Umar Maitushe
12 July 2008
opinion
All is well that ends well was the response of the generality of the people of Kebbi State to the final determination of the election petition against Governor Saidu Usman Dakingari in his favour after protracted legal battles. In all honesty not a few people regarded the petition filed by the DPP as a barefaced effort to grab political power through the back-door in view of the overwhelming political superiority and acceptability of Governor Dakingari as evidenced by the results of the governorship election. However, because of the sometimes stunning verdicts of various election tribunals there was a palpable fear that the judges were not after all beyond manipulation and the DPP's hopes seemed to have been brightened by the possibility of staging a judicial coup d'etat. At the end of the day and after several somersaults, even the judicial process could not but acknowledge the genuineness of Dakingari's election victory.
Since his success at the polls as well as the courts, Governor Saidu Dakingari has set about the task of governance with all seriousness and despite his acclaimed humility he has left no one in doubt about his ability to govern, nor his commitment to the progress and development of Kebbi State. This is hardly surprising given the fact that Governor Dakingari was literally anointed by none other than his predecessor, Senator Adamu Aliero, whose political dexterity and leadership acumen was solely responsible for carving out both Kebbi and Sokoto States from the ANPP stable into the PDP fold, thereby re-connecting the people of this vast area with the mainstream politics. It was well known that Saidu Dakingari himself enjoyed an effortless ride to power in Kebbi State because Aliero had secured all the factors necessary for such an outcome. As a result, Dakingari had the benefit of close counselling and reliable track record in governance-for-development which proved extremely helpful in a successful take-off and early entrenchment in the power dynamics of the state.
Perhaps, Dakingari's apparent lack of political stature prior to his anointment by Aliero was seen as a weak link by some political opportunists, because he had hardly settled down to the onerous task of governance when an orchestrated campaign was unleashed by some of his aides ostensibly devoted to securing a second-term for him by creating a personality cult around him and literally cutting off his political umbilical cord with Senator Aliero. Whether they embarked on this project with Dakingari's consent or not, it became a matter of great concern to the major stakeholders in the Kebbi State PDP that the seeds of discord and disloyalty were being sown so early in the tenure of Dakingari. The consensus was that those behind such an agenda could only be motivated by selfish interest and certainly not the interest of Governor Dakingari or Kebbi State.
The seriousness with which the party leaders and stakeholders viewed the activities of the small band of rabble-rousers resulted in the drastic disciplinary action taken by the Kebbi State PDP saw to the suspension of the main characters involved in such a diabolical plot, preparatory to their expulsion from both the party and the government appointments as aides of the governor. Contrary to the propaganda suggesting the tacit support of Governor Dakingari for the so-called second term campaign, the Kebbi State PDP encountered no objection whatsoever from the governor in the deliberations and consultations that preceded the expulsion of the culprits from the party and even approved the immediate stoppage of payment of salary to the affected aides. The scale of the punitive measures taken against them was seen to be commensurate to the level of mischief they embarked upon as they went to the extent of printing and distributing pamphlets to promote their objectives of pitching Governor Dakingari against Senator Aliero and ultimately tearing the Kebbi State PDP into factions. Indeed, their action had already attracted an opposite reaction from the majority of loyal and law-abiding party members who deemed it appropriate to rally round Senator Aliero and the state party leaders with their own outfit. The prompt action taken by the party outlawing the emerging groups definitely nipped their plot in the bud and saved the state PDP from imminent division and potentially violent factionalisation.
In the fall-out from the aborted plot, some interesting revelations were made which confirmed that the entire scheme was hatched by known enemies of progress of Kebbi State politics, led by a failed politician who was in the House of Representatives to represent himself rather than the people of his constituency as he earned the dubious distinction of never contributing to debates and deliberations of the House. He was rewarded by total rejection by his constituency and party and even when he sought to go to the Senate under the platform of an emergency party, the people denied him and his party crumbled under his crashed ambition. Seeing how he had lost on all fronts and yet anxious to have a political recognition of some sort, he instigated the gullible among Governor Dakingari's aides to start the so-called second term campaign so that a gulf can be created between Dakingari and Aliero where he can now fit in as agent provocateur. It turned out that neither the DPP nor the ANPP were behind the plot, rather it was this notorious failed politician and his recruits who have no political stake but a huge inordinate ambition to reap where they did not sow. No wonder the whole plot crumbled and the culprits were treated with ignominy without any effect on the existing solidarity of the ruling PDP.
It is worth pointing out that there is no opposition in Kebbi State owing to the marvelous job of uniting and consolidating the political estate of Kebbi State into one solid edifice undertaken by Senator Aliero as a mark of his fatherly disposition and positively-inclined perception of politics. The history of bloody clash between PDP and ANPP was conclusively terminated in the process as was the era of meaningless opposition politics which denied Kebbi State as well as Sokoto State a more beneficial position in the national arena. The people of Kebbi and Sokoto States are therefore one solid block of peace-loving and development oriented people who are also now part and parcel of the major political stakeholders in Nigeria Incorporated. Those trying to mischievously send Governor Dakingari on an ego trip in order to crack the wall of political solidarity will be disappointed as the bold writing on the wall is there for all to see and digest. They are only trying to deploy diversionary tactics against Governor Dakingari's commitment to enthrone continuity instead of conflict in the interest of uninterrupted development of the people of Kebbi State. The detractors can continue fanning embers of conflict through sponsored media campaigns but they will have neither relevance nor impact on the real politik of Kebbi State or the awesome people-oriented political machinery established by Senator Adamu Aliero. Shikenan! Maitushe writes from Birnin Kebbi.
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