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From Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
The political landscape of Taraba State since the return to democracy in 1999 has always been one of a dominant political party with no strong opposition until election time. However, until late last year when Governor Agbu Kefas joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had been the dominant political party.
With the smooth defection of the governor, and most of the key figures and stakeholders in the PDP joining the powers that be in the APC, it would seem the governor is set for a turbulence-free sail in his re-election bid ahead of 2027.
Some analysts, however, believe that the journey to Taraba Government House in 2027 could even be more turbulent than the 2023 lap, if the governor and the party fail to get things right.
According to Daily Sun’s findings, one of the first tasks for the governor is to manage the APC to avoid an implosion within the party. The APC (ACN/ANPP) and PDP have been on opposite sides of the divide for over two decades and even though there has been a bit of cross-carpeting, the political enmity between the duo has been immense.
With the movement of the governor and his team into the APC, some members of the party who built and sustained it over the years are aggrieved that it has been taken over from them. This heightens the tendency for crisis within the party.
For instance, the recent state congress of the party, according to some analysts, may have already set the foundation of an implosion. This is so because the immediate past state chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Abubakar Bawa, was returned as the APC chairman, barely two months after joining the party.
Prior to the congress, some staunch APC members had indicated interest to contest the seat but were allegedly sidelined, a development that has forced a chairmanship candidate, Hon. Haddi Lau, to approach a Federal High Court in Jalingo, the state capital, alleging illegalities that produced Alhaji Abubakar Bawa as the state party chairman.
While addressing journalist recently, Lau said he approached the court immediately after the announcement of Bawa as the APC chairman in the state because the party did not conduct any state congress anywhere in Taraba. He insisted that Bawa was announced without the necessary requirements stipulated in the constitution of the APC.
He further said that the so-called consensus arrangement was not agreed upon by the candidates who were in the race, noting that none of the candidates in the chairmanship race was engaged by anybody before the declaration of Bawa on election day.
“APC advertised the chairmanship nomination form. I went and paid for the form, I proceeded to the national headquarters and collected receipt. I went to collect the nomination form, they asked us to wait, we waited till the day of election, that was when the SA, Political, to the governor of Taraba State, Hon. Josiah Sabo Kente, sent us messages that we were asked to come to Government House for a meeting.
“The meeting that day could not hold, but it held the next day. While we were in the meeting, Governor Kefas was there, he spoke, the state APC chairman Barr. El-Suldi was also there, he also spoke, and they asked us to excuse the state caucus to deliberate. That was how I left and nobody called me again. I did not see any congress or electoral committee that came into the state to conduct the exercise.
“Nobody called me, I was not issued any nomination form, which I paid for from the party, the next thing I heard on the radio and social media was that Abubakar Bawa was declared the chairman of APC in Taraba State. I have no option, as a law-abiding citizen, than to approach the court of law to defend my right. I am not fighting anybody, I am fighting for my right.
“Unlike in other states where appeal committees of the party are handy to take petitions from aggrieved contestants, there was no such appeal committee in Taraba for aggrieved candidates to fall back to and that was why I decided to approach the Federal High Court in Jalingo.
“The actions of the APC, in my opinion, contradict Articles 20.3 and 20.4 of the constitution of the party, so I am praying the Court to compel APC to do the needful by issuing my nomination form, return to Taraba and conduct fresh election for the chairmanship of the APC in Taraba with normal procedures as required by the party,” Lau added.
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Whereas, Lau may be vocal and has taken bold steps against the party , other candidates may not be so vocal and decisive and yet, may nurture their grievances to manifest in other, especially like undermining the party during elections.
The rather conspicuous absence of some critical stakeholders especially of the original APC stock such as Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, Chief David Sabo Kente, and several others also show obvious cracks in the APC and send clear signals that all may not be well with the party yet. How the governor and new leadership of the party handles the grievances from members, with a view to giving everyone a sense of belonging will go a long way to determine the fate of the party in 2027.
But if the 2023 governorship election in the state is anything to go by, then, the governor also needs to be wary of saboteurs who present themselves as loyal members until the last minute.
Daily Sun gathered that in the previous election, all the while, members of the ruling PDP were surreptitiously working with the opposition party to undo their own party.
Daily Sun gathered that the performance of the state governor, Kefas, in the first two to three years in office may also count seriously against him. The governor is considered to have concentrated more energy and resources in making promises and executing projects that have direct bearing on his personal comfort than people-oriented projects.
After over two years of serious tongue- lashing by people, accusing the governor of poor performance, he promised massive infrastructural revolution to begin last October. True to his words, some projects commenced across the state and he also flagged off some major projects recently.
However, five months down the line, some of the projects have not even commenced while the works on others have become a cause for concern. For instance, most of the road construction, involving streets that started in Jalingo metropolis are either abandoned or experiencing rather annoyingly slow pace of work. Also, the renovation at the state Secretariat has been abandoned just like work on the Jalingo tradefair complex.
While the governor prides himself with his strides in the education sector by declaring free basic education and cutting down tuition fees in the state owned higher institutions, the failure to provide the much advertised kits for students and to address the massive infrastructural deficits in schools are a glaring eyesore, pundits say.
For several weeks now, students of the state owned University are home because the lecturers are on strike. Rather than addressing the grievances of the workers, the governor was seen in a viral video threatening to sack all the lecturers and employ new ones.
According political observers, whereas he may be doing well in some areas, like the renovation of the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Jalingo, the general impression of an average person in the state is that he is one of the worse performing governors in the history of the state. He however may well be able to correct the impression before going into the next election.
With the governor and his team moving into the APC, the PDP, which has now become opposition party seem to be terribly weakened to give the governor a real challenge. However, if the grievances of some members of the present APC are not addressed and they decide to shift their loyalty to the PDP, they may yet present a major obstacle for the governor in 2027.
Since the return to democracy in 1999, the PDP has been the major political party in the state and that has become almost a tradition. And so if the party puts its house together, field a strong candidate and work together, it will be easy to ganner support at the grassroots, riding on the existing popularity and spin a state surprise in 2027, Daily Sun investigations reveal.
There is also the possibility of the opposition parties in the state including the African Democratic Congress (ADC) , the PDP and others forming a strong alliance and fielding a single governorship candidate, especially from either Central or Northern zone of the state. Such a move will create a major upset for the governor and the APC, thus making winning the 2027 governorship election tougher.
But one factor that may very well mar the chances of the governor and the APC is the tendency to underestimate the opposition, trust too much in “powers from above” and power of incumbency.
By and large, the race for 2027 in Taraba, unlike previous years, may not be determined so much by religious and sectional factors. Both will play rather less significant roles. Rather, the ability of the governor to lead the APC with sincerity, fairness and every sense of responsibility, including his ability to shelve his personal ego in some cases, may be the real factor to decide which way the election will go.
