Mahdi Gusau: What is going on in Zamfara?

BY AWAAL GATA

When Mahdi Mohammed Aliyu Gusau began to make the news in 2019 as the youngest Deputy Governor in Nigeria, it drew awe among Nigeria’s marginalized young population and was celebrated as a victory of the “Not Too Young To Run” movement, which has been the slogan of a generation in search of inclusion in governance and influence in politics. What promised to be an inspirational story of the youth revolution is, unfortunately, being frustrated by his refusal to compromise on his political principles.

In June 2021, when Mr. Gusau’s principal, Governor Bello Matawalle, announced his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), which was a predictable move for those who had sensed his quests for political survival beyond 2023, the fate of the former became a subject of public concern. But when asked about his future as a card-carrying PDP member in a government that had switched partisan allegiance to the APC, Mr. Gusau said rather optimistically, “It’s not a new thing in Nigeria politics for governor and his deputy to belong to different political parties and complete their constitutional mandate together and I hope this too shall come to pass in Zamfara.”

But his intention towards the government, of whom he said “I have a good working relationship with the governor,” wasn’t reciprocal. Barely a month after hoping for a smooth relationship with the Governor, Mr. Gusau was forced to take to his Instagram page to share a screenshot of his correspondence with the Zamfara state Commissioner of Police who had barred his convoy barred from entering Gusau, the state capital.

The Police Commissioner was acting under instruction to stop what he took to be a PDP rally in the state. He said the state was unsafe for a rally, but Mr. Gusau spelt it out in the text message he sent: “I am in a convoy with my family to my house and using the route I always take,” he wrote to dispel the notion of a rally, and that “If the well-wishers wish to follow me home, it’s their right. If the youths choose to escort me home, it’s their right. If all political platforms deem me fit and decide to watch me as I drive home, it is their constitutional right.”

Even if Mr. Gusau had attempted to host a rally that day, that position of the Police Commissioner was utterly hypocritical and sycophantic. The same Police had, a few weeks earlier, allowed Mr. Matawalle to organize a grand ceremony to declare his defection to the APC at the Gusau Trade Fair Complex, and had about 10 APC governors in attendance, along with serving ministers and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha. The irony of the event was, the governors who appeared on Gusau to attend the declaration ceremony were also from states at the mercy of bandits.

The fact that the Police commissioner authorized that mega rally of the APC and suddenly developed sensitivity to security when he sensed the PDP too were about to hold their rally, even though that was not the case, was enough proof that Mr. Matawalle had finally secured the federal backing he had been yearning for to move against and neutralize his perceived enemies. When he was in the PDP, the same Matawalle had been in the media, day in, day out, crying out that the APC had been frustrating his fights against banditry and accused the Police in Abuja of being used to undo the arrests he authorized.

On September 14, 2020, Premium Times reported how, in the space of ten days, two chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State were arrested by the state’s police command over alleged links to bandits, and that, in both instances, “higher authorities of the police directed the release of the suspects citing ‘orders from above.’” Mr. Matawalle was disappointed that he couldn’t secure the freedom to hound those he perceive as threats based on his partisan sentiments, most of whom were associates of his political opponents like Abdulaziz Yari, while he’s in the PDP, and that inspired his defection to hobnob with the same people he used to single out as sponsors and abetters of banditry in the state, and getting the Police Commissioner to do his bidding.

The difference this time is, Mr. Matawalle has the backing of the powers that be in Abuja now, which once frustrated his bids to have his opponents summarily arrested and neutralized. This explains the audacity of the Police Commissioner to harass the Deputy Governor, and allowed himself to be an agent of a glaring partisan agenda. The claim that the APC could hold a well-attended and loud rally in the state capital while the Deputy Governor’s convoy was perceived as a security threat by the same Police isn’t democracy. It’s conscious partisan agenda to crack down on any structure and presence of the opposition in Zamfara state.

And the same legislature, which ought to protect the Deputy Governor from such serial harassment, has jumped on the partisan bandwagon to appease the vengeful Governor. The threats of impeachment, which began almost immediately the Deputy Governor made it clear he won’t be joining the Governor in the APC, has gathered storm now and, tragically, Mr. Gusau is being fought from all fronts for choosing to remain in the party that offered them the platform to occupy the offices.

As the election year approaches, it’s easy to see why Governor Matawalle and his APC allies want Mr. Gusau out by all means. The sheer desperation is simply for political survival, and it’s insane that a state being overrun by bandits is more worried by the principled refusal of the Deputy Governor to defect to the APC. The irony of this charade is, if Mr. Gusau suddenly announces his decision to join Mr. Matawalle in the APC, these ridiculous allegations being parroted by the State House of Assembly to impeach him would be instantly discarded. It’s a comical scenario!

But what’s rather sad isn’t just that the scarce resources of the state are being wasted in the pursuit of such wild partisan vendetta. It’s more tragic that even Zamfara State Chief Judge, Kulu Aliyu, who ought to be the voice of reason, is dragging the judiciary into this sham while the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Nasiru Muazu Magarya, who’s similarly youthful and expected to see through the charade, prioritizes personal political gains over the state’s interests.

However, with Zamfara state’s domestic debt stock, in a September 20, 2021 data from the Debt Management Office, standing at an alarming N100.7 billion, much more than the debt profiles of Kaduna and Jigawa states combined, one would expect Zamfara state’s lawmakers and Governor to have much more worries than their political survival beyond 2023.

Awaal Gata is a media practitioner and public affairs analyst. He writes from Abuja.