BY MANSUR DANBABA
AS elections draw near, it is clear that the contest for the office of governor of Yobe State will be fought in the main by the ruling All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Both parties have already conducted their primaries and have returned Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam and Senator Usman Albishir, respectively as their candidates.

Unlike the ANPP which had all its delegates affirm Gaidam as the sole candidate for governor, the PDP had four contenders in the primaries–Adamu Maina Waziri who is a former Police Affairs Minister, Senator Usman Albishir, Garba Umar and Yakubu Bello. The three losers have reportedly pledged to support Albishir but it is clear that there is more to the pronouncement than meets the eye.

The conduct of the PDP primaries, for one, is the clearest indication that the party is deeply split internally. Beyond the normal political horse-trading, the two major candidates, namely Waziri and Albishir, were polarised that their supporters fought bitterly and violently before and during the primaries. Police report confirmed that three people were killed as a result. Yobe is thus far the worst spot where internal crisis within the PDP had claimed so many lives.

For observers, the acrimony, if not the loss of lives, which trailed the PDP primaries in Yobe was hardly surprising. It speaks volumes about how the party in Yobe is constituted and how its gubernatorial flag bearer came about.

Senator Usman Albishir decamped to the PDP from the ANPP after losing a long standing legal battle at the Supreme Court over his substitution as gubernatorial candidate in the 2007 election. Although new in the PDP, Albishir and his supporters, however, soon assumed a toga of exaggerated self-importance, and went about giving the impression that the Senator’s decampment to the party had rescued it from the throes of death. This had both surprised and irritated Waziri, who had been the leader and financier of the PDP, and his supporters to no end.

The distrust and suspicion between the so-called old and new PDP in Yobe State, namely between Waziri and Albishir supporters, became so intense that neither Albishir nor his supporters attended Waziri’s declaration for governor at the August 27th Stadium, Damaturu five weeks ago. Everyone knew, then, that it was only a matter of time before a fully fledged crisis ensued between the two factions.

At the PDP primaries in Damaturu, the atmosphere was charged with reports that some delegates were being ‘hidden and herded away’ and ‘bought’ over by one of the contenders. Some reports alleged that up to half a million naira might have gone to each of the delegates who was ready to support the candidate who allegedly offered the money. Now with so much money being splashed around and three lives lost, the stakes were high enough and no one expects that a media stunt from the losers about their ‘readiness’ to work with Albishir was everything that was needed to mend fences within the party in Yobe State.

Already, there are reports that the Waziri camp had lodged complaints with the PDP national leadership on how the party candidate emerged. Sources also say that the Waziri camp might resolve not to with Senator Albishir. There is no question that the PDP primaries in Yobe State had exposed the deep divisions within the party and created a sense of fear among supporters that these divisions had irretrievably sealed the fate of the party as far as the governorship election is concerned.

There are indications also that several Waziri supporters might engage in anti-party posturing as a protest against what they see as an unfair edging out of their leader. Giving Yobe’s geo-politics, this is likely to happen more in Zone B, where Adamu Maina Waziri hails from. Beyond possible anti-party activity, the PDP already faces a formidable challenge from the ANPP in this Zone with most political heavyweights and their followers amongst the three major ethnic groups in the area firmly behind Governor Gaidam.

Even in Zone C where Albishir hails from, indications are that the Senator had lost considerable ground since almost all his candidates for Senate, House of Representatives and State Assembly elections, including Shettima Saleh and Tijjani Zanna Zakariyya, had lost to others in the primaries. Yobe Zone A, on the other hand, is seen as a complete no-go area for the PDP, giving that Governor Gaidam, former Governor Bukar Abba Ibrahim who is still in the ANPP and his wife, House of Representatives member, Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim, all hail from there.

The PDP also has to contend with widespread assumption that Yobe State is traditionally ANPP. Since 1999 with the return of democratic rule, the ANPP continues to remain the ruling party both at the state and the local government levels. Over the course of 12 years, the ANPP has become so firmly established that repeated PDP attempts to strip it of control had failed.  The ANPP is certain to continue to trumpet this record in the course of its electioneering campaigns. If psychology is any measure at all, this might become a key factor in the election.

Above all, observers believe that the greatest challenge that the PDP will face in Yobe State lies in what many believe was Gaidam’s record of achievements as governor. As an incumbent, the governor continues to do more in the areas of water supply, health care delivery, education and housing development, amongst others. Many civil servants in the state are said to be pleased with the 50 percent subsidy on houses built by the government while the government policy on free drugs and treatment for pregnant women and children from five years and below has attracted not a few commendations. These and many more interventions by the Gaidam administration are seen as some of its key ‘selling points’ ahead of the April elections.

All said, the PDP in Yobe State has a very hard battle against an incumbent administration that is seen as performing; but it does not seem that its leaders are ready to fight together every feet of the way.

Mr. Danbaba, a public servant, writes from Angwan Rimi, Kaduna.