By Ibrahim Habu Suleiman
Perhaps, Nasarawa State is indeed the birth-place of APC in the country. The state had produced the only governor from Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change, CPC in the person of Governor Umaru Tanko Almakura at the 2011 general elections. Again in 2015 after the CPC merged with other opposition parties across the country to form the All Progressives Congress, APC and Governor Almakura managed to secure victory at the polls a second time.
However in both occasions the state could not win the presidential elections for Buhari in spite of the president’s filial relationship with the state as his political home in the country. But all this seems to be set for a change as stakeholders of the APC in the state have unanimously agreed to work together as one family for the victory of the party not only at the state level but more so at the presidential level.
Nevertheless, the national chairman of the APC, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, must have played a significant role in securing the assurances of all the “men of timber and calibre” gathered at the Lafia square in the state capital on Thursday, December 20, for the launching of the APC campaign activities as regards the need to deliver the state for the president.
The occasion which coincided with the swearing in ceremony of new commissioners was graced by a mammoth crowd packed to the brim with all or almost all the who’s who in the state APC.
In his speech, Hon. Wadada, State chairman, Buhari, A. A. Sule Campaign Council, said Governor Almakura is “the political son of Buhari” and as the political son what he has achieved in terms of developing the state are there to be seen, just as his political father has achieved in only his first tenure. Hence he called on the people of the state to vote APC en masse come 2019 for continuity at the state and presidential levels.
The wày and manner speaker after speaker expressed their resolve to work as a united front could not escape the keen listening ear of the party’s national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (special guest of honour at the occasion), who declared that “Governor Almakura is an example in leadership,” saying “it is only in Nasarawa that I have seen a governor from 1999 and a new governor all working together side by side.” One significant point of note at the occasion was the presence of all the eleven aspirants that contested for the governorship in the state along with all their supporters at the venue of the flag-off ceremony. That singular gesture was indeed unprecedented. Still it could be pointed out that as the saying goes not all that glitters is gold. And the battle, as many of the key speakers noted at the venue including the national chairman, is not fought at the square but at the various wards and units of the electorate across the state. Moreover campaign rallies or large gatherings in public squares do not win elections. The political party has to have a winning strategy that involves going down to the electorate to meet the people and the people are are about ready to meet the politicians now. Besides, this is the people’s chance now to assert their relevance; they can decide to elect whoever they choose to based on how close the contestants are to them, because a leader is supposed to be always close to his people.
Of course, the whole world can now (after over three and half years) testify the capability and credibility, the high integrity and incorruptibility of President Muhammadu Buhari, who unfortunately trailed his opponents during the last two presidential polls in the state. President Buhari and the APC have torched the lives of millions of Nigerians all over the states of the federation in the last three and half years. Seeing is perhaps more convincing than any amount of wise argument. Hence, the utterances of key APC stalwarts in the state were geared towards reminding the electorate of the need to make a well-informed decision not a decision they would come to regret. As the national chairman of the APC said at the occasion, APC is a party that believes in keeping faith with the people’s trust. It is perpendicularly different from what PDP stands for – namely, “People Deceive People or Papa Deceive Pikin.”
Suleiman writes in from Lafia, Nasarawa State and can be reached via iasuleiman60@gmail.com
