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Gov. El-Rufai In Disarray As Hunkuyi Dissociate Self

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Gov. El-Rufai In Disarray As Hunkuyi Dissociate Self

Gov. El-Rufai In Disarray As Hunkuyi Dissociate Self

In case El-rufai picks the party’s ticket as widely presumed, I foresee many party members embarking on anti-party activities by voting any prefer candidate in the PDP or any of the opposition parties. This is exactly what played out at the 2015 polls where aggrieved PDP members worked and voted for APC and El-rufai because of Ramalan Yero ill-attitude as the substantive governor of the state after the demise of Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa polarized the party.

From Bomba Dauda, Kaduna

The recent no-holds-barred TV interview by Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi representing Kaduna north federal constituency has sent shocking waves down the nerves of APC in the state. It also stirred up the polity exponentially. Hunkuyi didn’t only expose the deep crack in the party but, it has shown that the duo of Hunkuyi and Governor Nasiru El-rufai of Kaduna State are no longer political allies.

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When things fall apart, the center cannot hold. Similarly, political associates will fall apart when the interests that bind them together are being betrayed by any of the pair. This is exactly what Hunkuyi seemed to be talking about, in a different tune, on the course of the well-publicized interview. Hunkuyi argued that the inability of El-rufai to deliver on the democratic will of the people is, in part, the strong reason he is disenchanted.

For hindsight, the manner at which El-Rufai used former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, President Olusegun Obasanjo, and the PDP as a launch pad, gained popularity and arrived at the vantage position he is standing today, politically, he used the political structure of Hunkuyi in 2015 to win the gubernatorial election. Instead of him to revere Hunkuyi for his meteoric rise in politics, he became cautious of Hunkuyi and turned him into a political rival.

The comfy atmosphere that enabled the political alliance between El-Rufai and Hunkuyi in 2015 is now dominated by the rhetoric of political war and is likely to become a lot more embroiled in thick-humid- air when the race for the coveted seat becomes a thorough competing focus in 2019. That is If the wide spread rumour that Hunkuyi will contest the governorship position in 2019 turns out to be true, then, Hukuyi and El-rufai political race will be an intricate “intra-party civil war.” At the moment, I can’t fathom the end result of APC primaries but, for sure El-rufai will leverage on the power of incumbency while Hunkiyi will want to capitalize on El-rufai growing unpopularity among party members and his personal dominant figure and popularity in the party and at the grass-root to clinch the ticket.

In case El-rufai picks the party’s ticket as widely presumed, I foresee many party members embarking on anti-party activities by voting any prefer candidate in the PDP or any of the opposition parties. This is exactly what played out at the 2015 polls where aggrieved PDP members worked and voted for APC and El-rufai because of Ramalan Yero ill-attitude as the substantive governor of the state after the demise of Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa polarized the party.

El-rufai’s popularity among party faithful has plummeted. Since assuming office as the executive governor of the state, he didn’t give a hoot at the party’s secretariat and the traditional patronage politicians in the ruling party enjoy is discouraged amid rising economic pressure. Grass-root politicians and foot soldiers who contributed immensely in the emergence of the El-rufai’s government are shortchanged with El-rufai Yoruba cronies and business associates.

APC under the tutelage of El-Rufai is increasingly fragmented and “Akida” (APC splinter group led by notable APC stalwarts: Shehu Sani, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Tom Maiyashi, Ambassador Sule Baba etc) and Kaduna Restoration Group led by Tijjani Ramalan, Major (rtd) Yahaya Shinko, Mohammed Lawal Shehu, Mikaya Tokwak, Professor Yusuf Dankofa, Mock Kure etc is a consequent of bad management of victory and power, which made El-Rufai an ally to strange bedfellows and a foe to his once revered political allies.

His face-off with a fragment of the party’s apparatchik has frayed nerves, which combined with other melancholy issues that relate to his leadership style and stand to pose a nullifying effect in his political path. The potential of re-enacting the 2015 election performance that was feasibly enhanced by Muhammadu Buhari’s magnetic persona in the core north is now unhinged.

El-Rufai has more running battles and opprobrium than appeals and political capital. Aside that, political experts have asked about the stronghold of El-rufai in Kaduna State. For now, it definitely can’t be Zaria because of the showdown with the emirate. It is self-destructive for a politician not to have a stronghold. El-Rufai’s brokers in Southern Kaduna will toil a fragile ground for a viable selling point, getting one is like selling hot coffee in an overcrowded local movie theatre in the Sahel because of incompatibility challenges.

The key component of El-rufai back up team which, constituted his political strategists, advisers and foot- soldiers en route the 2015 polls have formed multiple layers in the stockpile of his political enemies. One basic reality is his political mantra is not in consonance with populist language, this is evident in the fact that El-Rufai is in cold war with many traditional rulers; he is in crisis with beggars, hawkers, okada riders, civil servants, Shiite, NUT, NLC and even the constitution.  Some constitutional savvies are of the view that the governor has many absurd issues that borders on lack of respect for separation of powers and the rule of law.

El-rufai political future in Kaduna State is not dependent on the question of “when” E-rufai would start paying the political cost of all his political rows but, “how” he would triumph over all his political enemies unscathed, en route 2019, is more interesting to political watchers and analysts.

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