Matawalle’s tortuous road to Zamfara government house and challenges ahead

Northern Bureau Chief, MUHAMMAD SABIU, writes on the challenges ahead of the new governor in Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, as he takes over the affairs of the state.

IT is no longer news that the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections in Zamfara State, Mohammed Bello Matawelle, has, like the governors of the other states where the election held, since assumed office as the fourth civilian governor of the state.

The new governor, who is one of cronies of former Governor Ahmed Sani Yarima, came to office at a period the state is believed to be besotted by many crises. However, Matawalle is not a new-comer to governance; he has served in many capacities, both in the state and at the national level. He started his political sojourn in 1999 when he contested to be the chairman of Maradun Local Government Area and lost. But the then governor, Sani Yarima, brought him closer and made him a commissioner in his then newly-formed cabinet. Thus, at several times he was commissioner for Local government, environment, Youths and sports.

In 2003, Yarima gave him another opportunity to contest for the Marudun /Bakura federal constituency on the platform of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP). He left the then All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in 2008 for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when the then governor Mahmud Shinkafi left ANPP and has since then he remained in the party.

Battle for Speakership hots up

In 2015, Matawalle decided to contest the governorship election but he lost in the party the primary to Aliyu Shinkafi by a slim margin. Still insistent, Matawalle contested in the 2019 governorship primary of the PDP and eventually became his party’s flag bearer following a consensus arrangement spearheaded by critical stakeholders of the party, headed by General Aliyu Gusau, the former National Security Adviser (NSA) to President Goodluck Jonathan.

Matawalle became the governor of Zamfara State by default, having lost out in the March 9 governorship election to the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Muktar Idris, who was anointed by the immediate past Governor Abdulaziz Yari. The new helmsman in Zamfara State became the governor following the verdict of the Supreme Court which voided the APC primaries for all the elections held in the state.

The state chapter of the APC was enmeshed in crisis over who will fly the party’s ticket for the March 9 election. Nothing less than nine people indicated interest at the commencement of the sales of nomination forms. While former Governor Yari anointed Muktar Idris, his former Commissioner for Finance, to be his successor, the other eight aspirants were not on the same page with him. Attempt by the party leadership to hold primaries failed. But a kangaroo primary was later perfected by Yari, even as the other APC aspirants, called G8, rushed to court to challenge the former governor’s antics.

The crisis snowballed into series of litigations that threatened the party. A temporary victory by Yari in a court in Gusau saw him fielding his favoured candidate for the governorship election. However, that ruling by Justice Bello Shinkafi that Zamfara APC held its primaries in accordance with the party’s constitution did not go down well with the other aspirants. One of the aggrieved aspirants, Senator Kabir Marafa, filed a motion before the Court of Appeal, Sokoto to challenge the ruling of the Gusau High Court.

Before the court could decide, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fielded Idris, former Governor Yari’s choice, as the APC candidate. Expectedly, Idris emerged victorious in the election as he defeated Matawalle by a wide margin. The outcome of the election however didn’t go down with Matawalle who headed to the election petitions tribunal.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal in Sokoto has granted the prayers of Senator Marafa namely, that the APC in Zamfara did not hold primaries. It therefore directed the INEC not to issue Certificate of Return to Muktar Idris who already been declared winner of the governorship election.

Dissatisfied with the Sokoto appellate court ruling, the former governor rushed to the Supreme Court to seek for a legal interpretation of the ruling. In its ruling, all the five judges of the apex court also ruled that the APC in the state erred as no primary was conducted. It further ruled that all the votes cast for the party during the election were wasted votes.

The apex therefore declared that the party which came second, that is, the PDP, with the second highest number of votes should be declared winner. Thus, Bello Matawalle declared the winner of the governorship election and was issued a Certificate of Return. In the same vein, all PDP candidates who contested the other various elections in the state were beneficiaries of the Supreme Court judgment as they were also declared winners.

In his acceptance speech, Governor Matawalle promised, among others, to tackle the issue of insecurity bedeviling the state. He advised bandits to leave the state or repent. He also promised to reform the civil service, revive the ailing educational sector and provide free health care delivery to women and children in the state.

Though it seems the governor is in tune with most of the worries of the people of the state, many pundits and observers alike are of the view that the new administration in the state must settle down as soon as soon possible and get started to address the identified prevailing problems in the state and restore hope to the people and residents of the state.

A public affairs commentator, Awwal Dansadau, while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, contended that the first major challenge the governor is going to face is how to unite the people, noting that politics and politicking are now over. He further advised that the governor should take note of the fact that some aggrieved members of the APC were behind his victory hence the need for him to be more pragmatic and work with them to ensure he succeed in the next four years.

The view of Dansadau however is not in sync with a section of the ruling party in the state who have began to express dismay over the stand of the governor who was reported to have indicated his willingness to work with the opposition.

However, Dansadau insisted that the governor’s position is not bad idea as he advised that Matawalle should form a unity government, comprising of members of both the PDP and the APC, especially the G8.

“Forming a unity government will not be a bad idea. There s nothing wrong with what the governor’s has done. Politics is give and take. It is not about party now but how to salvage the young state from total collapse. Any citizen of the state who is competent to offer advice, irrespective of the camp he belongs, should be contacted and, if possible, be appointed into the new government,” he said.

Also speaking, chairman of a pressure group in the state, Zamfara State Concerned Forum, Abba Mohammed, disclosed that another challenge the governor would face has to do with the issue of finance. He faulted that claim by former Governor Yari that he left N7bn in the coffers of the government and that he had cleared all liabilities amounting to N47 billion. Mohammed said this was a governor that spent the state finances on travelling on chartered flights.

“From our own investigations, of the eight years he ruled the state, he undertook over 100 trips on chartered planes. Apart from that, this was a governor that was also impeached by the lawmakers for financial recklessness”, Dansadau said as he asked that the Yari administration should be probe, alleging that “he has turned his government into family and friends’ property and he should not be left to go scot free.”

The activist also advised Governor Matawalle to review the cases of those political aides and civil servants that were allegedly victimised for supporting the APC G8 and the PDP.  According to him, “We learnt that the salaries of some aides of the deputy governor, like the SA Media to the former deputy governor, Yusuf Idris and many others in the deputy governor’s office were stopped.”

The issue of insecurity which has bedeviled the state for decades is another big hurdle for the new man at the helm of affairs in the state. This became more poignant in the threat posed by illegal gold mining in some parts of the state and the attendant displacement that ensued.

A member of the PDP in the state, Shettiman Rijiya, said, “Since 2010, banditry and rustling have taken over the state. Our people in the rural areas are living at the mercy of these bandits. So I am optimistic that the new governor will bring his connection to bear as a former chairman of the House Committee on Security to ensure that he tackled this menace. This is the first thing everyone is looking into and once he addressed this hurdle, he will get all the necessary supports he deserves.”

For Luqman Majidadi, another activist, the morale of the people of the state is very low. He said the way the immediate administration tackled the issue of salary increment, lack of promotion and non-payment of pensions was very sad, adding this also include the 1,400 workers that were recruited and have not collect their salaries for 60 months.