Not until Saturday the 28th of November 2020 many people especially political observers have not dictated the political direction of the PDP in the scheduled December 5th Bakura State Assembly bye election in Zamfara state because the party and its candidate have gone in to hiding living people in suspense of whether they are at all serious or not.
Unlike APC and its candidates Dankande Gamji who have been making one political activity and consultation or the other many believe its either the PDP had surrendered its political destiny for the bye election or it is making a hidden political calculation which does not need public attention in its bid to winning the bye election.
Again the rumor circulating the public that PDP is eying for the APC candidate Dankande to step down his political contest in return of some compensation has further deepened the suspecion and fear that PDP is not at all serious with the Bakura legislative race.
But with what happened in Sarurday at Bakura one can see it visibly clear that PDP is adopting a game of “hide and seek” hence thousands of its supporters have converged in Bakura town to rally round their support for the party’s candidate Mr. T. Tukur.
The grand rally was actually full of story telling that the power of the ruling government is in the work hence all political actors in the state from the Deputy Governor down to the Councilors of the 14 local government councils have attended the grand rally.
This is normal because previous governments of Yarima, Mamuda and later Abdulazeez have also make use of state aparatus to mobilize crowd during campaign rallies just for what many termed as “show of force” .
It is not clear whether the crowd mobilized by the PDP may be an indicator enough to justify if it can wins the Bakura bye election or not hence APC has mobilized similar forces before the bye election was postponed by the INEC during their grand rally last month.
I think what matters in Nigerian politics today is the popularity of both the candidate aspiring for position and what his party is able to do to the people in terms of provision of socio-economic services to the people.
With the growing political development in Nigeria especially after the 2019 general elections, parties should have learned lessons in sponsoring candidates that have track record in serving humanity because that is what matters now.
Incumbency or political god-fatherism does not pay hence Bauchi State alone has set a political precedent by voting out the incumbent Governor and also elected their legislatures for the state and federal constituencies not according party affiliation but according to the integrity of the candidates.
As for the Bakura bye election it is going to be a “battle of power test” between the serving Governor Bello Matawalle and his party the PDP and former Governor Abdulazeez Yari and his party the APC.
It is a battle of power test because it’s outcome is unpredictable hence both parties claimed it owns the popularity of the common people of Bakura local government.
We are still in touch with the memory of the bye election in Anka during the regime of Mamuda Sbinkafi and how that particular bye election predicted the outcome of the 2011 general election in Zamfara State.
INEC and Police claimed they are fully prepared for the conduct of the December 5th Bakura bye election and it is left for the two warring parties the PDP and APC to put their apt together and do the campaign and election with decorum and allow voters in Bakura to vote for their choice as that is the only answer for now.
