC under Buhari did not get its bearings in terms of good governance before the 2019 general elections, the North East will have no any other option than to vote for candidate of another political parties, one of whom is Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a prominent citizen of the zone from Adamawa State, who is the standard bearer of the PDP in the coming election.
“I shall sit back and continue encouraging my party do the right thing. But if we don’t , I still reserve the capacity to ask my people to go our separate ways and do what must be done for good governance to reign in Nigeria”, he warned.
North West capitalist conservative
He had earlier in the speech in setting the grounds for the direction the North Eastern part of the country may take in the coming 2019 general elections by opening the old wounds between the zone and the North West saying ” at my age, I have no reason to lie being a socialist progressive over the years as against capitalist conservatives that dominate the other zone.
According to him, the geographical zone called North East today was on the same page with the progressives politics played by the late Aminu Kano of NEPU, Obafemi Awolowo of the defunct Action Group (AG) and Nnamdi Azikwe of the defunct NCNC as against capitalistic and conservative ideology of the Northern Peoples Congress ( NPC) led by the late Sir Ahmadu Bello and  seen as aggressive and ruthless to North Eastern and middle belt people generally.
He added that his book ‘ Poorlitics’ co authored by Mr Sam Agha Egwu 
aims towards discouraging money politics in the polity and promoting people centred politics as he did in Yobe State where he contested for governorship position in 1991 with just N20,000.00 in Bank account and yet with massive support of the people, defeated the money bags and their godfathers.
Though many of his political children from the Yobe State Governor, Ibrahim Geidam and other APC chieftains from the zone are yet to react to Bukkar Ibrahim’s toxic advice but political watchers and pundits, are seeing it from two different perspectives.
While some see it as more or less outburst of an aggrieved person, others see it as timely warning for the Buhari led government and crises ridden APC to put things aright before the elections.
Chains of reactions that will follow Ibrahim’s missiles in weeks and months to come as well as outcome of the 2019 general elections are certainly in the womb of time.

Leave a Reply