Since 2009, stories of attacks by the dreaded Boko Haram had eclipsed any other activity in Borno State but in the past three weeks, the trend suddenly changed with political intrigues taking the centre stage ahead of 2015 general elections. The reported cold war between Governor Kashim Shettima and his predecessor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is now visible, but the question is why the fight given that Sheriff paved the way Shettima. Both belonged to the former All Progressives Congress (APC). Sheriff was a three time senator before he became governor in 2003. Shettima took over in 2011 and has constitutionally guaranteed one more term, while Sheriff can no longer be governor; haven served two terms from 1999 to 2007. The only known reason adduced for the fight, according to Alhaji Bulama Bolori, a politician in Maiduguri is the handiwork of “bootlickers foment trouble.” “I strongly believe that if you ask Sheriff today why he is fighting Shettima, he will not give you an answer because in all intent, the incumbent governor is giving him all the needed respect. Similarly, if you ask Shettima why he is fighting Sheriff, I doubt much if he will give a cogent reason because the former governor hasdone everything for him,” Bolori said. Barrister Haladu Alkali, a legal practitioner holds a contrary view. He said Shettima has every reason to work hard and assert his authority because of the circumstances surrounding his emergence as gubernatorial candidate of the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in 2011. “Agreed, it was Sheriff who railloaded Shettima to limelight right from his (Shettima’s) days as a banker, then a politician and thereafter commissioner in many ministries under the former governor before becoming governor. But the fact remains: the former governor actually wanted a different person and with this in view, Shettima has every reason to be suspicious. “Everybody knows that he was eminently qualified, but he was denied the ticket. We shouldn’t forget that late Modu Fannami Gubio was the gubernatorial candidate but was killed by unknown gunmen at the twilight of the election. “However, the fact that Sheriff chose Shettima as replacement is equally enough ground for the incumbent governor to trade softly, at least as a mark of respect for his benefactor,” Alkali said. Haven built his political empire for long, and thereafter installed many Borno politicians into executive and legislative offices at the national and state levels; Sheriff is seen as the leading politician in Borno State. But soon after exiting office in 2011 and haven lost his dream of going to the Senate once again, coupled with the security challenges confronting the state as well as allegations of complicity against him, Sheriff had to distance himself from Maiduguri. Within the time under review, Shettima worked endlessly to endear himself to the electorate and some top politicians amid daunting security challenges. He equally invested heavily to establish his own political empire which will give him edge in next year’s elections. Political observers in the state believe Sheriff felt slighted by Shettima’s move to “dethrone him” and therefore vowed to fight back. For close to a year, the former governor had made several plans to visit Borno State, but shelved them apparently because of “security concerns”, which his handlers debunked as the handiwork of the present government in ensuring that he did not revive his political base. It was the death of the Emir of Shani, Alhaji Muhammadu Mailafiya, about three weeks ago, that broke the Pandora’s Box when Sheriff paid a condolence visit. Last Saturday he landed at the Gombe airport aboard his personal aircraft. He was accompanied by four members of the House of Representatives - AbdulrahmanTerab, Mukhtar Betara Aliyu, Peter Biye and Isa Lawan Kangar - as well as some of his associates. Weekly Trust gathered that Sheriff had notified Shettima of his intention to pay the condolence visit to Shani and thereafter connect with Maiduguri. With this in view, the deputy governor, Zanna Umar Mustapha went to Gombe with some commissioners including Inuwa Bwala (Information); Asabe Vilita Bashir (Commerce); Inuwa Kubo (Education); Mai Sheriff (Water Resources) and about seven special advisers and other chieftains of the APC to receive him. Observers say the biggest victim of the crisis, albeit wrongly, was the deputy governor. “Zanna Mustapha has remained extremely obedient to Shettima and right from the onset of this administration, it was the governor who directed him to always receive the former governor. What is his fault in going to Gombe…some people are just witch hunting him,” Kalli Baba, a politician said. Beside the deputy governor, the events in Gombe, Shani and Maiduguri had already turned all the other people mentioned into what pundits term as “victims of circumstances” following the reported plan to cabinet reshuffle “to push out” Sheriff’s loyalists. What happened was that as soon as Sheriff landed in Gombe, he was received by a tumultuous crowd, akin to a a grand rally. And in Maiduguri; a different game played out following the arrival of Mohammed Imam in a presidential aircraft. Imam was once the chairman of the defunct ANPP in Borno State and had served as commissioner under Sheriff. Sources said he is being groomed by the former governor to replace Shettima in 2015. Before the arrival of Imam, some youths had gathered at the airport roundabout to receive him and about the same time, Shettima was also on his way to the airport to inspect some equipment brought in for repairs ahead of the re-opening of the Maiduguri International Airport which was closed in December. That was when trouble started. Chanting “Mai cin Amana, Mai cin Amana” meaning “betrayer, betrayer”, some youths pelted the governor with stones and sachet water. Witnesses who live close to the scene said policemen from the nearby Police Crack Squad had to use tear gas to disperse the mob, many of who wore T-Shirts and caps with APC and Imam’s logo on them. One school of thought has it that the thugs were earlier chased away from the road leading to the airport by the police, but they suspected that it was Shettima who gave the directive, and therefore, they vented their anger when he came to pass. But one ardent supporter of Shettima said “the whole plot was a scheme by Sheriff. He was the one who hired the thugs who were members of his ECOMOG and mobilised them to the airport knowing the Governor was scheduled to visit the airport on inspection of NAMA (Nigerian Airspace Management Agency) equipment,” he said, declining to give his name. “Sheriff sent message to Governor Shettima that he was coming to Maiduguri through Gombe airport. The Governor deployed his deputy, Zannah Umar Mustapha to receive him, but while he said so, he chartered an Air Force aircraft for a former Commissioner for Commerce, whom he is supporting to take over from Shettima in 2015,” the Shettima supporter said. “The aim was to hold a rally even in the face of the fragile peace in Maiduguri, with the whole motive of distracting Governor Shettima and stopping his numerous projects. Sheriff hasn’t been happy with the way the governor managed the security situation and doing well. Sheriff is just egoistic; he believes no one should have a second term like he did. He wants to remain the first and the only to be re-elected governor in Borno State,” he added. Expectedly, the pelting of Shettima heralded the season of attacks and bickering between the supporters of the two politicians. On Sunday, after the condolence visit, Sheriff arrived Maiduguri in a motorcade to a rousing welcome, as many politicians, led by members of the state House of Assembly received him at the entrance of the state capital. The next day Monday, January 13, the former governor was pelted with stones, sachet water and shoes, suspectedly by thugs hired by the supporters of Shettima. He was intercepted by the mob on his way to his campaign office after visiting the Shehu of Borno and therefore cancelled a planned rally. In the ensuing confusion, Shettima left Maiduguri for Abuja on a chartered flight and it is not yet clear if he had met with the visiting Sheriff before he left. The “war” reached a crescendo on Tuesday following a blast at the post office area in Maiduguri which claimed the lives of more 40 people, the first of such incident in over 10 months. Like the Governor, Sheriff equally flew out of town immediately after the Tuesday’s blast, thereby shelving the planned contentious inauguration of the interim state executives of the APC, who were allegedly planted by him ahead of a hatchet job during the party’s gubernatorial primaries next year. The blast at the GSM market angered youths in the state capital, who attacked anything “Sheriff”, including his campaign office, vehicles, billboards and tents. His supporters swiftly responded on Wednesday when they attacked Shettima’s campaign office on Shehu Laminu Way. They also defaced some of his billboards and tore hundreds of posters. While the thugs were attacking one another, the incumbent governor and his predecessor began trading blames on the real cause of the blast. Shettima, through his special adviser, Isa Umar Gusau called for a probe of the incident while Sheriff, through the chairman of his campaign organisation, Malam Bako Bunu, said the former governor was the prime target, adding that the blast was politically motivated. For now, groups and some politicians are calling for probe of recent happenings in Maiduguri so that the old dark days of bombing and shootings do not return. Bulama Fugu Ibrahim, a former Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly and a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said the people should use what is happening as criteria for judging the kind of leaders they have. “Unless they (people) exercise their rights sensibly, they would be doomed. With what is happening, the signal is that, politically, the opposition will benefit more, but peace is prerequisite for an ideal society. When a ruling party is in violence, and criminality is involved, even the opposition party will be affected in the process
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 19:59:32 +0000
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