TheCable

BY MUSA DANGUSAU

Certain underhand dealings and surreptitious manipulations have exposed plans by persons with vested interests to orchestrate campaigns of calumny against the former governor of Zamfara state and a great leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdul’aziz Yari.

A recent publication obviously sponsored by APC new ‘entrants’ to tarnish the image of this great leader of our party who has sacrificed so much in terms of time and enormous resources to build the APC suddenly surfaced accusing him of working for an opposition party.

The publication claimed that the former governor has made financial and material donations to leaders of the opposition PDP for its just concluded national convention.

The sponsors, who are reaping from the labour of the former governor and other eminent personalities, however, failed to provide any evidence to back up their claims.

In spite of the negative intent, the lack of depth in the story and fabrication of lies and resort to innuendos exposes it as a hatchet job contrived to get at the person of the former governor.

It is obvious that the entrants and power drunk are not comfortable with the growing popularity of the former governor and want to pit him against the president and other leaders of the APC. They see him as the only standing stabilizing force of the party in the state.

After contributing so much to developing the party and ensuring that a solid APC that can stand the test of time is built, it is highly preposterous for anyone to assume that the same Yari would lend himself to any act that would lead to undermining and destroying the fortunes of the party he so much laboured to build.

On the contrary, Yari is still doing so much for the APC and has not relented in making contributions towards further strengthening the party through his various interventions, advice and assistance to members of the APC.

It’s rather quite unfortunate today that, it is persons who have contributed nothing, who in fact were in the opposition PDP looting funds meant to procure arms to fight insurgency, who did everything possible to ensure that APC lost elections in 2015, who only joined the APC after the house has been built fully and tastefully furnished, whose only interest or agenda is to use it as a vehicle to clinch positions in 2023, are fighting Yari.

Yari on the other hand has been of colossal assistance to the growth and general well-being of the APC not just in Zamfara but across the country. Recalled when the APC was formed, Yari as one of the foundational leaders of the party proved his political acumen by hosting and conducting ANPP convention that saw the successful dissolution of the then ANPP, a condition that was very critical for the formation of the APC. He went ahead to ensure that APC won all the elective positions (including the ones occupied by the APC new entrants) in the 2015 general elections.

While serving as governor, his colleagues saw his leadership qualities and potentials and made him the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum from whence he was able to show capacity for leadership and organisation and convinced other governors during his time about the viability of the APC at its formative stages. This is why he is being respected, promoted and positioned for the national championship position of the party.

There are many eminent Nigerians that worked with Yari that are willing and ready to come to APC if Yari becomes its national chairman. They believe that Yari will replicate the successes he recorded in the Governors Forum in the APC, if given the opportunity to do so.

It’s quite unfortunate that while the major opposition party is doing everything possible to put its house in order to wrestle power from APC, some unscrupulous elements and political prostitutes that will shamelessly jump ship should the undesirable happen are busy denting the image of the people that sacrificed everything to build the vehicle they are proudly and dangerously driving.

Their participation in the sleaze and theft of national resources using the instrument of the PDP were so glaring that when President Buhari was sworn in in 2015, they out of fear of being arrested, went on exile.

They have ruined the state and failed to provide the needed leadership to address the challenges of banditry bedevilling the state. They have ferried their families abroad and failed to address the challenges facing the state.

They have grounded their state education, commerce and every available means of earning a decent livelihood, they have sent their own children to study in first class universities outside the country.

It is high time that President Buhari and other well-meaning APC leaders pay attention to the activities of these fair-weather politicians who have zero political value.

If it is their wish to see Yari decamp from the APC to the PDP that is pushing them to sponsor these baseless and laughable allegations against the former governor, then they are in for even bigger frustrations because Yari is not only going to become APC national chairman (God willing), he would regain the state from them

Yari and his people depend on Allah alone, that is why he has never changed political party even when the whole odds were against him in 2011, he contested against the federal, state and local government might and Allah crowned his efforts with resounding success.

It is high time that the APC put its fractured house together and be mindful of those who only joined it to retain their governorship seat in 2023. They raced like a mad dog when they discovered that APC in Zamfara has been united and the broom has been properly perfected to sweep them away in 2023.