There is a joke amongst lawyers that if you know you cannot win a case, make a lot of noise in court. At least, that would convince the client that you have earned your fees. So it is in politics. Those who are sure to lose elections and are convinced of the fact, tend to rouse the most rabble; especially if they had been beaten before by an unassailable opponent, who they have to face again. This is the situation of the All “Progressives” Congress in Sokoto State.

Resorting to their primitive politics of lies and deception, the Sokoto APC are at it again, filling up media time and space with false claims of success. The recent write-up by one Leo Sobechi, Deputy Politics Editor, in The Guardian Newspaper of August 14, 2022, titled “Tambuwal’s bargain politics spurring crisis in Sokoto PDP”, is typical of the desperations of a political party trying hard to impress, and a media practitioner on a hard sell.

Mr Sobechi’s feature reflects half truths and downright falsehoods. And in the process, he revealed how Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko became the Govermor of the state in 2007, setting out to paint Governor Tambuwal of Sokoto State as a betrayer, only to achieve the opposite. “Like Tambuwal and Aliyu, Wammako was Bafarawa’s deputy and went ahead to succeed Bafarawa, after crossing over to PDP”, Sobechi wrote, neglecting to mention that Wamakko defected to PDP, abandoning Bafarawa, after usurping the ANPP from him.

In fact, it was not until now, that the pedigree of Bafarawa is brought to bear in the politics of Sokoto State through the inclusive administration of Tambuwal, which shows the lie in the claim that Bafarawa habours misgivings about Tambuwal’s handling of the PDP in the state. Sagir, Bafarawa’s own son was a member of Tambuwal’s Executive Council and is now the running mate to PDP’s governorship candidate for the 2023 election, Mallam Sa’idu Umar.

The attempt to portray Sa’idu Umar’s emergence as the PDP flagbearer as the cause of crises for the party is most ridiculous. Failure to secure the ticket would certainly be unpleasant amongst other aspirants but none of those, who vied for nomination against Sa’idu Umar has yet left the PDP.

That cannot be said about the Sokoto APC, which lost three of six governorship aspirants in the aftermath of a primary election, which everyone, including a majority of party members adjudged the most unfair in history. It was a charade during which Wamakko’s own son, who holds no party position, was deployed to screen delegates. In the end, Wamakko was able to, in very primitive style, install Ahmed Aliyu, as the APC flagbearer for the 2023 governorship poll. He was Tambuwal’s Deputy from 2015 to 2019, until he remained in the APC with Wamakko, in spite of being the most privileged deputy governor in Nigeria at the time.

Ahmed Aliyu was in 2019 rejected by the people in an election for which APC openly tried to deploy all the advantages of federal might’s instruments of coercion to win. The recent APC primaries in Sokoto State were at all levels, an exact repeat of 2019, a flawed process solely controlled by one man, who is adamant on imposing his crony as the candidate, even when he is clearly rejected by the massive majority of party members.

Wamakko’s favored boy does not hold a candle to any of the other APC governorship aspirants, in terms of education, experience in service and exposure. These include serving Senator Abdullahi Gobir, Ambassador Faruk Malami Yabo, former minister Yusuf Suleiman, House of Representatives member, former State Assembly Speaker, one-time Acting State Governor Abdullahi Salame and former federal civil service director, Gumbi.

The last three in the line up have already decamped to the PDP in protest against Wamakko’s dictatorial handling of the APC. These and many others cannot see any chance of winning for a candidate, whose only self-professed qualification for office is absolute loyalty to his master. The people of Sokoto will resist a return to the pre-2015 barbaric politics of thugs and hooligans, the government of abandoned multi-billion Naira projects commissioned as completed and the regime of a sole godfather and his lackeys.

These are facts on the ground about Sokoto politics that the writer seems to be ignorant of. Facts are sacred, comments are free. The truth should not be turned on its head, creating a storm in Sokoto PDP’s tea cup, while ignoring the tempest wrecking the APC ship.