By Sadiq Bello Abdulkadir
A long winding tirade is circulating on Facebook in the form of a desperate and feeble attempt to mitigate the tempest that is consuming the All Peoples Congress in Sokoto State. The writer of the post, like his mentors, is falsely attributing the crisis that the leadership of the party under Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko to the singular person of Senator Ibrahim Lamido of Sokoto East Senatorial District.
True to the character of the Wamakko camp, the effort is mainly composed of malice and virulence, instead of addressing the salient issues that are be-devlling the APC, which are brought about by the leadership style of Senator Wamakko, a totalitarian overlord, obsessed with absolute control. It is nevertheless, this tendency that forces within the party are increasingly opposed to and of which Lamido is only a symbol.
It is therefore, more worthwhile to address a response to the Facebook article in question to Senator Wamakko himself, rather than wasting the effort on a hack writer, who is deprived of the capacity to comprehend the real Issues by the hunger for reward and total subservience and who can only thrive in the grave circumstances that the Sokoto APC is embroiled.
There is need to however impress on Wamakko the need to observe a pause and take stock of his position and situation in the APC, in relation to that of the generality of other members of the party. He ought to understand that his despotic perspective on leadership is no longer feasible in the partisan politics of today, when a new, progressive generation of politicians has emerged to change the primitive political culture of the past.
Wamakko should look back at his political trajectory and consider the sheer number of past proteges, who have deserted him, solely due to his unbearable politics of total domination, a number of whom are presently in the Lamido camp. Outstanding amongst them are Sani Yakubu Gudu, House of Representatives member for Gudu-Tangaza and his counterpart for Gwadabawa-Illela, Bello Isah Ambarura.
From 2015 to date, Wamakko has suffered the drain of prominent followers and loyalist, among whom were civil servants and politicians. A few examples of them are the immediate-past SSG of Sokoto State, Mohammed Mainasara Ahmed, former Head of Service, Abubakar Mohammed and Mohammed Bello Gwuiwa a member of the State Executive Council in the past administration. All of them were front line actors in the political struggle of Wamakko, since and even before 2007.
Senator Wamakko’s insatiable hunger for control has cost the APC dearly in terms of partnership and support. In 2023, the party lost a substantial part of its upper echelon after its governorship primary election due to the exclusive manner the process was carried out at the behest of Wamakko. By the time of the general election, stalwarts like former Minister, Yusuf Suleiman, House Representatives member, Abdullahi Balarabe Salame, Wamakko’s all-time ally, AA Gumbi and his old-time protege Ambassador Faruk Yabo had all decamped to the PDP.
Wamakko and his dwindling camp would boastfully respond to this situation with the Hausa adage “bukatar dara kasawa”, meaning “the end justifies the means”. But in spite of the APC braving the storm to win the 2023 polls, these developments clearly manifest the chaos of Wamakko’s politics, the reality that he is losing grip and chronicle his ultimate fall, which is a matter of when, rather than if.
It would thus help Wamakko more, if the media practitioners around him focus on these realities of their master’s political predicament, rather than chasing the shadows of imagined enemies, who are assigned their roles in his inevitable political downfall by the conditions he himself single-handedly created. It is a conclusion that cannot be averted by malicious or acrimonious publications.
As for the smear campaign against Lamido and his group and indeed, all those, who are constrained to so far defy Wamakko, his media hounds should learn to throw their invectives at other people with some caution, lest they hurt their own sponsors in the process. An instance of this folly is the mention in the Facebook post, of the lack of articulation on the part of certain senators, for if eloquence at plenary is the measure of competence, the entire nation know who the most wanting legislators are from Sokoto State. Equally, if fluency in any language is the most important quality of leadership, the whole of Nigeria is well-aware of the worst governor in the country on that account.
If lack of this attribute is the disqualification from leadership, as the Facebook writer suggests, that would also preclude his own paymasters, namely Senator Wamakko and Ahmed Aliyu from the leadership of the APC in Sokoto State. That is in addition to the their self-disconnect from the mass of party members in the state, which is caused by their absolute monopoly of the party structure and total exclusion of all stakeholders from running the affairs of the APC.
His divergent perspective from the norm is what has drawn the wrath of Wamakko’s camp towards Senator Lamido. Insisting on taking personal responsibility in discharging his mandate of improving the lives of his constituents as their elected legislator is seen as a defiance of the totalitarian order, by which all office holders under the party concede all incentives for the people to Senator Wamakko to distribute even if they are outside his Senatorial Zone.
The sheer volume of work that the Sokoto East Senator has accomplished on his own, towards the alleviation of poverty and general empowerment of the electorate of his zone is intimidating and unsettling to the control-obsessed Wamakko faction of the APC. Over the last one-and- a-half years, he has sent 100 youths to study in institutions of learning in India at over N900 million in tuition and other allowances, in addition to sponsoring 20 students to the North West University, while also supporting 11,820 students in institutions within Nigeria with N50,000 each to facilitate their studies. He also completed half of the tuition fees for all students of the zone at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, at the cost N83 million, when the Sokoto State Government for the first time in the history of scholarship policy decided to settle only 50% of fees for state indigenes.
Apart from the installation of solar lights in various communities and drilling of motorised solar boreholes to address the scarcity of clean water in local governments in the zone, Lamido procured foodstuff and assorted relief materials for thousands of IDPs and other indigents across the zone, in addition to the distribution of 16 trailer loads of rice to the people during Ramadan.
Addressing insecurity, for which Sokoto East is the epicentre in the state, the Senator has gone beyond the provision of succor to victims. He has in addition, brought in and sustained a civilian task force group from Borno State to compliment the effort of the security agents deployed to the area to fight banditry.
This is tremendously far from Wamakko’s dismal contribution to the fight on insecurity, even when from 2019 to 2023, when he was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Security. In spite of that portfolio, he had nothing to show, in that regard even as a Senator, representing some of the local governments being affected by banditry. His co-leader of APC and current Governor of Sokoto State did no better despite his position at the time as the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund.
Similar interventions are carried out by Sani Yakubu Gudu within his own constituency. He has distributed over three million assorted relief items to IDPs created by banditry in Tangaza local government that include foodstuff, beddings and other necessary domestic implements. This is in addition to the provision of millions of Naira worth of Ramadan items and aid packages to widow’s and orphans in the area.
Sani Yakubu has extended empowerment support to social, occupational and religious groups in his constituency to the tune of millions of Naira. Beneficiaries include commercial vehicle drivers, farmers, Imams and social media users. He has also empowered 300 youths in Gudu and Tangaza local governments with cash assistance of N50,000 each and distributed 12 motorcycles at the total cost of N12,600,000.
In the area of security, the legislator has supported security agents stationed within Gudu-Tangaza Federal Constituency and vigilante groups in order to strengthen their fight on banditry in the area. This is against the background of increasing criticism of the Wamakko teleguided State Government over its perceived lack of performance in the fight on banditry.
Both legislators are also forthcoming in support for the party machinery in the zone. Their combined efforts has seen to the provision of vehicles and financial support for APC officials in Sokoto East, that include Senator Lamido’s procurement of 12 four wheel vehicles for party officers in the Senatorial District and Gudu’s gift of N10 million to the APC Executive Committees in the Gudu-Tangaza Constituency.
Although they have incurred the ire of the Wamakko camp against Lamido and Gudu and by extension their camp, these interventions by the two federal lawmakers have endeared their faction to a large segment of party elements in the Eastern zone and beyond,with followers beginning to realise the benefits of freeing the APC from the absolute control of a cabal. This sentiment has resulted in the rapidly soaring support for the Lamido camp, as a growing number of members across Sokoto State abandon the old order to identify with the change that the emerging new force represents.
This wind is sweeping across all levels of the party, as ordinary members and officials flock to join Lamido’s camp. The array of converts include whole ward and local government Executive Committees, who relinquish their positions in the Wamakko controlled structure and civil servants, who are summarily resigning to declare allegiance to Lamido and his group. Recently, 19 traditional rulers in the bandits dominated Sabon Birni Local Government abdicated in order to support the camp.
As Senator Wamakko and his decreasing faction of APC indulge in denial and while his media team struggle to sustain a false narrative to appease his hubris, the rug is, as far as the control of the party is concerned, is being pulled from under his feet. He should thus look inwards for the causes of his political crises, rather than rely on his team of hack writers, whose only role in his politics is to massage his ego, whenever, as a result of his own egocentrism, it is bruised.
Sadiq Bello Abdulkadir
Malali, Kaduna
