Sokoto 2023 and the moles, judases in APC 


Like a broken dam, the moles and judases in Sokoto APC are unexpectedly being laid bare, in the manner of karmic effect. They are gradually exposing themselves one after the other. Again, like the cookies, they are crumbling slowly while their treacherous intentions are no longer a hidden secret.

The latest in this self-expression drama was Yusuf Suleiman (Dan Amar Sokoto), who singularly gave himself a very high scorecard of contributions to the APC and said he has made up his mind to “move on”. He was so presumptuous that no one would read through his ridden agenda of sneaking into the PDP. Instead of hitting the nail on the head, he resorted to a pretence, heaping all blame of APC’s normal internal bickerings on leadership failure.

His game was open – give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. Coming a few days after a certain media aid offered same, debatable excuses to quit, is enough pointer that more judases are involved in self-exposition and on their way out of the APC – having completed their spying assignments for the opposition party moneybags.

Long before now, the game plan has always been how to plot the fall of the APC under the leadership of Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, who has been the indefatigable, sole live-wire of the party in Sokoto. 

This plot to destabilise the party under Wamakko began when it dawned on the moles that their selfish motives cannot be actualised along with the sinister agenda of their paymasters in the opposition party of the state. With the former state governor in firm grip of APC’s affairs, it was obvious that manipulation won’t just be possible and the undertakers can only run away with their empty casket.

Let us reflect deeply on the moles and their tendencies. First, it was Hon. Abdullahi Salame, who Wamakko single-handedly drafted into party politics in 2007. Wamakko made him what he is today in politics but he still found it convenient to play the betrayer. He came up with a kangaroo platform named Sokoto Vision 2023, along with one Senator Abubakar Gada, who, since losing woefully in his bid to return to the senate in 2011, has been at loggerheads with Wamakko. 

Gada, who got the 2007 senatorial ticket through alleged dubious means, has never been popular, politically, and so in 2011 his constituents revolted against his return and demanded for his replacement in person of Senator Abdullahi Gobir, who has been representing the Sokoto east senatorial district since 2011. In fact, to prove how irrelevant Gada is in Sokoto politics, he scored a Zero Vote in the just concluded APC governorship primaries. The news making the rounds in Sokoto today is that the two, along with one Abdullahi Hassan, teamed up in the plot to destabilise the APC in Sokoto but failed.

Having failed to do the bidding of their sponsors, those footing the bill had no option than to unmask themselves and face the battle squarely; and that was when the likes of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, Hon  Faruku Malami Yabo and Abubakar Shehu Tambuwal all appeared on the suspicious list of those who were hell-bent on taking over the affairs of the APC from its leader and sole sponsor, Wamakko, for their selfish motives. 

The truth was laid bare, it became obvious that part of the plot was to conduct a parallel congress so that when the matter was tabled before the courts, the attorney-general would use his influence to take over the party from Wamakko. That plot also failed, despite Malami’s outburst in Sokoto on February 26, 2022, that Hon. Isa Sadiq Achida was no longer the party chairman in the state but one Mohammed Mainasara. 

Apparently aware that they could not achieve their selfish ambitions, the conspirators sponsored gubernatorial aspirants to challenge whoever the APC was to anoint as its candidate. Yet again, the plot failed, as their aspirants performed woefully in the just-concluded governorship primaries.With all the shenanigans crashing, the conspirators had to give in, for failure has been their trademark. They no longer feel comfortable in the APC as their conscience is not at ease and therefore one-by-one they are retreating into their shells.

Few days ago, one of the APC governorship aspirants, Hon. Yusuf Suleiman, announced in the APC elders WhatsApp Forum that the circumstances he found himself in the party recently was such that, he could no longer continue to give in “absolute loyalty” of his efforts or commitment to the party and therefore the honourable thing to do was to quit the party. Can “absolute loyalty” ever change? Anyway, that is a matter for another day. According to him, things in the party have degenerated to a level that he has to end his three-year or so journey with the APC. The fundamental question here is, what value or conquest did he bring into the party in the last three years apart from sabotaging the APC in the re.run election in Kebbe local government area in 2019? 

There were strong allegations that “they compromised” the APC victory in that Inconclusive election and therefore played a major role in the party’s defeat. Was that not sabotage and betrayal? Was there any fortune he brought into the party that his absence would be felt? And most importantly, why did he leave the PDP to the APC in 2018? Was it not because of lack of internal party democracy, as he claimed three years ago, when he ditched the PDP and joined the APC? Is the PDP he ditched in 2018 now any better as a party than when he left? With politicians like him leaving the APC, is that not good riddance?

If joining a political party is all about selfish motives and interests then everyone should form their political parties to prevent unnecessary accusations. This leads us to question: Why are Nigerian politicians so selfish – once they contest and lose, the next thing is to dump the party and look for another platform instead of staying to rebuild through commitment?

Hon. Yusuf Suleiman has since 1999 been a PDP member until in 2018 when he joined the APC.Therefore, for him to quit the APC after just three years, having spent close to 20 years in the PDP is not surprising. He left the PDP in 2018 after failing to achieve his senatorial and gubernatorial ambitions, respectively. In 1999, he contested in the senatorial election and lost and since then has been nursing a governorship ambition but was not able to have the privilege of taking part in the exercise within the PDP, not until he joined the APC. Throughout his stay in the PDP he never for once took part in the gubernatorial primaries until this year when the APC gave him the enabling space to try his luck. In the end he only got 16 votes out of over 1,000.

Recall that Yusuf Suleiman was a one-time minister of transportation and later sports, under President Goodluck Jonathan and was solely nominated by Wamakko while the latter was governor of Sokoto state. Yusuf, just like all those fighting Wamakko in the APC, is a great beneficiary of Wamakko’s benevolence and magnanimity but just because they are in a hurry to rub shoulder with him, they have been plotting to outwit him; and all their attempts have failed. If you decide to bite the finger that feeds you then you should be ready to go to sleep on an empty stomach.

In 2012 while still a minister in Jonathan’s cabinet, he was mis-advised by some tired politicians in the PDP to contest the governorship race against Wamakko, who was the incumbent governor then, and bereft of good political arithmetic he fell into their trap. They misled him to resign his ministerial portfolio as sports minister but he later chickened out and was in fact missing in action at the venue of the gubernatorial primaries.

Since then he never contested in any primaries until he joined the APC. Apart from nominating Yusuf Suleiman as minister, Wamakko single-handedly nominated him again as chairman of NAFDAC, a position he held until last month when he resigned and took part in the APC gubernatorial primaries, in which he got only 16 votes from the over 1,000 votes cast. By this outcome, it appears he has already lost it politically and no longer relevant in the scheme of things, politically.

All those who contested in the Sokoto APC governorship primaries and lost have all at one time or the other benefitted immensely from Wamakko’s kind gesture but they are the same people fighting to pull him down and repeatedly failing. They are now seen for what they really have been —  serial political betrayers. The APC is an association which accommodates the good, the bad and the ugly and, therefore, betrayal is an ingredient in the game. Anytime these conspirators cum betrayers plan against Wamakko, God also plans against them by making him wax stronger and stronger.

At the end of it all, the political arithmetic of the just-concluded governorship primaries has proved that by careful calculation, all the six musketeers who lost to the winner could not get 100 votes in total while the winner ended up with 1,080 votes. He has, therefore, made them politically irrelevant and whichever political party they join, they would definitely be seen as political liabilities.

Mohammed writes from Sokoto, Sokoto state