Bauchi PDP, Ningi, and political brigands, by Gidado Ali

It’s a fact to reckon with that the political space is not meant to be smooth.
It has always been tough with diverse interest.
In some cases a spouse may not hold the opinion of the partner and a child may find a candidate or a political party’s promise more attractive and more believable than the one his or parents favour.
It is democracy.
And its beauty is the freedom of choice and the room it gives for thorough mutually respectful engagements.
Of course, the liberties democracy offers must never be construed as a freedom to visit danger and or other assaults on anyone who prefers a candidate, an opinion or a political party different from yours.
An opposition, real or imagined must be accorded the respect that he or she deserves.
It is democracy.
The political violence that filled our cities in the time past have been due largely to our failure to task ourselves to play by the rules.
We failed to imbibe the real ethos of democracy and we paid dearly for it.
Here in Bauchi state, much like our neighbours, we had a potpourri of security issues that requires a steely commitment and ceaseless campaign, appeals and compromises to reverse the cancer of insecurity occasioned largely by politics.
Alhamdulillah, we are now gone past the sordid past.
Governor Mohammed A.
Abubakar of Bauchi state deserves some credits for brokering peace and sustaining same since he assumed office in 2015.
The governor’s name features in this opinion because he is essentially the father of citizens and residents of Bauchi state.
This, in addition to his position as the chief security officer of the state, makes him worthy of praise when there is peace and in the same token very much to blame if there is any reversal of the gains made so far.
As a citizen, I am not only interested in the success of M.A Abubakar as a governor, I am also interested in ensuring that nothing and no one destroys our treasured calm.
The memories of disquiet are much too harsh for us to let the merchants of hateful politics hold sway.
This is why His Excellency must rise to the ugly occasion of dangerous politics being advanced by Hon.
Salisu Zakari Ningi of PDP.
The authority has moral and lawful duty to discourage and quell any invitation to anarchy such as canvassed by Ningi.
Apart from the need for his newly found party to show the world that it is no sanctuary to crime loving elements, they owe the good people of Bauchi state a debt of honour and responsibility to exert punitive measures on Ningi over his highly volatile campaign.
A widely circulated video of his campaign shows that the man Ningi has no regard to the enormity of the cost of peace.
Perhaps, while things were unbearably critical in the various hotspots across this region, Ningi’s privileged life afforded him the means to jet out of the country, leaving behind millions of people behind? Whatever makes and supposed Distinguished so insensitive to the welfare of the vast majority, the authorities and relevant stakeholders must be interested in finding out.
No individual or group should be allowed to trump the quiet of our state.
And Ningi’s resort to thuggery and violence, vulgarity and threat must be promptly recognized as a dangerous departure from the politics that Bauchi state and entire peace loving Nigerians seek.
The values of compassion, discipline and commitment to greater good of the people is what must be encouraged to flourish in the land.
Nothing else must be allowed to override the need for credibility and good character in our body politic.
I cannot but lay this moral burden on His Excellency Barr Abubakar, the Executive Governor of Bauchi state, and the elders including security agencies to save us from Ningi and others like him.
For before we blink, 2019 will be here with us.
Ali writes from Bauchi