The most traumatic event in the life of a sailor, as we read in the tales of mariners during our primary school days, was when a ship is sinking. The most dreaded words uttered by a ship’s Captain were, “The ship is sinking! Abandon ship! Everyman for himself! God for us all!”
Zamfara State Governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle probably said the political equivalent of this prayer last week just before he lowered the PDP umbrella and raised the APC broom. A state governor defecting from the political party under which platform he became governor to another one is a traumatic event even by Nigerian political standards. For evidence, look at the political, administrative, security, protocol, spiritual and media confusion before, during and even after Matawalle’s defection from PDP to APC.
For many weeks there were rumours that he would defect, which were feebly denied. Both PDP and APC governors scrambled to Zamfara State to show solidarity with Matawalle and bring relief materials whenever anything untoward happened in the state, which was often. APC’s national chairman Governor Mai Mala Buni was eager to extend his stellar record of wooing over PDP governors during his caretaker tenure, the biggest mark yet of his political effectiveness. PDP’s chairman Uche Secondus was also determined to keep Matawalle, to stem the political dia rrhoea that recently afflicted his party.
Weeks ago Matawalle sacked his commissioners, SSG, chief of staff, advisers and assistants in order to lure local APC chieftains with existing vacancies. He quitely restored some officials to office, only to sack all of them again at the weekend. He couldn’t bring himself to tell his Deputy Governor that he was defecting, obviously because Mahdi Aliyu Gusau’s father has been the soul of Zamfara PDP since 1998. While former governor and 2023 APC presidential aspirant Ahmed Sani Yariman Bakura urged Matawalle to abandon ship, former governor and APC state leader Abdulaziz Yari fought to keep him on board. In that effort, Yari suddenly made common cause with his bitter party foe Senator Kabiru Marafa, the same man who helped Matawalle to stabilise his accidental governorship two years ago.
Both men are now saying that Matawalle’s coming into APC last week was only symbolic; that he can only come in for good if a power-sharing deal is worked out with its existing leaders. Yarima is however saying Matawalle is already in and by APC’s constitution, he is already the Zamfara State party leader. Don’t forget, Yarima and Yari were inseparable ten years ago. In all Yari’s campaign posters that year, Yarima’s beaming, bearded face was up infront. Yari was elected governor in 2011 completely on Yarima’s Shari’a-painted coat tails.
Does that sound to you like enough confusion? Ok, remember 21st Century Chronicle’s story last week, that 23 sitting governors defected from their parties to others since 1999. Each defection was accompanied by at least as much confusion as Matawalle’s. Each particular defection was enough story to fill a book. Some governors had better reasons than others for defecting. Some had to go because their godfathers had defected. Others were pushed out of their parties by hostile godfathers and Federal forces. Still others defected because their parties merged with others. Bello Matawalle said he defected from PDP because it is autocratic. That is not a good reason; autocracy is the maggi with which Nigerian political broth is seasoned.
For reasons of comparison, during the four years of the Second Republic 1979-83, only three governors defected from their parties. PRP and GNPP governors tried to merge with UPN and NPP governors in PPP. When the overly partisan FEDECO refused to register PPP, Kano’s Mohammed Abubakar Rimi defected to NPP while Borno’s Muhammadu Goni and Gongola’s Abubakar Barde defected to UPN. Kaduna’s Abba Musa Rimi remained in PRP. Rimi thought the Zik-led, Igbo-dominated NPP was more acceptable in Kano while Goni thought the Awo-led, Yoruba-dominated UPN was more acceptable in Borno because of the traditional joking relationship between Kanuri and Yoruba. Maybe the traditional joking relationship between Tiv and Fulani facilitated Ortom’s defection from PDP to APC in 2014, but it has now soured greatly.
If you are a commissioner, an SSG, adviser or assistant under such a man and he is making his defection plans purely based on personal political benefit, you are in for a very rough time. You are like a pawn on a chessboard, to be played back and forth. Pray that the gale of governorship defections has ended, but one cannot be sure. Governor Mai Mala Buni is a rare gentleman in Nigerian politics, smiling, soft spoken and energetic. But he is hard-nosed when it comes to wooing defectors. Rumours are that he already has one or two more PDP governors in his sights. Probably why he got a tenure extension…
