Ayomide
Last weekend. President Yari\dua and the PDP leadership relocated to Bauchi to welcome back the president’s son-in-law, Isa Yuguda, govemor of Bauchi State. It seemed such a long time ago, that Yuguda literally became a pariah that was hounded out of the PDP, for daring to exercise the democratic right to become a candidate on the platform of the party. Former governor Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu made sure it did not happen; Yuguda, a former banker and minister representing Bauchi, was even described as not being from the state! In the travails he suffered, the PDP leadership at the centre acquiesced and helped in the political disgrace of a founder-member! The PDP.especially during the garrison politics of the disgraced despot, Olusegun Obasanjo, had an unusual efficiency, in the manner it ridiculed members who fell out of favour.
But Isa YugudaS plight kindled sympathy and anger in the hearts of the people ofBauchi State. Anger that former govemor, Mu’azu, can attempt to play god, with the ruthlessness that he went about it; and done with the connivance of an equally arrogant PDP. The sympathy which followed created a huge wave of support for IsaYuguda and the ANPP became readily available for Yuguda’s ambition to become govemor as well as teach the PDP mandarins a lesson. The Bauchi people love the ANPP’s presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari anyway, and so Yuguda could also swim on the crest of that love; and he did handsomely, all the way to the Bauchi government house. Ifever there was a place in Nigeria, where the people’s votes counted in the April 2007 election, it certainly was Banchi State!
But no sooner were the elections won, than it became dear that IsaYuguda was not interested in providing principled leadership for the people who overwhelmingly rescuedhim from the political grave dugbyhis PDP enemies. Yuguda was determined to go back to the PDp, and this was smoothened by an elaborate project of spin in the media for months. Let us be dear about it; Isa Yuguda was never known to stand for any edifying principles in politics. A typical careerist, Yuguda lobbied his way to the top and one would strain without success to find any quotable sound bite from him. Nevertheless. Isa Yuguda eventually found someself-serving excuses to return to where he came from, and that was consummated last week, with the public spectacle in Baucln, that was as usual, attended by President Umaru Yar’Adua; the president hasnever visited any scene ofkillings or conflicts to commiserate with the Nigerian people. but he never fails to attend PDP events, especially on the eve of election re-riggings or decampments!
There is nothing unusual about Isa Yuguda’s brand of political opportunism. It is the norm in contemporary Nigerian political practice. There have been several defections into the PDP since 1999, because it is the platform wbidJ offers the greatest reward. in terms of electoral maIpractices and access to lucre while also providing the federal cover which facilitates the excesses associated with the incompetence of the PDP regime since 1999! Enter the PDP and literally, there is no crime you cannot commit and go scot free. It did not come as a surprise therefore. that IsaYuguda chose to return to the PDp, because it suits his opportunistic preferences. The fact that the people of Bauchi voted overwhelmingly for him, as an expression of a desire for change. m~t little to him. He decamped, using the absurd excuses he raised against an equally irresponsible ANPP!
If the issue was just his return to the PDP, we possibly won’t have lost sleep. However, Yuguda’s undemocratic instincts are underscored by the irresponsible manner he has chosen to remove his Deputy, Alhaji Muhammad Garba Gadi, who refused to decamp. After months of pro- crastination, Yuguda finally decided to remove the ‘recalcitrant’ deputy, through a massive bribery of members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly. Daily Trust of Thursday, June 25, 2009 reported that he finally got the two-thirds majority he needed to remove his man, after promising a bribe of ten million naira each to the assemblymen; however, the governor and his sidekicks in the House are handicapped by the fact that they do not have ‘impeachable offences’ to cite. Yuguda has therefore given the legislators a marching. order to look for just anything, for the temerity of refusing to abandon his principles, in an age.when people without principles like Yuguda rule the roost!
Opportunism and lack of respect for the Nigerian people are hallmarks of the political process of the past ten years in our country. Politician do not depend on the legitimacy conferred by free and fair votes; since the 2003 elections, the PDP has used the security forces and INEC to short -change the Nigerian people. It is therefore not surprising, that they carry on irresponsibly, because they know the people have no real say in however they get to office.This is why Isa Yuguda can abandon the Bauclu people’s desire for change which his election represeented. The opportunity is far more comfortable returning to the PDP,because come 2011, the rigging can be assured, no matter what the people feel or do! The NIgerian people have a choice to make. We either struggle to change the irresponsibility eating away at the fabric of our country, and which allows the Isa Yuguda brand of opportunism to fester or we shall harvest even more grotesque absurdities! On a final note. doesn’t it say something that it is the same Yar’Adua that sent a Bill to the National Assembly outlaw political carpet crossing, who went to preside over Isa Yuguda’ decampment to the PDP? Where is the political honesty here?
