The prevalence of executive lawlessness and political brigandage has been the order of the day in the country as those at the helm of affairs engage in all manner of strategies and subterfuge to subvert the rule of law and install their proxies and cronies at all levels of governance be it elected or appointed positions.
Indeed, a crucial case in point is the recent ongoing Zamfara APC brouhaha which has pitted incumbent Governor Abdul’Aziz Yari against other more progressive forces in the state led by a principled and ebullient senator, Kabiru Marafa.
In fact, without doubt the ebullient Marafa has emerged as one of the most vocal and consistent opponents of Governor Yari’s increasingly authoritarian administration in Zamfara state that brooks no dissent or alternate views or opinions regarding the running of the affairs of the state.
Of course, he stands for the masses.
In the face of rampant kidnappings, brutal attacks by bandits that havr killed or displaced tens of thousands of Zamfara indigenes, Governor Yari’s government had maintained an almost deafening silence in the state and national media which prompted an enraged Senator Marafa to declare that enough is enough, moving ahead to inform the whole world about the true state of affairs in his state.
Indeed, Kabiru Marafa disclosed the estimated number of innocent Zamfarans that have been massacred by the bandits thus exposing the insincerity and insensitivity of Governor Yari and his entire cabinet.
But the impassioned federal lawmaker’s outspokenness did not go down well with Zamfara officialdom prompting sponsored attacks both verbal and physical on his person and political apparatus with the governor vowing to frustrate the senator’s aspirations in the forthcoming general elections.
Luckily, Senator Marafa had achieved statewide and even national acclaim and popularity on account of his dogged defense of the interests of the common man, Governor Yari’s camp concluded that he would emerge victorious if a free and fair primary was held in the state, hence their desperate resort to stage-managed and rigged primaries which would ensure that Governor Yari’s puppets would hijack victory through the back door.
However, their backhand efforts at distorting the primaries process would eventually back fire on their nonplussed faces when INEC famously declared that no credible APC primaries took place in Zamfara thus INEC would not accept any list from the state for all levels of elections apart from the presidential.
This INEC declaration was a huge body blow that caught Governor Yari and his cohorts off guard triggering intense confusion and panic with the clueless governor’s senatorial ambition going up in smoke along with the gubernatorial and legislative ambitions of his cronies and lackeys.
The only option left for Yari was to issue all manner of threats, illegal pressure and blatant intimidation of INEC officials in order for them to reverse their previous order but it all failed dismally as INEC stood by its decision to disqualify all APC Zamfara candidates from the 2019 elections.
A harried Governor Yari ran from pillar to post, from Zamfara Government House to Aso Villa and back to no avail, as the situation remained unchanged, no primaries, no Zamfara APC candidates. Indeed Humpty Dumpty had fallen off the wall and there was nothing the king’s horsemen could do to save him.
As a last resort, Governor Yari approached the Zamfara high court which is funded by the state government for a favourable judgement and it purportedly ruled that INEC should receive the list of candidates submitted by the governor’s camp even though no primaries took place in the state. How the Zamfara High Court arrived at this strange judgement continues to confound legal luminaries and judicial experts and it was no surprise to many when this decision was overruled this time by a Federal High Court, Abuja which re-affirmed INEC’s position that Zamfara APC could not field any candidate for the general elections.
Indeed, the Federal High Court decision has been hailed by numerous legal and judicial experts as the right decision based on the circumstances that trailed the APC primaries crisis in the state. As no primaries were conducted by the party, there was no way any candidate can emerge not to talk of the party fielding candidates or submitting a list of candidates to INEC for the elections.
Even the APC national hierarchy has stated clearly that there were no primaries conducted in the state so there could be no authentic list of APC candidates to be submitted to INEC, so one cannot fathom the basis for the Zamfara High Court decision. And to further clarify the issue, INEC has once again come out to state that they are complying with the Federal High Court order restating that there were no primaries, no APC candidates for Zamfara state.
The only option now is that, Zamfara APC wants a free, fair, and credible primary election to be conducted by the national headquarters of the party and duly supervised by INEC.
As matters stand there is no hiding pace for Governor Yari and his disorganized and disoriented sympathizers as their pursuit of self-interest and distaste for opposition or competition has resulted in the rowdiness in the state.
Their resort to judicial interpretation to favour their camp has also collapsed like a pack of cards so the only logical step might be to jump into another party, an option that is risky, uncertain and unpredictable, to say the least. The question might be asked what legacy is Governor Abdul’Aziz Yari bequeathing to Zamfara besides a seemingly directionless state of affairs that has sank the vast populace into a shifting miasma of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, disease, homelessness and ceaseless annihilation of innocent Zamfarans at the hands of marauding bandits?
Zamfara people at home and abroad have come to ¬¬rue the day a certain Governor Yari assumed the reins of state power and are fervently praying for better days ahead.
Joseph writes from Gusau
