APC Sokoto: As Malami, Shekarau bite more than they can chew…

Democracy is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation, or to choose governing officials to do so.

It is also a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through

elected representatives. It is indeed a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

It is really a representative form of governance that is the vogue, globally. Any other system or form of governance orl leadershipis often detested, rejected and regarded as pharaonic. It is therefore trite to state that in afree society, whether having to do with intra or inter party affairs, there must be true democracy; hence, the electorate must be allowed to elect and or choose the people to lead them in any way or under any circumstance. The above abounds in Nigeria.

Currently, there are many registered political parties in Nigeria, including the APC and the PDP. In this direction, these political parties have their own structures and leadership hierarchy.

Thus, the respective members of these political parties should be independent enough to elect the people they want to lead them, either at the internal party leadership status or at the elective level.

The above therefore implies that every political party should be left to choose its leaders and their respective flag bearers.

There should not therefore be any interference in doing this. Instructively, these parties and their members are free to give their mandates and leadership responsibilities to people they desire and out of their own volition.

In Sokoto state, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has its structures and leadership hierarchy and these leaders emerge through routine constitutional processes. The party should therefore be left alone to function and be led only by its own and not through any extraneous, strange diabolical hands.

This is even as the party may have some internal hiccups that are not only peculiar to the APC. This includes the ongoing leadership tussle in the state chapter of the party where some Judases are causing a stir in the leadership hierarchy of the party, woefully contesting the leadership or the mandate freely and voluntarily given to its duly recognised leader, Alhaji Isa Sadiq Achida.

One therefore wonders when people that are alien to the party and the state are unwholesomely meddling in the affairs of the state chapter of the party devoid of any shame or prickness of their conscience.

These are the glaring obnoxious cases of the incumbent justice minister and Attorney-General of the Federation, Alhaji

Abubakar Malami (SAN) and the former Kano state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau who is also the current Senator representing Kano Central Senatorial District at the nation’s upper chamber.

The public endorsement of a factional chairman of APC in Sokoto state, Alhaji Mainasara Sani, was therefore an outright aberration. They have no business interfering in the affairs of the Sokoto state APC while the same party in their respective states of Kebbi and Kano are also troubled. Also, by such undue interference, the duo, especially the justice minister, had violated the oath of office in contravention of the nation’s 1999 Constitution, as amended. This act by Malami also deserves some punitive measures to be meted to him.

It was sequel to this that a myriad of patriotic and well-meaning APC members in Sokoto on February 28, 2022, rose in unison and chided Malami for his unbecoming action.

The party loyalists, led by its state chairman, Alhaji Isa Sadiq Achida, asked Malami to resign his position. Achida made the call at a pressc conference, arguing that Malami had trampled on his office by preempting court judgment on the disputes at different levels.

Achida said, ”It was glaring unfortunate for Malami to drag his exalted office to the mud being the AGF and the chief law officer ofthe federation to openly pre-empt court judgment. By Malami’s singular act of recognising a faction of APC in Sokoto state, having known the matter is pending before the Court of Appeal is an abberation.

The minister has breached the sanctity of the constitution and his oath of office which requires him not to allow his personal interest to influence official conduct.”

Achida further called on the acting national chairman of APC, Alhaji Mai-Mala Buni, to expel Malami because of his numerous roles in destabilising the APC in Sokoto, Kano, Kebbi, Zamfara and Kwara states, among others. According to him, Malami’s and former Kano state governor, Sen Ibrahim Shekarau’s presence at a function in Sokoto was a calculated attempt to disrupt the party’s unity in Sokoto.

Achida argued that, ”If Shekarau has any expertise in political manipulation, he should redirect it towards achieving his ambition of controlling the APC in Kano rather than Sokoto. The duo came to Sokoto with a single mission to destabilise the APC in Sokoto state, We feel bold to tell them that they lost party control in their states; in Sokoto also their mission is dead on arrival.”

Achida stated that he addressed the press conference on behalf of senators, state assembly and House of Representatives members, elders committee, state and local government executives and others.

He urged APC supporters to disregard the utterance of Malami and Shekarau and remain united in support of APC leader, Sen Aliyu Wamakko, who ensures that the party progresses at all levels.

Corroborating the stance of Achida and all the members of the party in the state, 13 members of the state House of Assembly led by the APC leader, Alhaji Bello Isa Ambarura have also vehemently condemned the spiteful acts of Malami and Shekarau.

According to Ambarura, the action of Malami was prejudicial and contemptuous that would cast doubts in the minds of all discerning Nigerians regarding the sanctity of judgments and the entire judiciary in the country. This will put the all-important arm of government that everyone runs to in case of disputes between individuals, groups and or arms of governments, among others.

The APC leader further noted that the minister of justice should have known better than other ‘unlearned’ Nigerians that all matters before courts of law are not subjects of public comments until they are duly dispensed with appropriately.

The lawmakers therefore advised Malami and Shekarau to go back to their respective states to put their houses in order and make APC in those states better than they are now. He noted that they should ensure that they take control of the party in those states rather than meddle in the affairs of other states.

They further restated their unalloyed loyalty to the leadership of the undisputed political Patriarch of Sokoto state as well as the choice of the APC members of the state, Alhaji Isa Sadiq Achida. They also averred that Achida is the chairman recognised by the law and duly recognised by INEC.

It is therefore heartwarming that these right thinking members of the APC under Achida have chided Malami and have appropriately asked him to do the needful and resign from his position and allow for the appointment of another law abiding individual to be the nation’s chief law officer.

Halilu, a public affairs analyst, writes from Rungumi, Sokoto state