WHAT MANNER OF REPRESENTATION…

It was on the 29th of May 1999 when democratic rule was restored in the country after several years of military interruptions. The 1999 constitution ensures the political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives; it is the political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them. The onus therefore lies with the electorates to elect and be the watchdog of their respective representatives, the representatives on their own part are required to serve the people honestly, conscientiously and loyally. The people hold the voting power to decide whether or not a member should be returned after the first four years. Unreasonable, stingy, unproductive and negative members should know that they may not serve for more than a term in the legislature. A lot will depend on his positive contribution on the floor of the house and what he is able to do for his constituency in terms of developmental programmes and other dividends of democracy. In Katsina state, from 1999 to date we have had several representatives from across the spectrum of the popular political parties and I think each of these parties have had a fair share of these representatives in the state house of assembly and the Federal seats. In all these representations it is instructive to acknowledge that while some have proven their mettle to be first among equals others are/ were mere bench warmers. It is on record that one of our representatives was made the Speaker of the house of representatives, two others were majority leaders at the senate at different times, several were made and are still Chairmen of most powerful committees in both the Senate and the House of representatives and at a time one of our representatives was a minority leader at the red chambers.. This is a feat that I don’t think there is any state in the country that has marched these credentials. But it is sad to note that the majority of our representatives in all the avenues of legislation i.e the state house of assembly, the House of Representatives and the Senate amount to naught. Wallahi, some of them have no business being there! At one time, one of our representatives at the Senate was adjudged to be the worst senator as he had never contributed to any debate for 4 years. I will not be surprised if many of our representatives do not know their powers, functions and as well as their limitations as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Surely this is not good enough. It is imperative to point out that our representatives should resist the temptation of being parochial, seeing themselves only as representing small, individual constituencies. While it is true that every member has been elected to represent a constituency, he should put the interests of the entire state and the country above everything else. After all, laws made through legislation are applicable to all members and not restricted to a particular person or constituency. It is therefore necessary to draw a line between being a member, reps or senator and being a member of a political party. While partisan political party interests will remain with all members, yet such interests must not be allowed to override state and national interests. In a democratic, multi –party system as we are operating now, it is only natural that one candidate will win while others have to lose the race for various elective offices but once elected, the successful candidate should be magnanimous and be less partisan in his approach to official matters. It is against this background that I always have a hard feeling against some of our representatives who are in the habit of buying all sort of things ranging from vehicles to food stuffs to a section of the electorates and in most cases the beneficiaries cannot even maintain these vehicles to even fuel them is a herculean task and in the end they sell them at a take away prize. To my mind, this approach to say the least is shabby because I think by this time we should be looking beyond individuals, we should rise above hate and do things to the Glory of the Lord and the generality of the people, that is the way to greatness and prosperity. But if you look at it from another angle these members are 100% better than those who don’t give a hoot to the flight of the electorates, whenever they are in town nobody sees them. They hide themselves in the clubs, where you need to be a member before you can get access inside, membership there goes up to N100K. We are lucky our member does not own a house in Kaduna otherwise he would have relocated but just give him one year in office and see what is going to happen. You see, that is what they always do, they have two houses one in Abuja and other in Kaduna, they come to Kaduna for weekend and Tuesday the following week they in Abuja for usual EEYS or NAYS. The case of one representative is even more poignant, he too distributed motorcycles in his own town but what made his case laughable is the fact that he gave money to people from his own local government area and forgot the other two local government areas that made up the rest of his constituency but you know what? The money he distributed was in form of a loan, can you just imagine, LOAN. This learned representative is not aware of one of the fundamental principles of the CPC as a party is to free the masses from oppression by the ruling class, in all its manifestations. In essence what this portends is a great danger because as long as you cannot meet up the deadline for the payment your means of livelihood (your farm) is taken away from you. What manner of a representation? The People Democratic Party has made nonsense of our body politics to the extent that elected representatives must recoup the money they used during electioneering campaigns when they find themselves in office and this attitude seriously mar the progress of many communities. But we are very lucky here in Katsina as our representatives from the CPC block did not spend much to warrant any recouping, this is more than one year they are in office so even if they had, they must have recouped it by now. The remaining 3 years is for us: so we should see some dividends of democracy in all the constituencies these representatives come from. We don’t want perishables we want to see monuments and edifices; we don’t want your money we want to see structures. We don’t want you to sponsor any Tafsir during Ramadaan period but use that money to buy medicines in our hospitals. We don’t want any rice or sugar during Ramadaan we want you to create an enabling environment for our youth to break up the glass ceiling. I think we have the right to tell you what we need as all of you now owe. You all rode on the mighty shoulders of GMB to be where you are now as such we should dictate to you what we really want. We were there during the campaigns, you did not spend much, we saw what happened, we campaigned for you and we were there!!! But I think you have enough time to make a difference in our lives by complementing the seemingly little efforts of the state government. I was told that some of you would like to aspire for bigger positions; well, there is nothing wrong with that provided you wake up from your slumber. Let us see more of you on the floors of your respective assemblies, sponsor bills that have bearing with up- grading of our socio- economic status. Let us see more community based programmes in all your constituencies executed by your humble selves, then we would know that you are ready to accept more responsibilities. Allah shi taimaka. To us the electorates, my sincere advise is that we should rise above primordial sentiments if we want to progress as a people and as a state. We should collectively come together and come out with quality representatives. People who are ready to serve our cause, when they are talking in any forum you will be satisfied and say, yes! that is my representative. Not the type of deaf and dumb representatives we see lurking around our State and National Assemblies.

CPC CRISIS: ABRIDGED VERSION

Having read the various representations from respective members of this great group, I became more convinced that history has always been pregnant with some measures of uncertainties. If written hastily some degree of inconsistencies are likely to emerge and if it is left unwritten for a long time the degree of inconsistencies become greater. In order to keep the level of inconsistencies to the barest minimal I urge the students of political history amongst us to take up the gauntlet. This will enable our posterity have a balanced literature to fall back on whenever the political history of Katsina is brought to fore. From the discussions two issues were highlighted; the issue of imposition and the issue of antiparty. But if we are to respect history, the issue of imposition does not even arise. This is because in the first place a primary election took place on the 13th that produced a winner and was recognized by the Party headquarters but for one reason or the other, the other side contested, which is ok in any democratic setting. But what is not ok was for them to concoct another election because they have the backing of the state branch. I think that was the threshold of the crisis. But having gone through the process of litigation up to the highest federal court which has jurisdiction over all courts in the nation - the Supreme Court, the ideal thing for any sensible person to do was to respect the outcome of the court’s ruling but that was not to be so as the local branch of the party had other ideas. What became clear was the way the local branch took side with Yakubu Lado in total disregard to the party’s extant rules and procedures even at the determination of the case by the Apex court. This unbridgeable disparity was responsible for much talked antiparty spearheaded by the local CPC branch. To those of us who are conversant with the political history of Katsina state knew exactly what happened in 2007 governorship primary elections in the ANPP. Few days to the elections a clear cut aspirant was not determined by the ANPP, the party where GMB contested the presidential elections. An almost similar scenario with what happened during the CPC governorship primaries of 2011. The case was between Alhaji Abu Ibrahim and Mallam Nura Khaliel; the imbroglio took its toll on the party which led to its defeat by its arch enemy, the PDP. And what was a common phenomenon between both situations (2007 and 2011) gubernatorial party primaries was the presence of the chairman of the party and his cohorts. It is instructive to point out that in 2007; Masari, Mustapa, Saddiq and others from the PDP Reform were not there, infact, not even the PDP because it was solely ANPP affair. Yet, they were either unable or unwilling to come out with an acceptable candidate. They debilitated, they wasted time, they compromised? History repeating itself you can say! Now, is it fair for us to say that it was the chairman and his cohorts that deliberately scuttled the 2007 and 2011 party primaries and by extension denied the state of a purposeful leadership? Is it fair for us to say they were the contractor politicians as already insinuated by many people? Now, this brings me to the issue of antiparty activities. Since the Apex court’s ruling did not favour the local branch, the chairman and his cohorts decided to pitch their tent with the ruling party and I think this answers my second poser above. As I tried to prove in my piece that the much talked antiparty was not responsible for PDP’s Pyrrhic victory, the only thing the antiparty did was to serve as an alibi. At that time, HE the governor was so desperate to the extent even a seven year old child could be of help to him but if he knew his PDP’s rigging machine could work so effectively he wouldn’t have asked for anybody’s assistance. Knowing how our man is, he wouldn’t like to part with a dime. But seeing how the enormous wealth splashed on the people of Katsina during the parliamentary seats elections that amounted to naught he had no option than to hold anything tight even if it is a very sharp sword because he was drowning. He knew he needed more than money to be able to win the governorship elections no matter who was the candidate because it already dawned on him that he was up against the might of GMB and not any CPC candidate parse. Cases abound indicate where CPC did not present candidates for elections yet the party won overwhelmingly. It is not about who was the candidate but it was all about ‘ta buhari’ or ‘mai alkalami’ as prospective voters would say and not minding whether it was Lado or Masari all they were after was ‘sai mai gaskiya’. As any politician within the confines of CPC has to climb on the shoulders of GMB to become what he is today but if anybody feels the general has outlived his usefulness in the party then that person should think again or better still he can leave the party and join another one, this my reaction to those who feel the general should leave the party for some young Turks. In the end I will like to appeal to the national headquarters to reconsider its stand on those expelled members. If really they can show some remorse I see no reason why they shouldn’t be absorb again. The fight against the PDP is an enormous one; all hands must be on deck to see that we drive the monster out. So help us God!