Taraba Guber: Our Votes Were Not Wasted -By Abershi Musa

There are numerous things that serve as dream killers in life, which every rational human being would not want to happen to him or her. The nullification of the electoral victory of governor Darius Ishaku by the Taraba Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, before it was upturned at the appellate, level was one of such.

Ishaku, an amiable politician who is being loved by thousands of Tarabans, was unanimously voted into office on April 11, 2015 as executive governor of Taraba State after defeating the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan, in a keenly-contested election and runoff. He became victorious because the good people of Taraba believed in his ability and capacity to help rescue, rebuild and reposition the state.

The news of the nullification of his election by the tribunal sitting in Abuja then was an immense shock, not only to those of us privileged to work with him, but indeed to all well-meaning Nigerians and citizens of Taraba State. In that ‘kangaroo’ judgement, the Justice Danladi Abubakar led tribunal announced that Ishaku did not emerge the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a properly-conducted primary election, and so he must vacate office for Senator Aisha.

Funny enough, even non-partisan Nigerians who followed the conduct of the governorship primary keenly would readily attest to the fact that the rescue captain of Taraba State was a candidate who genuinely won the party primary election and proceeded to garner the highest number of the valid votes cast in the governorship elections in all the sixteen local governments of the state. He was so declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Those of us who participated in the electoral process feel that if the decision of the tribunal did shock Tarabans, then nothing else will. What was not in doubt when his electoral victory was nullified was that the tribunal’s ruling continued to puzzle many close watchers of events in the state, especially with the fact that not a single candidate in the PDP even went to court to challenge Ishaku’s emergence as the PDP flag-bearer to contest the April 11 election.

In the first run of the election, Ishaku scored 317,198 votes while the APC’s Alhassan polled 262,386. The difference between the votes of both candidates was 54,812, while over 100,000 potential votes were cancelled at some polling units. However, INEC, through its Returning Officer then, Prof. Muhammad Kariey, on April 13, 2915 declared the election inconclusive and announced that there would be a supplementary election within 30 days.

According to INEC, the position was taken following its discovery that the total number of votes rejected and cancelled was more than the total votes with which Ishaku led the runner-up. Of course, INEC’s position made sense and Ishaku had no cause to argue against it despite the fact that he was leading Alhassan. After the runoff on April 25, INEC finally declared Ishaku the winner of the election with 369,318 votes to the APC’s Alhassan who scored 275,984 votes. The victory cleared the coast for him to commence his mission of rescuing and rebuilding Taraba, while seeking to position the it as a mega state to watch in the North East geopolitical zone of the country.

Immediately he was sworn in on May 29, 2015, Ishaku promised to be the governor of all Tarabans and asked the people join hands with his administration to move the state forward. He explained that he will continue with some achievements of former Governor Danbaba Suntai and take them to completion from where Suntai stopped. He equally urged the people to set aside all political, religious and ethnic differences and unite to move the state forward. These, the governor has been doing even with the distraction from the governorship legal tussle.

Understanding that the task of rebuilding Taraba cannot be delivered by him and his commissioners alone, Governor Ishaku has been working with traditional rulers in the state by always seeking their fatherly advice on critical issues. A genuine patriot that he is, and ever ready to commit his all in serving his people, he has also galvanised Tarabans by calling them to ask themselves what they would offer to the state, rather than what the state will do for them. With all stakeholders in the state working together, the governor believes that the job of rebuilding Taraba would be easier and achieved faster.