The defection of Bauchi State Governor, Malam Isa Yuguda to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, can not be said to have taken anybody by surprise. Indeed, for Yuguda, the question in the past few months had not been if, but when he would decamp from the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, on which platform he won election into Bauchi State Government House two years ago. Talks about Yuguda’s imminent abandonment of the ANPP ship, however, reached a crescendo when he took as fourth wife, Nafisat, daughter of President Umaru Yar’Adua last February. For many, it was simply inconceivable that the Governor and his in-law, the President would continue to be in different political parties.
Whereas rumour of Yuguda’s imminent defection to the PDP had set Yuguda at loggerheads with the National and Bauchi State Executive of ANPP, on the other hand, Bauchi State chapter of PDP had been addressing press conferences in which it expressed readiness to receive the governor into its fold.
Governor Isa Yuguda finally put an end to the rumours last Saturday when he told his senior political appointees at the Banquet Hall of the Government House that he has decided to return to the party he left to join ANPP in actualisation of his gubernatorial ambition in 2006. Like the others before him, Yuguda was not lacking in reasons to justify his action. The Governor accused the leadership of ANPP of disinterest in the development of the state. “For Bauchi to achieve meaningful development there was need for us to join the ruling party in order to pave way for rapid development,” the Governor said. Yuguda added that federal presence will be attracted to the state as a result of his joining the PDP. He said he had to leave ANPP because the party has been hijacked by some governors who are now dictating to the party leadership at all levels and accused the unnamed governors of denying the state ministerial and ambassadorial positions that might have come to it as a result of his former party’s participation in Government of National Unity. The Bauchi State chapter of PDP is said to be planning a grand reception for the Governor.
It was not clear at press time if other elected office holders in Bauchi State will go with the Governor to PDP. But the state chapter of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties has already condemned the governor’s action. Nigerians will wait to see if the ANPP, like it did in the case of Governor Mahmuda Shinkafi of Zamfara State, will also drag Yuguda to court in a bid to have him surrender the mandate he got using the ANPP platform.
But to Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State, Yuguda and other governors who abandoned their party after they got into office have committed heresy. Such Governors, he said, should also be bold enough to surrender the mandate they got on the platform of the party they are leaving. “You cannot take people’s mandate under a platform only for you to come to office and leave. If anybody is leaving his party, I think he should be honourable enough to leave the post that was given to him through that party and try his luck and see whether he can stand elsewhere and get that mandate. This is the most honourable thing to do,” the governor contended in a recent interview.
– Reported by Oluokun Ayorinde.
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