From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The ongoing face-off between the Kaduna State House of Assembly Speaker, Rt Hon Yusuf Zailani, and Senator Uba Sani representing Kaduna Central District has attracted public attention.
Following the recent verbal escalation between the camps of the Speaker and the Senator, chairmen of the seven local governments issued a statement calling for the sanction of the Speaker.
However, sensing a slant in the intervention of the chairmen that include those of Kajuru, Chikun, Kaduna South, Kaduna North, Igabi, Giwa and Birnin Gwari, the Non-Aligned Democracy Monitor (NADM) cautioned the local party leaders to stay neutral.
The group said in a statement signed by its Chairman, Dauda Sani Aliyu:
‘We are concerned that the local APC chairmen of the seven local governments of the Kaduna Central have caught themselves in political bias involving the slanting and altering of information to make the position of Uba Sani seem more attractive.
‘Their self-serving set of bias emerged in this context when the chairmen engaged an open inability and deliberate unwillingness to understand and fairly analyze the two politically opposing points of view.
‘Such bias with apparent roots in the shaping of the chairmen’s individual traits and thinking styles with a gift of Golf cars by Uba Sani would certainly prove detrimental to the interest of the APC in the long run.’
The group warned the APC chairmen that a show of political bias beyond simple presentation and decent understanding by favouring a particular political leader would have drastic effects on future voter behaviour towards the party.
‘This shameful show of lack of political neutrality or the barefaced violation of political neutrality by the seven local party leaders only goes to confirm accusations against them of insatiable greed for personal gains over the general interest of the party,’ it stated.