Zamfara: The Intrigues And Men That Changed The Story

After he emerged as chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, four years ago, Governor Abdulazziz Yari apparently saw himself as unequalled in the politics of his state. It was perhaps in that direction he decided to project himself above two men who helped to make him governor.

It was his undoing which has now firmly put the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in total control of the state for the second time. It has also led to his personal political humiliation with the withdrawal of his Senate certificate of return.

Among the two persons who helped to project him to national political acclaim as governor were Senators Sani Yerima and Kabiru Marafa.

Senator Yerima who governed the state between 1999 and 2007 was the unquestioned political leader of the state and had helped to plant his two successors, Mahmud Shinkafi (2007 to 2011) and Yari, (2011 t0 2019).

In 2009 Shinkafi rebelled when he defected to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP from Yerima’s All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP.

Yerima, Yari and Marafa came together under Yerima’s leadership to fight off Shinkafi and helped to put Yari, a former member of the House of Representatives as governor in the next election in 2011.

Interestingly, Yari is Shinkafi’s in-law but that did not stop him in ensuring the defeat of his father-in-law.

Marafa’s who contested on the platform of the ANPP as Senate candidate for the Zamfara Central Senatorial ticket in the 2011 election. His contribution was seen in the significant proportion of votes he helped to bring to oust Shinkafi from power given that bulk of the votes of the state comes from Zamfara Central.

Marafa interestingly had served as commissioner for education and water resources in the Shinkafi cabinet and had positioned for the ticket of the PDP’s senatorial ticket.

However, Governor Shinkafi preferred the incumbent senator at that time a decision that forced Marafa out of the PDP.

Senator Yerima immediately hooked up with Marafa with the offer of the Zamfara Central Senate ticket. It was the arrangement that changed the narrative.

“If not for that hookup I doubt if Shinkafi would have lost the election,” a Gusau based journalist told GreenWhiteGreen.

Yari who came in had a smooth relationship with Marafa until 2015 when the later started making his plans for the governorship in 2019.

Yari opposed his aspiration and projected his commissioner for finance, Shehu Idris. Yari also vowed to ensure that Marafa did not get a return ticket to the Senate.

Yari also projected to add the Zamfara West Senate ticket that had been maintained by Yerima since 2007 to his booty. Senator Yerima remarkably, did not argue with the governor as he did not fight him. But Senator Yerima who had until then played the role of political patron of the state was also peeved by the decision of Yari to pick his former commissioner of finance as his successor.

It was against the background of the loss of his Senate ticket and Yari’s decision to foist Idris as his successor that Yerima withdrew from backing Yari.

Though he did not form an open alliance with Marafa as he did in 2011, the consensus was that both men forged an underground alliance to battle Yari.

Yari was also not helped with his combative stances against the national leadership of the party as led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

The faceoff was not helped by the fact that Senator Lawali Shuaibu, the deputy national chairman of the party and the number two man in the party is from the state.

Yari also had as combatants the minister of defence, Col. Dan Ali (rtd.) who also had his preference for the governorship.

However, the most potent challenge to Yari was the APC guideline on the conduct of primaries. In his zeal to foist Idris as his successor, the governor led his faction of the party to obviate the laid down rules on the conduct of genuine party primaries which the Supreme Court took notice of in dismissing all APC candidates who participated in the 2019 elections in the state.

A desperate attempt by the APC to avoid the enthronement of the PDP last weekend through the argument on spread of votes was dismissed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC which returned the PDP’s candidate, Bello Matewalle as the governor-elect.

As Governor Yari settles to retirement and his failure to get his commissioner for finance, Idris to cover his tracks, three men he will ever rue for under-estimating will be Marafa, Yerima and paraphs Oshiomhole who did not succumb to his gubernatorial theatrics.

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