APC Chairmanship: Yari’s Traducers and the truth

BY BALA MARADUN

As support for former Governor AbdulAziz Yari’s bid to become the next national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, swells, some few disgruntled elements for want of what to use to stop the popular movement, have resorted to some underhand tactics to achieve their aim.

They have all of a sudden, resorted to cooking up baseless allegations against the former governor and alleging all manners of financial malfeasance. The latest is the one that appeared in which the former governor was accused of vying for the national chairman position despite being under prosecution.

Instructively, all the allegations are not new but are mere rehashes of some spurious finger pointing that have adequately been addressed in the past. But since they could not find other ways of stopping the ambition of the former governor, they decided to recycle the garbage with the intention of painting Yari in bad light before party faithful ahead of the national congress of the APC.

In their desperation, they forget that Nigerians have become more discerning over the years and know the difference between facts and fiction and what constitutes being investigated by a federal agency and being convicted.
For the umpteenth time, it should be made clear that Yari like most of his colleague former governors is only answering to charges of corruption made against him and which he is succeeding in clearing his name gradually through the judicial process.

Only in the minds of mischief makers does trying to defend one’s self against allegations amount to conviction. For instance at the beginning of the current year, no less than 30 former governors were being investigated for various allegations of financial malfeasance but some of them have been able to prove their innocence and have today shaken free from the stains of such allegations.

Indeed, there are cases of where the whistle blowers have been apprehended for raising false alarm and misleading the anti-graft agencies.
It is understandable that given the manner Yari completed his two terms as governor of Zamfara, where he performed and made the APC the dominant party in the state, that any elements from the opposition parties will tend to envy his doggedness and resilience.

Any element from the opposition parties that succeeded him will try and demystify him if only to get back at him for the humiliation he gave the opposition parties in the state. Hence it was not surprising that when opposition candidates took over the reins of government, the first thing they did was file all manners of allegations against the former governor but more than two years later, have not succeeded in proving anything substantial to hold against him.

These include the allegations that he attempted to move some money from a corporate account linked to him in a commercial bank and his alleged role in the judgment debts around the Paris Club refunds as claimed by some private firms, his handling of the proceeds of Paris Club refunds from 2017, when he was the NGF chairman and others.

Yari’s growing popularity unknown to these elements is a as a result of his contributions towards building the APC at the national level and in Zamfara and his popularity cannot be stopped with sponsorships of campaigns of calumny as party faithful are looking for a candidate who can be not only deliver the presidency to the party in 2023 but win more states and seats in the National Assembly for the party and they see that prospects in the former chairman of the NGF.

Those sponsoring the campaigns of calumny are those who only joined the party less than six months ago and are ignorant of the hard work, strategy and commitment that go with building a party.

One cannot blame them because Yari as a father figure, had laid the foundation for the APC and built it to the extent that they did not feel comfortable staying outside it even when the court gave them an underserved victory and had to defect to its fold to be assured of winning in the next elections.

Besides, many people in the state are aware that those sponsoring the hate campaigns are repentant fugitives who ran way from the cold embrace of the law when President Muhammadu Buhari took over in 2015 and only returned when they refunded huge sums of money to the coffers of the federal government.

Such people should not be making allegations on those who have sacrificed their time and resources for the party because as they say, “those whose kernels were cracked by benevolent spirits should not forget to be humble.”
And for emphasis, it bears restating that Yari is a loyal and committed member of the APC who is not driven by hunger or lust for money but can even sacrifice his personal resources to lift the party” and “One who is not proud and arrogant but accessible to all members of the party.”