Sokoto 2023: APC’s Warped Analysis Of The Defections

By Dahiru Maishanu, IBS, BBA(IBMS), MBA (The Hague)

The media is truly becoming spectacular with the advent of the Social/New media in the last two decades and a half. The invention of the smart phone via android, et-al and numerous Apps have also empowered and pushed so many into the media world, creating millions of ‘emergency’ journalists with overwhelming influence on the society, willy-nilly.

Similarly, the season for politicians from various political parties and platforms switching parties for numerous reasons is here and Nigerians from all parties are actively partaking. As the politicians are embracing the season, so it seems, the so called emergency journalists have hijacked the pendulum feeding the general public with the opposite of what is on the ground in order to serve the interests of their political god-fathers at the expense of feeding the general public with ruse.

The PDP and the APC are obviously the two main political parties to beat in Sokoto State and the switches have been recorded in both ‘locations’ recently, mostly as fall-outs of the last rounds of the party primaries. As healthy as the switches are, using social media to feed the general public with deliberate falsehood is balderdash.

The APC in Sokoto has lost four gubernatorial candidates, three of which have joined the PDP with their thousands of supporters, two former, Senators, two serving House of Representatives members, two former Ambassadors, Commissioners and former Chairmen of local Government Councils, all to the PDP, all in one swoop.

The APC is however celebrating all over the media and scoring self high for managing to get attracted to only two politicians to its fold.

Having sustained a lot of wounds, the APC had to go on window-shopping coming back with a former member who had left them earlier and was coincidentally a serving PDP Commissioner and a local government chairman who was catapulted ab intio, into mainstream politics from an obscure artisan job by the leader and alter ego of the party, obviously in a pay back mode and nothing more.

The APC has since taken up every available space on the media, both social and conventional to show Nigerians how it had captured ‘thousands” of PDP supporters through the two gentlemen. It has taken up a paid advertorial space on a national daily celebrating its recent ‘exploits’.

Consequently, despite its huge losses, the Party has gone to town with a gong polluting the air that the PDP has lost almost all its bearings in Sokoto. This is however highly debatable and a few examples suffice.

For instance, only a delusional mind can compare Hon Yusuf Suleiman, a former minister of the Federal Republic, a former chairman of NAFDAC and an Harvard educated elite to an Hon Isa Kalenjeni with only an artisan qualification and a mere local government Chairman. Only in the world of illusion you can compare a Colonel Garba Moyi, a state commissioner to Alhaji A.A Gumbi, a former federal director in the Federal civil service of the federation, a position akin to a General in the army and a two time governorship candidate in the state. The situation is also skewed when you square up Hon Abdullahi Hassan, a super Sokoto North local government ex-Chairman with excellent records of service to any of the so-called PDP decampees on the other hand. Others like Hon, Dr Abdullahi Salame, a former Speaker, acting governor and a ranking serving member of the House of representatives is simply in a class of no comparison.

At the risk of sounding immodest, even yours sincerely can not be on a comparable note. As a two times commissioner with a triple University qualifications from one of the best Universities on Continental Europe one is surely well footed.

The issue of using the social media to compare the strengths of those that have 4decamped between the two parties and skewing the advantages to the APC is therefore amusing and can be easily taken for one of those episodes of the defunct ‘Tales by the moonlight’ NTA drama series.

Me thinks, the APC in Sokoto is better advised to address the numerous issues bordering on favouritism, god-fatherism, nepotism, divide and rule etc, rather than building sand castles that will not survive the ferocious storms coming in 2023. The Social media campaigns can only succeed if the truth is embedded in the fabrics of the messages they are conveying. A stitch in time saves nine.