PDP and the Shagari ordeal -By Ayuba Ahmad

Sokoto State, in its usual characteristics is again embroiled on an intriguing politics of conflicts between seekers of elective offices in the same political platforms and between proposing parties. While the All Progressives Congress (APC) seems to have since put its house in order by concluding all its primary elections preparatory to the 2015 general elections, the PDP in the state does not appear to be so ready because, among other reasons, the party is yet to resolve the issue of its gubernatorial flag bearer.

As the interplay between gladiators in the PDP continues to unfold, one of the questions pervading the Sokoto political landscape is; will it turn out that, as Wamakko did to the PDP by abandoning its sunshade after using it effectively to weather off a political tempest, Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa, now calling the shots in the Sokoto PDP in his capacity as chairman of the elders committee will prove, sooner than later, that he is but, a fair-weather friend?

Also topical in political cycles is the question of whether the PDP will, in spite of all, reward Mukhtari Shagari for his uncommon loyalty and steadfastness in the same vein Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has been rewarded with the flag of the APC in Sokoto essentially, for betraying the PDP and for being loyal to the APC even when he was supposedly a member of the ruling party as Speaker of the House of Representatives?

Going by the experiences of the Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Barrister Mukhtari Shehu Shagari, as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from 2007 to date, it would seem that the party has been applying a peculiar and weird perception of the concept of laws and corresponding penalties for those who run foul of its laws or rules of engagement for its members.

Unlike other known laws, divine or man-made, the PDP seems to have two types of rules: one, contained in its known body of dos and don’ts and, the others that are buried in the hearts of only those in positions to enforce them. Or, how else does one explain the chain of ‘punishments’ the PDP has visited on Shagari since 2007 in spite of his not having breached any of the known code of conduct of the party?

As a cabinet minister in charge of the Ministry of Water Resources for seven years, he, in compliance with a directive of the PDP’s national leadership, accepted to resign from his position to contest the 2007 governorship elections in Sokoto State which the PDP, at that time, was desperate to wrest from the opposition ANPP.

Notwithstanding the fact that he was taking the risk much against his personal desire, but an obvious response to the party’s prodding, he was yet subjected to the rigours and vicissitudes of a primary election. To the chagrin of those who had expected otherwise, he won the keenly – contested primary election with a wide margin of votes.

Rather than reward him by extending to him the requisite support in the impending contest that the PDP looked set to win with a landslide, he was penalised with the strange and humiliating directive, again from the same persons at the helm of affairs of the party, to hand over his hard-earned ticket to a defecting candidate from the opposition, who, from all indications, could not have come a second place if all the three parties lined up for that election had gone on to slug it out in the battle field.

Not enough a punishment, the PDP’s helmsmen further directed him to go on the ticket as a running mate. Mukhtari Shagari yet again, submitted to comply clearly, against his obviously embittered inner self. That decision to swallow the humble pie would appear again to be one taken in obeisance to the cajoling of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the counsels of friends and significantly, the solemn promise more like a covenant, that, he would automatically be given the PDP’s ticket at the end of Aliyu Wamakko’s tenure.

Seven and a half years down the line, the PDP appears to be preparing to visit with another agonising punishment by reneging on the ‘gentleman’s undertaking’ of 2007 that promised him an automatic ticket at the end of Wamako’s tenure. Ironically once again, this round of punishment is coming at a moment when his political profile has soared to a height that he is clearly the candidate to beat and the PDP’s popularity rating is high on the political horizon.

On a somber appraisal of the ordeals of Shagari, the tendency is for one to deduce that the Peoples Democratic Party as an organization, has a unique sense of justice, crimes and punishment in contrast to all known definitions. On the scale of the PDP therefore, a Mukhtari Shagari is severally guilty and thus the many bouts of his punishment!

The pull-down syndrome that has been perceived as punishment from the PDP is however, more of the outcome of machinations by those who are not comfortable in the domains of decorum and the other noble tenets of honesty and accountability in politics and service.