Shekarau: Kano People’ll Defend their Votes

Written by Duncan Thursday, 22 October 2009

Opposition parties have taken shots at the National Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, for indicating that Lagos and Kano have been pencilled down as states the party must capture in the 2011 elections.

Ogbulafor suggested two days ago that the two states were crucial areas that "must be brought back" to the PDP and asked the party’s executives to deliver the states. But Kano State Governor Ibrahim Shekarau has said the state can only be captured through an undemocratic means because the voters are prepared to defend their votes.

Also, Action Congress (AC) and the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP)  in separate interviews with THISDAY declared that the PDP is "day dreaming" and warned against heating up the polity unnecessarily.

“The only way PDP can win Kano in 2011 is by rigging and it will be left for Kanawa to indulge them or stop them in their tracks, as they did in 2003 and 2007, said Shekarau who spoke through his Senior Special Adviser on Media and Public Relations, Mallam Sule Ya’u Sule.

The governor went on to tender reasons why Lagos and Kano have fared better, in his view.

“Together with Lagos, Kano is giving Nigerians an alternative development pace and agenda through good governance and popular participation. The two states are the only bright spots in a desert of despair, failed promises and arrested development. Unfortunately, PDP’s lust for Kano has no development content. They are coveting the state, its massive human and material resources like war booty,” he said. 

Shekarau explained that Kano residents would not forget the deprivation suffered by civil servants and pensioners under PDP's watch between 1999 and 2003. He claimed that his administration cleared the backlog of pension arrears dating back to 1976, in addition to gratuities and allowances.

He said Kano voters are aware that losing the state to PDP would drag them back to the "inglorious" days when residents were denied scholarships, training and decent wages while the party leadership lived a luxurious life-style. He added that the “nationally-acclaimed PDP rigging infrastructure” could not intimidate Kano voters in 2011.

In his response, National Publicity Secretary of AC, Lai Mohammed, stated: “PDP and its Chairman, Ogbulafor, are merely day-dreaming.  The party just wants to entertain its audience after its inability to resolve the internal crisis rocking the party in Anambra, Plateau and Edo states.

“It is impossible to capture Lagos in view of what Governor Babatunde Fashola is performing in the state. His performance in Lagos state has reduced any ambition of PDP to capture Lagos to nothing because Lagosians will resist."

Mohammed claimed that there would be an implosion in PDP in 2011 given the myriad of problems facing it. The crisis across various states is an indication of what is to come, he declared. Also, National Publicity Secretary of ANPP, Chief Emma Eneukwu, stated that his party is not astonished at Ogbulafor's statements. In his view, past efforts to win Kano had failed and that scenario would repeat itself.

“We are not surprised by the desperation of PDP. It tried in vain to rig itself to the Government House in Kano and failed and this time again, PDP rigging machine will fail. “ANPP in Kano is people oriented and there is internal democracy working within the party and every body is carried along. So the plot of PDP to rig itself to office will fail as usual," said Eneukwu.

CNPP also did not mince words in condemning the PDP national chairman. According to a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the coalition, “It is painful that the only quotable quote from Chief Vincent Ogbulafor since he was imposed as the chairman of the PDP has been – PDP will rule Nigeria for 60 years – now is that PDP must capture Kano and Lagos States.”

The coalition of opposition political parties then asked PDP whether it is not tragic the chairman of the party is perfecting plans to capture more states instead of leading the crusade for genuine electoral reforms and constitutional amendment.

“If PDP must capture Kano and Lagos States in 2011, what happens to the Electoral Reform that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, leader of PDP has pledged to Nigerians. “Is it not a paradox that while PDP is growing as the largest political party in Africa; that Nigeria it has ruled for nearly 10 years is dangerously sliding into a failed state?" asked the CNPP.

CNPP called on Ogbulafor to desist from heating up the political landscape, bearing in mind the warning of possible anarchy raised by the director general of the State Security Service.