According to a report by Daily Nigerian, Mohammed Shehu, the Special Adviser to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje on State Affairs has joined the Senator Ibrahim Shekarau-led faction of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Kano. Addressing thousands of party supporters at the weekend in Kano, Mr Shehu said his decision to join the camp alongside thousands of his supporters was borne out of a lack of purposeful party leadership by the Abdullahi Abbas-led exco.
The report quoted one of the APC members that deserted the Ganduje’s faction to join the Senator Barau camp as saying that he did so because of a breach of the agreement to favour his friend which is Governor Ganduje’s son. As a propitiatory gesture, they promised to make a commissioner in Ganduje’s, but they reneged on their words. They wanted to compensate him for hijacking his mandate to become a local government champion. In the end, they fooled him and left him in the lurch. He abandoned the Ganduje’s faction in protest against the injustice.
This kind of case is not limited to Kano State. The Governors are lords; they are big fishes in small ponds, they exert more influence than the President. How can a man overturn the will of the voters just because he is a friend of the Governor’s son or any family member? How can family members of a Governor interfere in party affairs and tamper with the results of congresses to favour their preferred candidates? What is the point of organizing an election and refusing to recognize the winner because the outcome didn’t favour the preferred candidate of the Governor’s son? How can a party chairman overlook such manipulation and injustice and call himself a leader? He can only tolerate such injustice if he himself is a beneficiary of the same shenanigans.
The biggest threats to our democracy are our imperial Governors. Weak party structures are mainly responsible for this situation. When party leaders are in the pockets of the Governors, how do you expect them to stand up to the Governor’s son for interfering in party affairs. When party leaders know that they are not fairly elected, they are unlikely to assert themselves, let alone draw a line in the sand for the Governor’s son. Party leaders that are not properly and democratically elected cannot assert discipline, let alone have the balls to stop the Governor’s son from interfering in party affairs.
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