According to late Chairman Mao Zedong of China, politics is a war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed. The recent controversy surrounding the interview granted by Senator Ahmed Mohammed Maccido (Sokoto Central) is a clear indication of politics as described by Chairman Mao; it borders on the likely person to contest for the same seat in the forthcoming 2015 elections.
Desperate politicians, Governor Magatakarda Wamakko to be specific and his hirelings, are only using the said interview to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it, because he is desperate for the same senatorial seat Senator Maccido is holding in trust for his people. In a recent article in Leadership newspaper of March 28, 2009, one Sahabi Garba, tried in vain to make a baseless point and capitalized by quoting what the Sultanate Council said about the interview in question.
Due to the reverence of Sultanate Council as the official custodian of Islamic religion in Nigeria, the seat of Sokoto central senatorial district has been allocated to the Sultanate since the Second Republic. This is an unwritten law in defunct Sokoto state. During the Shagari regime, it was late Senator
Aliyu Maisango, son of late Sultan Abubakar III, who held the title of Durunbun Sokoto who was elected. He was re-elected during the botched Third Republic during the SDP/NRC politics. In 1999, the same Senator Maisango was re-elected, from the Sultanate Council and served from 1999 to 2003.
From him, another Sultanate family member, son of Sultan Muhammadu Maccido, Senator Badamasi Maccido, replaced him in the senate, up to the time he died in a plane crash in Abuja, together with his father. In 2007, younger brother to late Senator Badamasi Maccido, Ahmed Mohammed
Maccido, was elected to the same seat. He did the first tenure, but because Wamakko in his agenda to create disunity that will result into the Sultanate losing the seat altogether, sponsored another Sultanate family member, who incidentally served in his cabinet as a commissioner against the incumbent Senator Ahmed Maccido in 2011. But this failed. Senator Maccido scaled through all the landmines of Wamakko. He is still serving in that position.
The sponsored writer tried to say the Sultanate council has distanced itself from the senator that he is representing the Sultanate at the National Assembly. This is false. For anyone who knows the politics of Sokoto state, Sokoto Central Senatorial zone is represented by family members from the Sultanate council since the Second republic to date.
To say the least, the write up is full of lies. It said, “It was Wamkako who came to Senator Maccido’s rescue in due deference to late Sultan Muhammadu Maccido his father…” This is far from the truth. Sultan Maccido was alive during the Bafarawa administration; Senator Badamasi was still alive, while Wammako was deputy governor, having a running political battle with his godfather, Governor Attahiru Bafarawa. When Ahmed Maccido became senator in 2007, Wamakko was struggling to find his way into Sokoto Government House.
Then, who assisted who? It was Senator Maccido who really helped Wammako to win elections due to sympathy to his political plights because of the esteem of his family. Again, when Senator Maccido won the senate seat, his father was dead. In what way did Wamakko come to his rescue? Please, if a writer or speaker is a fool, the reader or listener is not. They can tell this to the birds. This is a lie. The records are there.
When the writer said, “Wamakko has left indelible marks in the sand of Sokoto state development history,” we are certain he is referring to the landmark projects that belong to the previous Bafarawa administration. Some of Wamakko’s so-called achievements include acute water shortage in Sokoto metropolis, let alone rural areas; poor environmental sanitation in and around Sokoto metropolis, with imminent cholera outbreak; the entrenchment of a culture of throwing money at people during public functions, including burial ceremonies; entrenchment of political thuggery, known as ‘area boys’ that terrorized the citizens at will; delayed payment of salaries, which was not the case during the Bafarawa administration that used to pay on 23-25 of every month. It is pathetic, if these are achievements.
In a nutshell, the Sokoto central senatorial seat is now a darling of Wamakko, and the only path to thread in getting it is through deception, defamation of character of the incumbent Senator Maccido. That is why he is now making futile attempts to use the name of the Sultanate Council by capitalising on a belated interview by Senator Ahmed Mohammed Maccido. But as the saying goes, kifi na ganinka mai jar koma, the more he tries, the more frustrated he becomes.
Labbo is National Chairman, Concerned Citizens of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello Way, Sokoto
