Former governor of Bauchi State and National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu came into office at the peak of the rift between the former chairman, Dr. Bamanga Tukur and some hawks within the party that were against the transformation of the party by Tukur.
Tukur inherited a party where a few individuals treated the party as if it were a private estate. Tukur’s sin was that he tried to extract the party from the undemocratic grip of some dangerous politicians. Bamanga Tukur was out to ensure that the PDP became democratic, but the anti-democratic elements within the party never wanted that to happen.
When Adamu Mu’azu took over the leadership of the party, he was quickly dubbed “The Game Changer” by the mafia within the party, even when he had not achieved anything to enhance the fortunes of the party. On Mu’azu’s watch, the opposition political parties started preparing in earnest for the 2015 general elections, but the PDP National Working Committee, NWC led by Mu’azu went to sleep believing that the new All Progressives Congress, APC, will disintegrate before the general elections.
On the watch of Mu’azu the PDP organised very acrimonious primaries where some members of the party were denied participation in the primaries despite the fact that they met all the conditions in the party’s guidelines for the conduct of the primaries. On the watch of Mu’azu reports filtered out that, some NWC members collected obscene amount of money from aspirants to tilt the outcome of the primaries in their favour.
On the watch of Mu’azu “The Game Changer”, the PDP conducted governorship primary of Adamawa State in Abuja and disconnected the genuine delegates from the state chapter of PDP from participating in the exercise. The outcome of that unpopular decision was the result that came from Adamawa State during the March 28 presidential exercise. It is believed that if Mu’azu had continued with the reforms started by Bamanga Tukur, to return the PDP back to the people, the outcome of the election in most of the states would have been different.
Political observers in the country are of the view that it was a misnomer to describe Mu’azu as a positive game changer as he could not even change the game within his own senatorial district in Bauchi State when he contested for Senate. Mu’azu, who was rounding up his second tenure as governor had gone into the race for the Bauchi South Senatorial seat in 2007 with Mallam Isa Yuguda’s Personal Assistant, Senator Bala Mohammed.
Mohammed, who is the incumbent Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, had contested on the platform of the defunct All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP. He trounced Mu’azu and sent him on political sabbatical before he was brought back to limelight when some powerful individuals in the party upstaged Bamanga Tukur.
Many Nigerians disagree with some members of the PDP that applauded Mu’azu as a game changer when PDP won the Ekiti governorship election. Their argument is that Governor Ayo Fayose won the election on his own merit and not because Mu’azu made any impact on the electorate in Ekiti State. The same Fayose was the one that made the opposition win Ekiti State when he fell out with some powers-that-be in PDP.
The APC did everything they could to ensure Fayose did not win the PDP primaries, and were even said to have sponsored some governorship aspirants to truncate the second coming of Fayose. If not for the intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan the national leadership of the PDP would have denied Fayose ticket through a kangaroo consensus arrangement.
President Jonathan had insisted that there must be a primary if any of the aspirants disagreed with the consensus arrangement some hawks within PDP were trying to foist on the aspirants. Fayose bluntly refused to go into any consensus arrangement and at the end of the day the PDP did a primary that was swept by Fayose. The outcome of the subsequent election is now history.
The signal that PDP national chairman was not changing the game in favour of PDP came when the party was trounced in Osun State after the Ekiti election. PDP did not have a candidate that commanded grassroots followership like Fayose and the game changer had no antidote to the popularity of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
In the build up to the general elections, the PDP game changer stood aloof while the APC was penetrating every part of the country. The APC is believed to have infiltrated INEC where a contractor that hated President Jonathan with passion was given the job of producing the Permanent Voters Cards.
APC is even alleged to have installed moles in INEC, including some of the staff that handled the distribution and issuance of PVCs and this was why those that are perceived to be supporters of President Jonathan were denied PVCs in some state.
From every indication, the plot to upstage PDP went seamlessly without the PDP Game Changer having an inkling of what was going on or he simply looked the other way unperturbed. However, a conspiracy that has gone viral is that the PDP game changer was actually working to change the game against the PDP. It is believed in some quarters that Adamu Mu’azu has been secretly nursing some grouse against the party and has been looking for an opportunity to take his pound of flesh.
This, they claim, is not unconnected with the power tussle in Bauchi State where Governor Yuguda and Mu’azu were locked in battle over control of the soul of the state chapter of PDP. Yuguda had won the governorship on the platform of the defunct ANPP before he defected to PDP during the administration of late President Umaru Yar’Adua. Following the tradition in all the political parties, the structure of PDP was handed over to Yuguda after he defected and this did not go down well with those that were hitherto in control of PDP in the state. Those that hold this view
The National Chairman of the PDP unwittingly opened up on his grouse against the party on January 6 at the inauguration of the PDP Presidential Campaign organisation at the Legacy House in Abuja when he alleged that there is great injustice and lack of equity in the party, describing the situation as monkey dey work, baboon dey chop.
“Mr. President, I want you to discuss with your governors, senators, members of the House of Representatives and other elected officials. We say that members of the PDP should not be used and dumped again. People leave the party because of lack of equity or injustice. Monkey dey work, baboon dey chop. That must stop. This time round, monkey must work and monkey must eat. A lot of people who left (our party) did so because of injustice in our party. The party is full of injustice. The membership of the APC, LP, APGA and others are increasing because of this. All these members are from our party. We must find out what is wrong and correct it,” he said.
Unfortunately, more members of PDP defected on the watch of Mu’azu over allegation of injustice after the primaries of the party. Most of those that defected from PDP are now the leading antagonists of the party and candidates in other political parties. Mu’azu, the game changer did little or nothing to pacify those that were short-changed during the primaries.
During the presidential election, the PDP Game Changer indeed changed the game for the party right from his Ward in Bauchi State where he failed to deliver his ward to the party’s presidential candidate. The PDP lost in both the presidential and National Assembly elections in Mu’azu’s ward, Kardam B, Boto Ward in Tafawa Balewa council of Bauchi State. President Jonathan got only 98 votes while the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, got 2, 993.
Some political observers have also pondered if there is any correlation between the APC slogan of “Change” and Mu’azu’s suffice of “Game Changer.” Indeed Mu’azu has changed the game for PDP from an election winning behemoth to a weeping opposition party in the making. He has changed and truncated the transformation that President Jonathan is putting in place in the polity.
Jonathan did not lose the presidential election as a result of poor performance. Even the APC could not deny that President Jonathan is leaving the leadership of the country better than he met it. Unfortunately, the PDP on the watch of the game changer failed to market the unassailable achievements of President Jonathan.
Since they failed to market the good product they have, a support group, Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, TAN, had to take over what the leadership of the PDP was expected to do. As Nigerians await the final outcome of the governorship election, political observers are waiting to see if Mu’azu the game changer will hammer the final nail on the coffin of the PDP.
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What manner of game changer is Mu’azu?
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