By Bilyamin Abdulmumin
With the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu of APC as the presidential winner of the last week 2023 general election, the choice of Kebbi State gubernatorial candidate has become even clearer.
But before that discussion, let’s highlight one catchy consequence of last week’s election results: Nigerian unity. The just concluded general election has ushered in us a promising era of unity and cohesion in the country, thanks to the Northern voters who shunned regional sentiment, and crossed ethical lines to vote for the southern presidential candidate. This is a priceless smile at Nigeria’s democracy. The Northern voters have had, previously in the third republic demonstrated a similar gesture where they en masse voted Southern candidate, MKO Abiola of SDP against the “son of the soil”, Bashir Tofa of NRC. But since then this single-out unique gesture kept going down the hill. Regional and ethical sentiments have increasingly become the order of the day for Nigerian elections. I learned that the narrative in the South was that, the North has since folded their tent, voting only on ethical lines. In other words, voting for a southern presidential candidate has since been a thing of the past in the North. However, the results of the last week’s general election have discredited this narrative, North’s position as a force to reckon with in the unity bridge has been restored when they eschewed primordial affiliation to vote Bola Ahmed Tinubu against Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Back to the state level for the next coming gubernatorial election, why Kauran Gwandu? Politics is not a one-fell swoop where it is either black or white, there are various strategic moves undertaken to achieve maximum benefits. Given the North’s role in bringing the president to power, it will be unwise to dash the victory to the opposition at the state level, in other words, we cannot throw the baby out with the bath water by electing the opposition in our state. How can you try hard to bring in a presidency only to surrender the state to the opposition, that is not plausible. It should be clear even to the most commoner that good rapport between state and federal government is necessary to ensure salient achievements and progress in the state throughout a given tenure, and this is irrespective of the state governor’s capacity. For instance, as a result of the difference in political parties between the Tinubu-led Lagos state and Obasanjo federal government, turbulence relationship ensued throughout their respective tenures forcing the former to resort to an informal way of generating income, although that successfully worked in the state to make the end meet but the consequences of that still haunt Lagos state in the form of notorious ‘agberos’ (radicals illegal tax collectors that continue to terrorize the small and medium businesses).
Another similar example was that between the then Jega LG chairman Lawal Buhari (PDP) and the then Kebbi state governor Muhammad Adamu Aleiro (APP). Jega’s local government had to watch other local governments being considered above them just because of the difference between the local and state governments politics.
So, this call is especially for both the supporters of the major two political parties APC and PDP to shield their swords, come together and fight for a common goal: the progress of Kebbi State. The APC’s unexpected performance in the state at various levels should not be a deterrent. Losing doesn’t equate to government underperformance, for instance, Bola Ahmed Tinubu lost Lagos state to Peter Obi even though all the Tinubu positive antecedents owe themselves to the state building. The election is not there to be won all, rather some elections are won and others are lost.
Dear patriots, putting the federal government in power is not enough, we are not done yet, we have to extend the hand of friendship to the state government. Keep the hope alive Insha Allah Kaura is coming.
