How PDP won Sokoto re-run guber race

Aliyu WamakkoGroup Politics Editor, Idowu Samuel, and Bello Gusau write on factors that secured a second coming into the Sokoto State Government House for Aliyu Wamakko in the fresh governorship election held recently.

Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko, was a guest to a horde of his supporters on the afternoon of May 24 when the governorship re-run election took place. The election had just ended, but the celebration had started in the governor’s house far ahead of time. The agents of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the polling centres in Sokoto had signaled that he was already having the upper hand in their respective areas of coverage going by the early results announced by electoral officers. The mission of Wamakko’s supporters was, thus, to stay with him and offer congratulatory words. But the governor was not instantly browbeaten by the groveling of his friends and supporters. He would rather prefer the final results of the re-run election announced before joining the fray of celebration. To Wamakko, it is God that gives and takes power.

By evening, the governor’s house had become a beehive of activities. Drummers and praise singers had a field day displaying their dexterity and adding to the frenzy that went with the celebration. It was obvious that Wamakko had won the re-run governorship election, even though the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was yet to officially pronounce him the winner. The following day, when INEC released the results of the election in the 23 local government areas, it was obvious that Wamakko had won the poll convincingly. He had polled a total of 562,395 as against a total of 124,046 votes scored by his Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) opponent. The victory by Wamakko over DPP in Sokoto State was a confirmation of his strength and firm grip of politics in the state.

Before the re-run election, Sokoto State was under a severe tension occasioned by the shock waves created by the opposition party led by the former governor, Alhaji Atahiru Bafarawa. There had been violence and general threat to security, a development which attracted the attention of even the Federal Government. Adding to the tension was the litigation against the governor by the DPP. The party had gone to court to stop Wamakko from contesting in the election, citing his alleged dual nomination as a governorship candidate as reason.

Besides, the opposition party, which presented Alhaji Maigari Dingyadi as its governorship candidate, had projected itself in the media as the party to beat, giving an impression that the PDP was just an interloper. In a way, the DPP had the political space and held on to it while the PDP tightened its grip on the Sokoto terrains and its electorate. That explains the seriousness with which the PDP took the issue of the re-run election. At a point, the entire national leadership of the party moved down to Sokoto with President Umaru

Yar’Adua on the lead. The consequence of the campaign by the PDP in Sokoto, prior to the election, was sweeping, accounting for the victory it was later to secure. On the election day, every citizen of the state made visible efforts to contend with the arrangement put in place for its successful conduct by cooperating with the law enforcement agencies. It goes without saying, therefore, that of all the states where INEC conducted governorship re-run elections, Sokoto was a good exhibit. Indications to this emerged when the former state governor, Bafarawa, expressed satisfaction with the general situation on the election day. He had described the election as free and fair as he cast his vote at Bafarawa in Isa Local Government Area the state. The DPP governorship candidate also had a similar view, even as security operatives experienced no hectic moment in securing the length and breadth of the state.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’Ad Abubakar, had commended the INEC as well as the security operatives for what he described as their positive role in ensuring hitch-free re-run election. In a press release issued and signed by the secretary to the Sultanate Council of Sokoto, Alhaji Sod Aliyu, the Sultan attested to the patience, enthusiasm and maturity of the people of Sokoto during the election. To underscore the encouraging situation, the Sultan appealed to the contestants to accept the results of the election in good faith and with a belief that it is only God who bestows power. In a nutshell, the Sultan urged all political stakeholders in Sokoto to join hands in supporting the winner for the sake of peace, security and development of the state.

All the same, Dingyadi differed from that viewpoint after the final results of the election were announced, claiming that the election was characterised by irregularities. He said the DPP was convinced that there was no way by which the Sokoto re-run election would be different from those of Kogi and Adamawa states. Dingyadi accused the INEC of conniving with the PDP and the security agencies in rigging the election. The DPP candidate, who served as the Secretary to State Government (SSG) under former Governor Bafarawa hinted, however, that his party would continue with its earlier litigation at the Federal High Court, Abuja over the election.

But events leading to the re-run election in Sokoto were a tell-tale sign that the opposition party would not make any headway in the election. First, the party, rather than setting the tone for its own victory in the election, was bogged down by internal conflicts. There were members who were opposed to the manner of leadership introduced by Bafarawa in the party and, hence, registered protests against such. This is because apart from the isolation the party is suffering, it is divided against itself. For instance, less than five days to the re-run election, some members of the DPP held an extra ordinary meeting of their Central Working Committee (CWC) and announced the dissolution of the Umaru Kwabo-led executive committee of the party. There and then, they announced the formation of a new exco of the party. In a press release they issued, the CWC members announced the formation of a new DPP state exco, making Alhaji Sule Dantata and Alhaji Mohammed Dan’ado Umar the chairman and secretary respectively. The exco members included six officials of the party and eight DPP legislators in Sokoto State House of Assembly. The release stated that the old exco was dissolved as a result of the “unbecoming attitude of the officials.”

Essentially, the release harped on selfish motives by members of the old exco, political intolerance, lack of peaceful co-existence among the party members and absence of progress and development within the party as part of the main reasons that necessitated the dissolution. In what appeared to be a twist to the crisis within the Bafarawa DPP, members of the party were alleged to have urged others throughout the state to vote for the ruling party. In the same vein, a coalition of seven political parties that contested the 2007 general elections addressed a press conference shortly after the results of the election were announced and spoke favourable on the general conduct, while expressing strong desire to support the announced results.

The development gave the governor an opportunity to describe the re-run election as the most peaceful compared with the others so far conducted by the INEC. Wamakko made the declaration in Abuja at the INEC headquarters where he obtained his certificate of return for the election. He repeated this at the PDP national headquarters where he presented his certificate to the party’s hierarchy. The National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, had explained reasons behind the victory of Wamakko in the governorship re-run election in Sokoto, attributing it to the popularity of the governor. Wamakko, he said, won the election because he had been a performer. He advised the governor to continue to place the interest of those who returned him to the Government House as top priority.

What did Wamakko do to become that popular within just a year of his assumption of office? Watchers of Sokoto State government point towards his ability to improve on the salaries of workers in the state by reversing some policies of the former government. On taking over of government, Wamakko increased the minimum wage paid by the state government from N3,000 to N5,000 and paid seven-year arrears of salary for workers to the tune of N2 billion. He also paid a two-year pension arrears to pensioners in the state civil service. He has given the state's roads facelift by constructing and rehabilitating them. These are very few among other achievements that endeared him to the hearts of the electorate.