Matawalle has been able to establish good reports and strategic alliances with the APC leaders who were as passionate about Zamfara as indigenes of the state. His decision to ditch PDP for APC was borne out of necessity and the realization that he had few people in PDP to trust. He studied his option and understood he had more to gain in APC than whatever he had to gain from the party that had been opposing the altruistic policies of President Buhari because Zamfara was in desperate need of peace
Despite his incomprehensible ventriloquism about being persecuted, if not because of his naivety and a non-strategic act of biting the hand that fed him, Mahdi Aliyu should have been advised not to forget an unwritten but popular phrase popular among Nigerian politicians that “loyalty is to the constitution but that does not mean disloyalty to the boss will be tolerated.” But alas, ego and political ambition had inflicted a serious blow to his political ambition which I don’t think he can recover in a hurry to.
The issue of Zamfara politics is hard to fathom by many analysts living outside Zamfara. Sometimes you need to be a Zamafara state resident to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Without having to bandy words on unsolicited prolixity, Mahdi Aliyu emerged as an elected deputy governor after a court victory with his boss. The opposition party, PDP with which Matawalle and Mahdi ran, robbed but reclaimed his stolen mandate in court, was rocked in serious leadership tussles with its party members, damaging its prospects in the future and potentially sabotaging his major priority to end insecurity and restore normalcy to Zamafara. This is what every rational leader who is asked with the delicate tasks of halting the vicious circles of insecurity in Zamfara and beyond should do. Matawalle has been able to establish good reports and strategic alliances with the APC leaders who were as passionate about Zamfara as indigenes of the state. His decision to ditch PDP for APC was borne out of necessity and the realization that he had few people in PDP to trust. He studied his option and understood he had more to gain in APC than whatever he had to gain from the party that had been opposing the altruistic policies of President Buhari because Zamfara was in desperate need of peace.
With Governor Bello Matawalle defecting to APC, he did not force his deputy, Mahdi to defect with him by force. But instead of joining hands with his estranged boss, building confidence, in the long run, to work for the interests of the trouble-laden state, Mahdi embarked upon a destabilizing campaign for politically personal gains even at the expense of his people. Challenging the legality of his defection was pure insubordination, engaging sabotage campaigns to psychologically demoralize Matawalle by incessant complaints and whatnot, we could call it a sabotage operation, but teaming up with the opposition to challenge the legality of his boss’s defection in the hope of wresting power, this is a red line no pragmatic leaders can put up with. Matawalle may be accused of being so aggressive to remove his deputy by coordinating actions with members of the state assembly, but people should understand that Matawalle was left with no better option. Mahdi Aliyu was proven to be insubordinate, disloyal, and even more ambitious to think he could put his interests above the security interests of the Zamfara people to draw sympathy and achieve certain political objectives. Sadly, It does not work that way, in Nigeria possibly for now. We are happy that Mahdi Aliyu has gone, and this would give Matawalle some peace to focus on improving the lives of his people and prove his naysayers wrong by restoring Zamfara to its former glory. For now, good riddance. Zamafara needs peace and stability, and liability like his talkative deputy, Mahdi had to go.
Bashir Aliyu Limanci lives in Bauchi.
bashiralmusawi@gmail.com
