Perhaps unlike the 2007 gubernatorial election when power exchanged hands in Bauchi, the 2015 race to Bauchi government house will be without so much trouble despite that power will also exchange hands. This amongst other reasons will be because unlike former governor Ahmadu Muazu, the incumbent Isa Yuguda may be politically wise enough not to anoint anyone to fly the PDP gubernatorial flag in the elections slated for early next year. From all indications, Yuguda will make it open even if only openly for all interested in his seat to sort it out at a primary election.
This way, there may not be so much brouhaha at least within the four walls of the ruling Peoples` Democratic Party (PDP). For the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) however, it is not yet clear how events will unfold as struggle for the party`s ticket thickens. In the coming weeks, time will tell how the APC will strive to maintain internal sanity which of course is only achievable through democracy.
Internal squabble has remained one of the major qualms of opposition politics in not only Bauchi state in particular but Nigeria in general. Otherwise, even the PDP National Chairman Ahmadu Muazu knows better that should the opposition present a credible candidate for the gubernatorial race in Bauchi and strive hard to sustain internal party peace, it can give the PDP a run for its money as the state has remained a stronghold of the opposition particularly if General Buhari is involved.
In certain quarters meanwhile, it is held that it is most unlikely for the APC in Bauchi not to go to the governorship general election in peace but perhaps in pieces as deed the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) in 2011. This, pundits say, is due to the fact that the PDP may have already planted moles in the party simply to distort its peace thereby resulting in fractures. And with the speculations that Atiku Abubakar supported and financed the incumbent APC chairman`s bid to the party helm through a governorship aspirant namely Yakubu Lame, time may be holding so much in its womb for the living being to see.
In any case, both the PDP and the APC in Bauchi are in the tripod stand at peace. And whether both of the parties will be able to sustain the status quo remains a question only time can answer.
Meanwhile, apart from sustainable internal sanity, for good competition, ethnic and regional sentiments and personal interests must not be allowed to be a cause for unwise decisions that are retrogressive in nature. The Bauchi/Katagum divide should henceforth be discarded as it is yet to bring any fruitful gain to either side.
With the statement credited to Bello Kirfi, Wazirin Bauchi, that power shall forever remain in the Bauchi zone, a particular section of the state is willing to hold it still. And with the self-centered attitude of the Azare people, a particular community in the state is willing to take it to a stand-still. It is time to stop these myopic and barbaric regional discriminations in the name of a greater and prosperous Bauchi state.
So many hands across the political landscape of Bauchi have indicated interests in the state`s gubernatorial job. And while some are better than others, amongst the better, there is the best. So in accordance with the doctrine of democracy, the majority should always have their way. Party and political leaders must thus allow the democratic process to take its cause at every instance. From the primary elections slated to commence next month to the general elections scheduled for February next year, the majority must be allowed to have their way and the minority, their say.
Bauchi politics has always been beautiful in that it is so complex and therefore unpredictable. Anything can happen anytime because even at the eleventh hour, anyone can change the game. The contestants in the race to Bauchi Government House are numerous but as time passes by many will either drop the ambition or be dropped.
The FCT minister Bala Muh`d, the former Health minister Muhammad Ali Pate, Abdul Ahmed Ningi, Yakubu Lame, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, Sadiq Mahmud, Musa Babayo, Babayo Garba Gamawa, Nuhu Gidado, M A Abubakar, Aminu Hammayo and many others are in the race.
The best amongst these contestants is not the most educated and experienced or the most politically highly-wired, but rather the most popular amongst masses who at any given circumstance and hour of the day- provided a level playing ground is enabled, has the majority of the peoples` votes. In simpler terms, the best amongst these aspirants is the one who will get majority of the votes of their party delegates at primary election and that of the good people of Bauchi state at general elections.
Thus in a mere saunter round the political features of Bauchi, it is practically and logically impossible to make any attempts at even suggesting the most likely winner in Bauchi in the gubernatorial elections slated for early next year. And whoever wants to make any attempt at projections must be willing to conduct opinion poll according to scientific standards so that the results may be as accurate as that did by George Gallup in 1936 when he rightly predicted Roosevelt's victory in that year's US presidential election.
Jarmajo wrote from Bauchi
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