In one of the greatest ironies of Nigeria’s political development, the “defeated” candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general election in Zamfara State were on Monday, May 27, and Friday, May 31, 2019, issued with certificates of return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
It’s in consummation of the judgment of the Supreme Court, which voided the votes, and victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 23 and March 9, 2019, polls, respectively.
Having determined that the APC didn’t conduct “valid primaries” to merit its “landslide triumph,” the apex court on Friday, May 24, “declared elected” the runners-up (political parties) in the governorship, and national and state assembly ballots.
As the votes cast for the APC were “wasted votes,” the INEC, as the court ordered, recognized the political party with the second highest votes, and required spread in the elections, and the lot fell on the main opposition PDP, and its candidates.
Recipients of the certificates of return were the Governor-elect, Bello Matawalle; Deputy Governor-elect, Mahdi Gusau; the three Senators-elect; seven House of Representatives Members-elect; and 23 House of Assembly Members-elect.
Also recognized as a Member-elect, and given a certificate of return was the candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM), Kabiru Hashimu, representing the Maru South state constituency.
Novel as the Supreme Court verdict is, and shocking to many members of the APC, keen watchers of the polity had anticipated the political melodrama in the Zamfara chapter to end like its counterpart in Rivers State.
Both chapters were enmeshed in alleged manipulation of the congresses/primaries to select candidates for the governorship and legislative seats in the general election.
While the courts barred the Rivers chapter from fielding candidates, the Zamfara APC got a last-minute reprieve from the state High Court, enabling it to present candidates for the polls, which it won.
It’s a gamble, though, that crumbled on Friday, May 24, at the behest of the Supreme Court, which, in concurrence with the lower courts, ruled that the Zamfara chapter didn’t conduct valid primaries in line with the party guidelines.
Because the APC placed “something on nothing,” as the legalese goes, the court voided its victory in the national and state assembly, and the governorship contests.
Thus, in absolute terms, the APC, without a fight, lost Zamfara and Rivers, as the courts punished the chapters for breaching the party guidelines, and injunctions that put the primaries on hold.
Yet, the case of Zamfara is pathetic, as the APC was given a “lifeline” by a high court to field candidates for the elections, and it won all positions, beating the PDP to a distant second place.
For instance, in the governorship, APC’s candidate, Mukhtar Idris, polled 534,541 votes to defeat PDP’s Mutawalle, who got 189,452 votes – a margin of lead of 345,089 votes.
Ironically, Mutawalle is the new governor of Zamfara, as the Supreme Court ruled that the governorship and legislative seats be inherited by the runners-up at the polls. This gave the PDP the chance to proverbially “reap where it did not sow.”
That’s why the APC national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, described as devoid of justice, and undemocratic the court verdict he said relied on “technicalities” to “impose strangers,” that the people didn’t vote for, to govern Zamfara.
As usual, the PDP has joined the fray, unabashedly claiming that “justice” was done in the matter. Which justice is it parroting? That of losing woefully at the polls even when the odds were stacked against the APC in Zamfara throughout the campaign season? Or is it another case of a “stolen mandate” for the PDP?
Were APC’s “wasted votes” not discountenanced to meet the new realities, the PDP knew its candidates had no chance in hell of meeting the thresholds to be declared, and returned elected.
Surely, the party can gloat, as it’s got “justice” through the back door, courtesy of the supremacy fight between former Governor Yari and Senator Marafa, none of whom cared for the party’s fortunes.
Indeed, in the lead-up to the polls, Marafa declared: “I don’t give a damn if APC loses the elections in Zamfara… It will be better to have another (governing) party in Zamfara than to have APC.”
And that’s happened. So, rather than Yari and Marafa to lower their heads in shame, show contrition, and apologize for their anti-party activities, they’re busy, invoking the “will of Allah,” or “justice being served” to rationalize the outcome of their do-or-die for power for themselves or their cronies.
Without a doubt, the APC problems in Zamfara and Rivers began when Yari and former Governor Rotimi Amaechi wanted to “impose” anointed candidates, but met their match in former Senators Marafa and Magnus Abe, who also aspired to be governors.
As leaders of the APC in the states, Yari and Amaechi accusingly sidelined the Marafa and Abe factions in the congresses/primaries of the chapters.
And with a common thread binding them, Marafa and Abe took the APC to court, and in the process, acted as if they belonged in the PDP. Their factional members not only sat with PDP members in the gallery, but also celebrated together all rulings against the APC.
Theirs resembles the two biblical women, who claimed ownership of a child. While the biological mother wanted the child spared, and given to the other woman, the latter urged that it be divided so both women would have one-half each of the (dead) child.
Relate this scriptural scenario to the claims by Marafa and Abe: that their factions mainstreamed the APC in Zamfara and Rivers. If that were so, why would they want the party divided, barred from contesting, defeated, or its “victories” voided, as in Zamfara?
Which raises a frightening possibility: Marafa and Abe could have pursued, “to a logical conclusion,” if the presidential primaries to validate the nomination of President Muhammadu Buhari were part of their claims in the courts!
This is despite their professed loyalty and support to Buhari, whose interest, as the leader of the APC, and running for re-election, they didn’t consider in their pursuit of the court cases that resulted in APC’s “zero participation” in the 2019 polls in both states.
Still, the Zamfara (and Rivers) chapter’s debacle isn’t what Senator Marafa ascribed to the “non-interference” of the president in the party matters or legal issues therefrom.
Buhari never wanted a division in the APC that he’s using for his second term bid. But his appeals fell on the deaf ears of the likes of Marafa and Abe, and Yari and Amaechi – all of whom Karma has visited with “political failures” in the elections.
* Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
![[Graphic photo]Four persons beheaded in Rivers cult clash](https://thenewsguru.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/rivers-beheaded.png)
