By Zailani bappa
Zamfara State has consistently been in the news for all the bad things in the past. If it was not kidnapping for ransom, it was maiming, looting and killings. The least of them was political brigandage. All these were earned stamp of discredit under the worst leadership Zamfara state has ever witnessed, steered by the worst leader it ever had, Abdulazeez Yari.
For eight years, the rudderless government of Yari led the people from one agony and angst to another with cumulative indignity and no-remorse arrogance which, invariably, helped in consuming the whole pack as never witnessed in the entire history of Nigerian politics. This was in the immediate past.
The immediate future, then, was now. We all thought this period will serve as a lesson of sort to this discredited pack. Alas! It simply charged their inner capacity for satanic initiatives which today, are making the political lives of the people in the state more difficult once again.
The hunting dogs of these discredited desposts have told everyone who cared to listen that the Matawalle administration was the terror. They said it has severally ordered the arrest of its prominent members, it has persecuted their social media activists and it has developed a culture of silencing the opposition.
That’s what they say all the time. However, the Matawalle administration does not look over its shoulder over these as every focused and responsible government will do. It remained committed to good governance and seriousness in administration which today earned it the best of respect from the ordinary citizens in the state for bringing peace, harmony and respect for human dignity to an erstwhile fragmented and battered society it inherited.
What is common on their lips is always the same rhetoric that Matawalle administration did not come by the ballot but by the Court verdict. And I wonder if the Court verdict awarded the administration to Matawalle due to his wardrobe sense. The Court awarded verdict to the next highest votes. And it was the next highest votes that brought him to power not just the verdict.
In any case, the rhetoric is beginning to show its defect now that Yari has now shranked into a rattled chicken over the by-election coming up in the next few hours to fill the vacant Bakura House of Assembly seat in the state Legislature. Rattled to the spine, Yari run cup in hand and tail between the legs to raise cash and seek some might support from Governors of his own political Party, Ministers of his own political Party and the Chieftains of his own political Party to gang-storm Zamfara state to help him win this election so as to save his face among the lot he lies about his political relevance in the new Zamfara State under Matawalle.
Significantly, they chose the time to show this might as the final date the state PDP candidate sought clearance from the Police to round up his campaign in a grand finale at Bakura this Thursday, the 3rd of December, 2020. In a brazen show of shame, a sitting Minister of Police Affairs garnered heavy armoury to surround them and personally led Yari and his team to enter Bakura on the same day. There was pandemonium as a result of this where many innocent persons were injured. The worst part of this game was when the Yari thugs caught and slaughtered two PDP stalwarts in the presence of security agents as their illegal rally continued.
Yes, the rally held by Yari and his team of disloyal citizens was illegal because the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of our zone has earlier declared a curfew in the Local Government to forestall further slaughter of innocent souls. But Yari and the Minister of Police flouted the order and went ahead to do the rally in spite.
His Excellency, Governor Bello Mohammed as the Chief Security Officer of the state visited Bakura later in the day to assess the situation. What he discovered was a bundle of different tales of woe and sorry stories. It is very unfortunate that at a time when the administration of Matawalle is sacrificing everything within its disposal to address the ills of the society, official might is used to aid spilling of innocent blood just like bandits do. But, then, the public is not a gullible public. It has the capacity to discern who is now the terror in their midst.
Zailani Bappah is a Special Assistant on Media and Communications to Zamfara State Governor.
