FOR keen watchers of politi­cal events in Kaduna State, the recent suspension of Senator Shehu Sani from the party did not come as a surprise. In fact, to some, it was late in coming. In this report, Ismail Omipi­dan, who has been following the events since the formation of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state, re­ports that Sani, from all indica­tions may just be a pawn in the well entrenched political war, playing out in Kaduna APC, and unless he retraces his step, Daily Sun can authoritatively reveal that he may end up be­ing consumed by it, for several reasons. Chief among which is the fact that, the crisis is already making Sani to spend more than he would ordinarily have want­ed to. And even if he is able to sustain the spending pattern till 2019, he would probably have no enough financial war chest to prosecute the election, against a man with a deep pock­et by El-Rufai, who also enjoys tremendous favour and support from the presidency and nation­al leadership of the party. Once El-Rufai’s policies start yield­ing positive results in Kaduna, those singing Sani’s praises to­day, would abandon him.
Kaduna, like every other state in Nigeria, has three Sena­torial districts. In Kaduna, there is the North, South and Central Senatorial Districts. The Cen­tral zone has the highest num­ber of voters in the state. In fact, the zone is reputed to have the largest single ward-Rigasa, in the entire country, with a popu­lation of about one million. The ward alone, Daily Sun further gathered, nets in an average of N10 million, monthly, as inter­nally generated revenue. Yet, it is just a single ward, in a coun­cil. Incidentally, Senator Shehu Sani is the incumbent senator, representing Kaduna Central in the Senate.
Ironically, right from the time of electioneering, up till the time of election, Governor Nasir El-Rufai and Sani, were never in the same camp of the ruling All Progressives Con­gress, APC. In fact, but for the stern admonition to President Muhammad Buhari then, not to interfere in any State politics, during the build up to the gen­eral elections, Sani, would have been effectively blocked from getting the party’s ticket. It was therefore not surprising that from the word, go, Sani, posi­tioned himself as an alternative to and a possible replacement for El-Rufai, ahead of 2019, even when the government was yet to take off properly.
Historically speaking, at least from 1999, Sani’s elec­tion, makes it the second time, a Senator from the zone, will belong to the same party with the government both at the state level and at the centre.
The first was in 2007, when Senator Kabir Jibril, was elect­ed on the platform of the Peo­ples Democratic Party, PDP. In that election, PDP won the gov­ernorship election in the state, and it was also government at the centre. From1999 to date, it was the first and the last time, the PDP ever won the seat. Be­fore then, both the defunct All Peoples Party, APP and All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, an opposition party then, held sway in the zone from 1999-2007. And by 2011, the opposi­tion party, the defunct Congress for Progressives Change, CPC, snatched the zone again, from the PDP.
However, this is the first time a Senator from the zone, who is in the same party with the gov­ernment at both the state level and at the centre, will be squar­ing up with the governor, from his own party publicly over state policy matters and other sundry political matters.
Once El-Rufai assumed of­fice, he showed early signs, that it would not be business as usual, and he wasted no time in dismantling all the traditional ways of doing things in govern­ment circle in the state. Promi­nent among those early signs were the abolition of Ramadan feeding and Sallah and Christ­mas largesse to prominent per­sons in the state.
But Senator Sani not only went ahead to revive the same tradition, he had criticized and condemned in the past, but he also distributed cows, camels, rice and cartons of groundnut oil, during the Sallah festive pe­riod, thereby filling the suppos­edly gap, created by the Kaduna State Government’s decision to discontinue an age-long tradi­tion.
As if that was not enough, for every action taken by the El-Rufai’s administration, Sena­tor Sani has a second opinion. For instance, during the land recovery exercise of the admin­istration, Sani, granted series of press interviews, condemning government’s action.
He accused El-Rufai of run­ning the state in such a way that “he will end up ruining all of us, which I will not be part of. He has taken some steps which have only attracted anger from the general public against him.
“He is a governor, I’m also a Senator. He is not bigger than me, neither am I bigger than him. So, as far as I’m con­cerned, whether El-Rufai is a governor or whatever, anything which he does that does not tal­ly with what is supposed to be done, I will certainly tell him,” he added.
Explaining the basis for his anger further, Senator Sani fur­ther said: “He (El-Rufai) is a technocrat, while I’m an activ­ist and a revolutionary. So, my power base is the common peo­ple the masses who constitute my strength. They are the peo­ple I have lived with and fought for over the years. The way the governor is running the affairs of government in Kaduna State is the one which, if care is not taken, we will all sink.
“He has to take consideration of the fact that he met people that were impoverished, that were muscled, harassed and demoralized by the government of the PDP. So, first of all, they don’t need harsh policies that will further impoverish and alienate them. We need to carry them along, taking cognisance of the situation which we find them in. I fundamentally differ with him on that issue. For that reason, he has decided on his own not to even appoint people who identify with me in any­way and who are also seen to be from my camp.
“Kaduna is a place I have I lived all my life and since I came out of prison in 1998, I have never been out of Kaduna for more than two weeks and I’ve never been appointed to any public office which I will live in Abuja and not know what is happening in Kaduna. So, I can tell you that within Kaduna North, Kaduna South and metropolis of Kaduna, there is hardly any street that I don’t know anybody,” Sani claimed.
What many did not however, know which Daily Sun’s inves­tigations later revealed, was that Senator Sani, was simply angry with El-Rufai because he was neither consulted nor asked to make input into the list of nominees for appointment into positions as Caretaker-Commit­tee chairmen of the Councils, within his senatorial district.
The lawmaker was later to confirm this notorious fact in another interview, he granted in September, 2015, where he said among other things that: “I want him (El-Rufai) to succeed as a governor and give credit to our party but we differ in two ways. The first is what he did to me personally and that was after elections. He gave every elected stakeholder in Kaduna a slot in the positions in the State but when it came to my turn, he gave the slot to the person I defeated in the primaries. Will El- Rufai keep quiet if Buhari ask his opponent Isah Ashiru to present candidates for ministe­rial nominee and all the posi­tions in the Federal parastatals, will he be happy? He will never be happy. He has amassed an army close to my territory and next thing is for me to fold my arms and see a missile landing in my house which I am not go­ing to accept. What he cannot tolerate, he cannot ask me to tolerate. It is not possible. If he was given positions and never gave slots to elected stakehold­ers, it would have been a differ­ent thing. When you now de­cided to align yourself with the person I defeated thus enabling him to undermine me in my own territory, already you have raised a flag of war.”
Interestingly, for all those pe­riods, neither the governor nor his media aides, dignified the lawmaker with any response.
However, a Kaduna-based political activist and APC chieftain in the State, Dr. Ab­dulrahman Usman, believed that Senator Shehu Sani was wrong to have taken on the gov­ernor publicly, insisting that as a chieftain, Senator Sani, was even doing more damage to the image of the party and that of the governor than the tradition­al opposition (PDP) members in the State.
“He should be reminded that but for Buhari’s wind, there was no way he could have made it to the Senate. What was his grass­roots support base? You know, Senator Saleh (Sani’s opponent at the primary) did well, during his tenure. But because some party officials felt he did not carry them along, they backed Shehu Sani against him, just to spite him. And once the primary was won by him (Shehu Sani), the Buhari factor helped him at the polls. So I don’t think he is being fair to the party, with his latest outburst against the gov­ernor.
“The governor may have made some mistakes, but there are avenues to sort that out, rather than going public. You can only go to town after ex­hausting all avenues within the party,” the APC chieftain, added.
Reminded that Senator Sani was also schemed out in the constitution of a Caretaker-Committee, CTC, in the Coun­cils, within his Senatorial Dis­trict, by not giving him some slots, when the appointments were made, Dr. Usman, further said:”if from the day one, you want to distance yourself from me, why should I consult you when I am doing things? In any case, are you saying that those appointed are not qualified? Are you questioning their capacity or ability? No, tell me, I want to know. Look, Shehu Sani, has a lot to do in terms of legislation to make certain things happen within his Senatorial District, therefore fighting his governor at this early stage, will not serve the development of the State. I am not happy over the develop­ment,” he added.
Long before Sani decided to square up with El-Rufai pub­licly, there are other chieftains of the APC, who though never supported El-Rufai’s governor­ship ambition, but like Sani, had never been in the same camp with the governor, but who chose to keep quiet, not because they are now happy with him, but largely because they were for long hoping that appointments, especially from the Federal government would one day come their way.
However, having realised that El-Rufai appears not only to be in firm control of the party affairs, but also has the backing of the leadership of the party at the National level, the group of aggrieved chieftains of the party, who played little or no role in bringing about the government, an­nounced itself as the authentic members of the APC in the State.
The group, which calls itself the True All Progressives Congress, TAPC, through its spokesman, Alhaji Murtala Abubakar, noted that they had to come out in the open now because their con­tinued silence may be misconstrued, and that they would be failing the millions of people who expect their party to operate with “requisite standard of responsibil­ity and accommodation.”
Among other things, they complained of the absence of a functional and au­tonomous party structure, which accord­ing to them has created a long distance between the State government and the teeming party members.
And like Sani, the group also claimed that El Rufai’s policies, programmes and style of governance were not only anti-people but have caused “misery and pauperisation.”
In a swift reaction however, the state chapter of the APC, absolved El Rufai of all the allegations, against him, saying among other things that his policies are in line with the party’s manifesto.
According to Salisu Wusono, the act­ing Publicity Secretary of the APC, the party remains one and indivisible in Ka­duna State, with a leadership and a struc­ture in place.
He said APC has produced 90 percent of the State and Federal legislators as well as a state governor, adding that “it is laughable to claim that the party is not functioning.”
He said further that “any party mem­ber, who questions the policies and lead­ership of the governor is either ignorant or doing so deliberately. We have the free education programme, the proposed 255 primary Health Care Centres and the verification of workers which fished out ghost workers are some of El Rufai’s landmark policies. Are these what are called anti-people policies?’’
Not too long after the public an­nouncement of the group, the party in the State, decided to apply the big stick on Sani, by first inviting him through a letter, to answer to some allegations of anti-party activities.
But Sani refused to receive the letter, let alone honour the invitation, saying that as far as he was concerned, those behind the letter were not known to him, as party officials in the State.
To this end, he threatened to sue the party, for contemplating to take a disci­plinary action against him. He was how­ever yet to file any court action, before the party slammed a suspension notice at his face.
By implication, he would not partici­pate in party activities or benefit from any privilege through the party, until the suspension, which for now has no time limit is reviewed and subsequently lifted.
Interestingly, while the controversies were on, the APC elders in the State, all of whom are members of the TAPC, maintained a sordid silence. But by last Wednesday, December 30, 2015, about 18 of them, including Dr. Hakeem Baba- Ahmed, former INEC Secretary, issued a terse statement, calling for the reversal of the suspension slammed on Sani, just as it advised Sani not to take any legal action. Of this number, only about one or two, supported and worked for El-Ru­fai during the election, a thing, El-Rufai himself is aware of.
It also called on the national leader­ship of the party, to address the drift, by ensuring that all the 14 vacant positions within the party, were filled, without any further delay. In the press statement, it did not also spared El-Rufai, as it said: “we have also advised the Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai to re-visit his governance strategies which are alienat­ing large numbers of citizens from him and our party.”
Ironically, the group did not use TAPC, True All Progressives Congress, as its name, it instead addressed itself as APC stakeholders in the State.