Time is flying at a lightning speed and the anointed governor of Bauchi State, Bala Muhammed us setting the pace in transforming the state to an Eldorado. He has occupied his time implementing robust policies tailored to the safety and development of the state not minding the traded shananigans from opponents.
Despite the commendable efforts of the governor in improving the living standard of the people within the meager resources at hand, the strongest opposition party in the just concluded gubernatorial election, All Progressives Congress (APC), after receiving a heavy defeat with a gap of over 90,000 votes, its gubernatorial candidate, one Air Marshal Sadeeq Baba Abubakar (rtd), instead of accepting the verdict of the electorates in good faith, decided to shift his election war dispute to the temple of justice to challenge the choice of the electorates that rejected him wholeheartedly. That’s desperation and mischief on display against an organized community!
After kissing the dust and badly beaten to political stupor at the tribunal, the retired military officer, apparently afraid of another round of drubbing, employed cheap propaganda to sway gullible hangers-on that have no inkling about the modus operandi of the legal system or chose to ignore it on his voyage of self-delusion.
What will be examined at the Court of Appeal is neither the opinion of clowns and hired attack dogs nor the traded sentiments of armchair critics hurriedly recruited for social media platforms. The Court of Appeal has never been swayed by the befuddled tirades of beer parlor denizens that relish falsity as facticity.
The court has no ear for any campaign of calumny, blackmail, threat, and intimidation of respondents and judges. Ultimately, the rule of law and due process will not be sacrificed on the altar of shenanigans.
The jurists at the Court of Appeal, just like the tribunal judges, will rely, not on street gossips, deceit or mob action, or gangsterism in the social media, but on law, reason, logic, judicial precedents, and the sanctity of truth.
If Sadeeq Baba Abubakar, a former Chief of Air Staff who woefully failed to defeat some riff raffs (Boko Haram) despite the availability of all required support and an overnight politician hungry for power, was a lawyer, he would not have bothered himself with any legal battle expecting to be awarded what he never labored for through the ballot box. He would have just focused on the imminent legal frameworks at the Court of Appeal which is the second hurdle in the gubernatorial litigation.
But the desperate APC candidate who lost to his long-standing friend and more experienced and determined rival, Bala Muhammed, is an amateur politician by any definition. The feeling is that the political novice opted for court of public opinion, knowing that his appeal has a slim chance of survival. This is debatable anyway.
The hidden intention of the APC defeated candidate might be that if his party finally loses the case at the Court of Appeal to the ruling PDP, the governor’s image would be dented by exposing him to ridicule and portraying him as an election rigger just to divert the attention of the working governor from service delivery to mundane trivial issues and possibly to offer recruitment of a portion of those losers now parading the streets aimlessly while hoping against hope with polluted minds.
This is the general illusion of hope by Kaura’s confused opponents who, in the process of dragging his name through the mud, are most likely to be smeared by the attendant dirt. They are most likely to face the penalty of throwing their conscience overboard in their desperate journey for power unmerited and unprepared.
It is glaring that the Sadeeq voyage is focused mainly on either to be crowned by the courts as governor or the courts to force governor Bala through technicality if any to relinquish his mandate on a platter of gold for picks through a by-election.
Today in Bauchi state, attention has shifted from the unquantifiable service delivered to the doorsteps of the people by one of their most adorned illustrious sons, Bala Muhammed, to why legitimately Bala Muhammed won the gubernatorial election and why was the election won by Bala Muhammed of the PDP and lost by APC’s hitherto unknown political masquerade Sadeeq Baba Abubakar now enveloped by desperation.
It is not an afterthought by the APC which is meant to divert attention from the shame of defeat, despite the ‘bravado’ pomposity, and arrogance of a candidate who grossly failed to put his house in order ahead of the election. He was all along enveloped by an aggravated mental illusion believing falsehood and deceit from human merchants surrounding him and feeding fat from his ignorance of the political terrain and their capacities to deliver positively.
Sadeeq Baba Abubakar succeeded in stirring controversy through his court action, but it is futile since the effort is not likely to pave the way for the return of the behemoth, APC to Bauchi Government House in the nearest future.
The entire enterprise of Sadeeq is laughable and infantile. The drama rehearsal by him and high hopes will lead nowhere. In a breath, Sadeeq cried foul, saying Governor Bala had rigged the election. In another dimension, he alleged over voting without trying to plead or prove any allegation of rigging or over voting in his poorly written but trashed petition. The political novice is running from pillar to post, whipping up sentiments and indulging in self-deception.
Whichever way the pendulum swings at the Court of Appeal, it is doubtful if Sadeeq would be able to maintain the same level of affinity with Governor Bala Muhammed and so many other respected indigenes of Bauchi State as he used to before embarking on his desperate voyage for power against the interest of the State APC Chairman, other party senior stakeholders and majority of the electorates including those who rigged their party’s primary election in favor of Sadeeq before the relation went soar.
His current outing has finally exposed him as a sportsman without sportsmanship and experience. There should be a limit to desperation—for power, for wealth, for anything in life, however coveted. Sadiyya Umar Farouk the initiator and implementor of yet to be known e-feeding system even during Corona Virus lockdown, must have failed to tell her sponsored Sadeeq the honest truth that he was on a wasteful voyage cruising with political toddlers, vultures and self-appointed valueless godfathers that lost touch with their localities decades ago. They are mere city political merchants on hunting expedition of those with slash funds for wasteful jamborees. Sadiyya was mean with the truth. I beg to bow out at this point before another Duguri or Akuyam James Bond attack is planned my way!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
