It seems the combatants in the fratricidal feud in Kaduna State are unyielding in their determination to end it, as both parties to the protracted dispute are not weakening or easing up in spirit and the speed with which they get at each other’s throat. Each new day introduces different twist in the vendetta between two erstwhile buddies that have now turned into sworn enemies, with each vowing to fight to a mutually destructive finish. That is what the unfortunate strife promises to herald because it is now attaining a frightening level which even the government could not inhibit.
Yes, the government may not be able to impede its growth and escalation because its helmsman is said to be directly involved in its development and is playing a very vital role in sustaining it.
The gladiators are both powerful and extremely resourceful persons, with large groups of people that formed fanatical followership, exhibiting whole-hearted admiration and enthusiastic support to their role models. Governor Nasir Ahmed el-Rufa’i and Shehu Sani are resilient members of the APC family in Kaduna State before, during and after the 2015 general elections. Both were successful in the elections they had contested. Nasir eventually emerged as governor, Shehu Sani as the Senator of Kaduna Central Zone. Soon, the relationship that was struck during the brief period of harmony and goodwill that existed between the two political allies suddenly turned sour. Governor Nasir had suddenly changed, withdrawing into his narrow shell, becoming inaccessible to his party officials and colleagues.
That development did not go down well with the generality of APC membership which subsequently accused him of running a one-man show and conducting the affairs of the government as if it was his private estate. He was also invariably accused of patronizing only his friends and relatives in his appointments or the privileges he had given to few loyal supporters. Many fell out with him because it was said that he had ultimately failed to make wide consultations with the party’s stakeholders who had labored assiduously to install his administration on many fundamental issues. Senator Shehu Sani was among those that felt deeply betrayed by Governor Nasir’s apparent inability to consult frontline politicians in the state when he had wanted to appoint the commissioners he had unilaterally nominated from their areas or constituencies. For that they felt marginalized in an affair they could not be sidelined.
Since then the die was cast and the stage was set for bickering and bitter complaints, culminating in a face-off and painful altercations in a bad-tampered way. First, the supporters of Governor Nasir, spearheaded by his most influential political aides, summarily tried Senator Shehu Sani over what was described as trumped up charges disrespecting and maligning the party leadership. That led to his purported suspension and even the intervention of a seemingly lame-duck Zonal chapter of the party did not help in ameliorating the matter.
Again, apparently distraught with , Senator Shehu Sani’s rising profile his political ward slammed another indefinite suspension on him which was irrationally affirmed by the already compromised party’s state chapter. In a sharp reaction to the what he called misguided action of the state’s chapter Sani dismissed the suspension as an act by unofficial and mock assembly of unelected people set up for the purpose of delivering a judgment arrived at in advance. Shehu Sani deposed that in Kaduna there is only a dysfunctional executive committee of unelected party officials, unilaterally handpicked by the governor to serve and message his ego. Unless and until, there is an elected representatives of the members in the State Exco, Senator Sani argued, he and his people will never subject themselves to any other authority.
Now, what all these disputes and disagreements are leading to in Kaduna State is chaos and disorder, as the bad blood they have engendered has already began to manifest in ugly perception. Already, some people said to be political thugs, allegedly sponsored by those in government have been arrested for what was called premeditated attack on the staff of Senator Sani’s office as they were holding a regular meeting to regularize their approach to the ongoing textual war on the social media. Several people were manhandled, robbed and injured. Earlier Shehu Sani ancestral home in Kaduna municipality was dastardly attacked by hoodlums believed to be surrogates of highly placed government officials.
With the prevailing violence in Southern part of Kaduna State and the attendant killings unresolved, Kaduna State could presently not afford the manifestation of any form of destructive violence. The government must, therefore, endeavor to nip in the bud any emerging political dispute by setting up machinery to forge urgent return to normalcy. That may not be easy for Governor Nasir especially as he was said to have deliberately allowed the situation to degenerate and could not restrain his principal aides, said to be in the mess up to their necks. Perhaps the only remedy to this reprehensible state of affairs is to resuscitate the party structure so it could use its big stick to bring the disputants to order. That is what Governor Nasir is expected to do, pronto.
