Yari and the wrong application of wealth

By Ibrahim Madugu

The election of the president and deputy presidents of the Senate for the 10th National Assembly went on smoothly on the 13 of last month, despite efforts by a few to throw clogs in the wheels of what has now been confirmed to be a popular decision.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) weeks before the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly, sat and deliberated on what it considered as best for Nigeria given the peculiar circumstances the country has found itself where both the President and Vice President are of the same faith.

For inclusion and equity, the APC decided that the post of the Senate President should go to the South-South region while the deputy Senate Presidency goes to the North West. The decision was informed by the fact that the nation’s leadership hierarchy would, going by that arrangement, factor in religion such that since the No. 1 and 2 political positions are occupied by Muslim faithful that the No. 3 position should go to a Christian.

That wise, the party even went further and decided that the Senate presidency be given to Senator Godswill Akpabio, a ranking senator who had made his mark as an astute administrator when he governed Akwa Ibom State for eight years.

In the same bid, the APC also reasoned that since it got its second-highest votes from the North West, the zone should take the deputy senate Presidency and settle for Senator Jibrin Barau, another ranking and highly experienced legislator. That arrangement appealed to the reasoning of the majority of senators and other Nigerians due to the fairness and balance it evinced, but surprisingly, some few senators who do not care about inclusiveness and fairness went ahead to challenge that position.

Former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, who led the rebellion, even went ahead to offer himself for election as Senate president not minding that if that had sailed through, a vast majority of Nigerians would have by reasons of their faith be excluded from governance.

Luckily, the majority of senators and other well-meaning Nigerians saw through the gimmick and voted against a situation that would have given the nation the No.1; 2; and 3 positions to persons of the same faith.

By rejecting Yari, his colleague senators have added to his record of losses and exposed him as insensitive to the plight of the nation once his interest is taken care of. Nigerians recall that before the coming of Yari as governor in Zamfara, the state has been among the four states in Nigeria that had never voted for the PDP even when the party was the ruling party at the center.

Surprisingly, Yari after governing Zamfara for eight years, made the APC lose the state to the PDP in 2019 due to his highhandedness and disregard for due process even when the APC was in control of both the central and state governments. From a state being controlled by the APC, the PDP overnight became not only the ruling party in the state but controlled majority seats at the state assembly and national assembly seats.

Even when the then state governor, Bello Matawalle later defected to the APC, Yari who boasts that he controls the politics of Zamfara could not retain the state for the APC as he was only concerned about his election.

Yari had last year also bought forms to contest for the APC national championship but was roundly defeated and humiliated by the current national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.

Again, he did that against the wishes of the APC which had zoned the national chairmanship seat to the North Central since the then President was from the North West.

By going against constituted authorities, Yari has proven himself a rebel without a cause who always goes against the decision of a larger majority believing that he can always bulldoze his way with money. Though he is said to be stupendously rich, so far, he has been shown that it is not in all cases that money can buy the conscience of the people.

In saner climes, Yari would have been called to explain how he was able to get the kind of money he lavishly expends on any venture he fancies even when it is clear he is going to lose and why he is the only one that is always fingered as spending huge sums in any election.

As he was currently advised on national television a few weeks back, it would have been better if the former governor is using his wealth to alleviate the suffering of his people since his state is one of the worst in terms of poverty ranking.

But it is high time he takes the advice and begins to embark on philanthropic gestures like building classroom blocks in schools; supplying drugs and hospital equipment to hospitals as well as other humanitarian gestures.

He should know that the era of naira politics is gradually fading away as Nigerians have become more critical of those that offer to lead them.

Madugu writes from Gusau, Zamfara State