Gombe: Situating Governor Inuwa, Senator Goje’s Rift

PERSPECTIVE

Senator Danjuma Goje’s is adroitly navigating stormy political waters apparently contrived by his erstwhile protégé Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State. Louis Ach examines the key issues

There has been no love lost between Senator Danjuma Goje, a former Governor of Gombe State and the incumbent Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, who served as Commissioner of Finance for eight years under Goje’s administration. Currently, Goje is representing Gombe Central Snatorial zone at the federal parliament.

The talk of a budding political supremacy battle between Gombe’s enduring political godfather Senator Goje and Governor Inuwa ahead of the 2023 general elections initially essentially remained in the realm of speculations. But currently the issue has left the shores of speculation.

The political friction between Goje and Inuwa has polarised the state’s chapter of the party and this impacted results of the recent general elections in the state which made it almost slip back to its former staus of a PDP entity.

Goje alongside other victorious senators-elect are waiting to be sworn-in for another term in the upper chamber of the National Assembly and inauguration of the 10th NASS. It is a no brainer to guess who’s pulling the strings at the local government arena.

At press time, several local government party officials in Gombe State have come out in defense of the purported expulsion of Goje from the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) amidst an existing Federal High Court injunction restraining the action.

But reacting to the alleged expulsion, Saidu Muazu Kumo, a senior legislative aide to Senator Goje said they would rather keep mum over the issue until the determination of a restraining order instituted and served to the Kashere Ward executives of the APC even before they announced alleged Goje’s expulsion.

According to Saidu Muazu, a legal practitioner, the case had been in court even before the purported expulsion in Kashere on 18th of April, 2023.

His words: “There was a court order and the party (APC) was served in Kashere on the 16th and 17th of April 2023 that they should be restrained; that they should go to court to hear all the complaints of Senator Muhammad Danjuma Goje at the Federal High Court, Abuja, but they went ahead to do the purported expulsion.

“As lawyers, we have been admonished not to talk when a case is still in court. We don’t have anything to say until when the matter is heard and determined by the court of law. We are operating a constitutional democracy in Nigeria, so, you cannot do anything that contradicts the power of the court and you think you will succeed.”

He also described the action of the APC in Kashere Ward as ‘subjudice’, adding that adoption of the expulsion by other party executives from other local governments of the State was more like “building something on nothing”.

According to Muazu, “they are building their foundation on what the Kashere ward executives had done. So, it doesn’t matter, it is just like building something on nothing. What they did today is not something new, they are still insisting on what the Kashere Ward did on 18th April, 2023”.

He called on Goje’s supporters across the country to remain calm and wait for the outcome of the court judgement, adding that “what we know is that Senator Goje is a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a senator-elect for Gombe Central senatorial zone under the APC”.

Many political stakeholders in Gombe recall that Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s successful governorship aspiration was given wings and substance by the focused influence of Senaror Goje’s towering clout. They readily recall that Senator Goje’s total backing during the APC’s 2018 gubernatorial primary elections, despite the arrays of prominent and strong contenders like; Faruk Bamusa, Muhammed Jibrin Barde, Sen. Idris Umar, Dasuki Jalo Waziri, Hon. Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki, Habu among others, enabled Inuwa Yahaya to emerge the party flagbearer.

In effect, tracking back, what determined the gubernatorial outcome and gave Yahaya the throne in 2019 general election despite PDP’s power of incumbency coupled with their financial war chest, was the ability of party leader, Senator Goje not only to nimbly appease towering chieftains who lost to Inuwa Yahaya in the gubernatorial primary election but also ensuring none defected from the APC to PDP.

Goje also successfully courted folks like Jamil Isyaku Gwamna, Bala Bello Tinka, and Abubakar BD among others to join the APC’s train then. Goje is seen as the pivot and remains rallying point of APC in Gombe State. He represents the foundational base of APC’s 2019 triumph in the state.

It couls be recalled that when Goje took over Gombe State in 2003 from Hashidu of ANPP, he returned the state fully to PDP. When he joined APC he also led the party to win all the NASS seats and returned the state to APC.

During the February 25 2023 election only Goje won a senate seat for APC out of the three Gombe State senate seats. In House of Representatives, APC won just one House of Representatives seat and this was influenced by Goje who gave total support.

During the February 25 election, Governor Inuwa lost his polling unit and entire wards and Tinubu lost the state to PDP. In the governorship election many political observers believe Governor Inuwa Yahaya deployed huge resources at his disposal to win the election unlike in the presidential election where the APC failed. Inuwa’s victory however is being challenged in court.

Why is the rift between the two political leading lights of Gombe still subsisting? It could be recalled that after months of often violent friction between Governor Inuwa’s supporters and Goje’s, efforts to reconcile the leading political figures in Gombe State were initiated by the ruling party’s high command early last year.

However, the then Chairman Caretaker Committee of the APC and Yobe State Governor, Mala Buni, in a statement issued after the reconciliation meeting held in Abuja, said the two chieftains agreed to set aside their differences for the common interest of the party.

But in all, these efforts appear null and void. Many observers believe that s challenge to Senator Goje’s authority or influence in the state he made considerable sacrifices as one of the key founding fathers by any young upstarts will naturally end in futility.

Some observers also draw attention to the young Turks who tried to challenge Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s authority in the South West have had only tales of woe to tell.

They also hold that it’s mere idle talk to claim that the sitting governor is the natural and automatic leader of the party in the state – concluding that if such a political construct cannot work in Lagos State, it also cannot work in Gombe State – except in the hypothetical realm.

Some even suggest that if Governor Inuwa is spoiling for a fight, this must flow from advisors who are secretly plotting his demise.

If the festering rift between Gombe’s leaders continues, a resurgent PDP waiting in the wings like the patient vulture will surely regain its lost Jewel in the Savanah.

Adamawa Debacle: Before We Crucify the NBC

By Adewale Onasanya

Nigeria politics, especially during elections, has always been an interesting game. Among other challenges is the fact that everything is politicised and viewed with emotional attachment. At this point, most Nigerians throw caution into the winds and react to issues based on interests. Of course, considering the elementary political science teaching that everybody is a political animal, one tends to defend his or her interest.

As a passionate Nigeria who is equally disturbed by the absurdity in the polity, the recent Adamawa brouhaha is nauseating to me. It ridicules not only the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but the entire country. The shenanigans played out while the Adamawa election drama dragged on was enough to make an average patriotic Nigerian sick in the heart. From the desperation of the politicians to the presumed lack of neutrality on the part of INEC officials and the suspense created by the actors in the drama were all ridiculous to say the least. As a commentator submitted, it is difficult if not impossible to put the script of the Adamawa governorship election together except from a warped mind with infinite capacity for evil. I agree totally with this submission because it has forever given an indelible mark to the image of INEC and perhaps the country as a whole.

While one may not be able to judge the electoral body based on results from a supplementary election due to many hitches, the body can be condemned for not putting its house in order and giving Nigeria a seamless exercise on the final day. What that ugly development portrayed is that the INEC’s house is divided. The drama of absurdity simply put a question mark on their independent status and neutrality in the exercise. The peak of the body’s insincerity was the role played by Mr. Hudu Yunusa, the REC who played the role of a usurper by carrying out the functions of the Returning Officer.

That said, I think stakeholders who are blaming the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for not sanctioning the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), also allowed their emotions to set in and ruled. Yes, NTA might have better access to news because it’s a public broadcasting station, if there would be sanctions over the Adamawa imbroglio, almost all the radio and television stations should be sanctioned. Again, this may be wrong if due diligence is not followed. It’s sad that we seem to think that those journalists on ground are not human. As professionals, their first duty is to report happenings and inform the public. In Adamawa that was what NTA staff and other reporters on ground did.

One issue those debating and profiling NTA have not raised or mischievously ignored is the setting of the scene of the announcement which gave a semblance of authority. In a hall where a Police Commissioner, personnel of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were present, for Christ’s sake, how would the journalists have imagined that it was nothing but a ruse?

Another issue raised which can be faulted was the covering of the acceptance speech delivered by the candidate of the All Progress Congress (APC), Aishatu Dahiru, a.k.a Binani, by the national television. To me, this is like calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it. One, between the time the controversial announcement by the REC took place and the time the beneficiary of the shady result gave his acceptance speech, one solid hour had passed. By then, almost all Nigerians had given up on the election that had been concluded and the winner had emerged. Obviously, the NTA guys and other journalists on ground would have assumed that INEC’s an hour silence was an indication that the announcement so made was from the body truly. Theirs was to report and they did alongside other journalists in the broadcasting and print media.

That some Nigerians, with obvious personal issues to grind with NBC, are now using this exercise to call for the head of the regulatory body is unnecessary. All over the world, broadcasting regulation is key and sacrosanct to control content and promote peace in the land. As the official regulatory organ of the government established to monitor, supervise and regulate the broadcast industry in Nigeria the NBC is saddled with a responsibility to make players in the industry play by the rules with adherence to professionalism. Without an NBC to regulate and reshape the industry, Nigeria will be thrown to the state of anarchy, hence the need to wield the big stick when the need arises.

I think our problem as a nation is that we want the best but we cannot make the sacrifice. In saner climes where institutions are strong, politicisation of national issues are not encouraged. But we are in Nigeria where there is no trust and where everybody lives with suspicion, I woke up this morning and asked myself if there was any station in the past that has been sanctioned without reason, My answer is no. I asked myself again if Nigerians had ever generally condemned those stations for wrongdoing and commend NBC, my answer again is yes and no. Yes, because those who benefit from such a sanction would jubilate and no, because the promoters of the reason for the sanction would always kick. There is no gainsaying the fact that NBC had in the past sanctioned many organisations but the truth is that I also learnt of times NBC had sanctioned the NTA. The difference is that NTA would take it in good faith and accept the sanction without calling a press conference, perhaps because it’s a government body sanctioned by another government body. But the private owners would simply turn their sanctions to blackmail to win public sympathy. This is definitely not how to build a good nation. In the light of this, I find the comparative analysis being churned out by various armchair analysts between the recent sanction of Channel Television over an interview with Datti Baba Ahmed, Vice Presidential candidate of the Labour Party and the Adamawa electoral coverage as an illogical argument. They are simply two different issues.

The issue is that NTA did not do anything wrong in the real sense. The question is this: did NTA run the acceptance speech AFTER or BEFORE the electoral body disowned the announcement of the APC candidate? I doubt. If this was so, then it means that as at the time the woman was giving the acceptance speech, the belief was that she actually won the election.

Sources also informed that Festus Okoye, the INEC spokesperson was not reachable which means that by the time Nigerians realised that the rogue INEC official had taken them for a ride, the damage has been done.

Has the NBC goofed in the past? Several times. But that can never change the fact that the Commission has been doing a yeoman’s job in a country where politicians own so many electronic media outlets and will always want to do everything to ensure they get away with infractions.

And this is what the NBC has been resisting. It deserves our accolades. Not condemnation.

•Onasanya, a broadcasting enthusiast, wrote in from Lagos.