By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
As Taraba state APC stakeholders and supporters continue to lick their wounds over several losses to the PDP at the polls, a vibrant and selfless politician, Abdulrazaq Gidado Abubakar seems to be their only answered prayer for a better leadership that will salvage the party and pilot it to greater heights.
The image of APC in Taraba state has been battered by several in-house wrangling and mediocrity, despite all the progress that the party has made at the National level. With these challenges, the party is far from realizing its potential in the state and, the hopefulness of the common people has been replaced by cynicism and sometimes despair, and that true freedom has not yet been won for the likes of Abubakar, struggling to create a platform that would capture the minds of the people.
It is a truism, that the Taraba APC does not have a proper structure in the state. Most of the members are on part-time bases, and only interested in elective position. This kind of politricks (not politics), usually create distrusts between the top party members and the electorates who want a permanent party structure in the state.
But a selfless leader, Abdulrazaq Gidado Abubakar, born in Jalingo Local Government Area of Taraba state, grew up understanding the history of Nigeria’s politics and common challenges faced by many in the country.
The grassroots politician who was an active member of three different political parties in the past, is the right bridge builder at this critical time that the party is in limbo.
Before joining politics, Abubakar worked in various establishments and rose through the ranks to the helms of affairs.
After he took a bow from public service, he saw the need to contribute his wealth of experiences in developing Nigeria’s politics. To start with, he joined the Peoples Democratic Part (PDP), but his drive for reforms put him at odds with the parochial politics of many players. His idea of how the interest of the people should be represented, moved him to the UDP, where he was an active member and Gubernatorial Aspirant of that party.
Despite that feat, his desire to share his idea on a bigger platform took him to the APC. But when he discovered that his ideas will be buried, he moved to the African Democratic Congress.
With these experiences, the young political reformer believes that the time has come for the APC in the state to dust the past and move on.
In many ways, he embodied the new Africa of the early sixties; an era where leaders truly represent the interests of the people, against the quest to loot treasury.
His major intention is also to bring back the wounded and those who have been treated unjustly to jawjaw and chart a way forward that will uplift the party in the state to gain the support of the masses.
Wrangling and power tussle has always been an issue in the party at the state level.
It would be recalled that the leadership of Adams Oshiomole caused more harm than good in the state. A case in point was the emergence of two chairmen, with one faction loyal to the former Minister of Women Affairs, Senator Aisha Jumai Al-Hassan, and the Ibrahim Tukur El-Sudi faction.
The APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, at the time, went ahead to inaugurate the El-Sudi-led State Working Committee of the party, deepening the rift which caused more problems to the party in the state.
As the situation continue to gather storms, It led to the take over of the party’s secretariat by security operatives, during which the faction loyal to the minister was disowned by the National Working Committee (NWC). It took the timely intervention of heavily armed security personnel, who immediately barricaded the party secretariat to prevent any of the faction from accessing the building, activities of thugs from the various factions of the party would have led to massive blood letting in Jalingo, the state capital.
Judging by all these past challenges beclouding the party, it is obvious that an Abubakar, with experiences of various parties and a former gubernatorial aspirant could be the right man to cement the crack in the party and reconcile the various factions that were created by greed and selfishness on the part of many, seeking for personal glory.
This also means that the task of reconciling aggrieved members is not everybody’s job. Being an expert in peace and conflict management, the reformer intends to bring his wealth of experiences to raise the party from grass to Grace.
