Senator Albishir and the crucible of ‘election middlemen’
By Musa Jajimaji
jajifriendly@gmail.com
Before I set out to comment on the drama playing out on Yobe’s political stage, let me make a disclaimer: As a Yobe indigene, I have no interest beyond a desire to see that our state emerged out of its sorrowful state of socio-economic backwardness into which it was thrown for many years.
For, although things have begun to show signs of improvement with a new air of hope suffusing the horizon, there is still an urgent need for all concerned to take a pacifist approach to issues, so that the current tendency for renaissance can be nurtured to fruition.
While the generality of the people of Yobe State appear willing to stand up to be counted among those who want to invest in the current movement for positive change, there are certain elements who are bent on pushing left along the anti-people lane, eking a living on false pretenses like predators before their prey. These people move about spreading rumour and inciting the people against one another for no reason but to serve their pecuniary interests. For lack of a better word; I call these people ‘election middlemen’.
On the one end of the pendulum in this dispute is Senator Usman Albishir, who represented Yobe Zone C in the upper legislative chamber between 1999 and 2007 and who was replaced as governorship candidate of the ANPP with Governor Mamman Bello Ali.
As an accomplished businessman, Albishir can take pride and go to sleep (in a manner of speaking) for being someone on whom God has benevolently bestowed His favours. At the age of 70, there is simply little or no material accomplishment that the Nguru-born politician has not attained.
It was probably to give back to the people what God has given him that Albishir stood out in the political marketplace. Working closely with his long standing friend, Alhaji Bukar Abba Ibrahim who was then Yobe State governor, Albishir ensured that he had all the grounds he needed to become the ‘natural successor’ once Governor Bukar Abba had completed his second term.
As a friend and associate, for instance, Governor Bukar Abba favoured Albishir with choice contracts and unprecedented recognition, which seemed to go beyond the ordinary. So much respect did Bukar Abba had for the Nguru-born senator that he was said to be standing up for him in public occasions to which the former governor arrived earlier than Albishir.
However, as had happened, Albishir was not to be the one to succeed Bukar Abba. In my considered opinion, the God who made life so richly successful for Albishir had not willed that the leadership of the people of Yobe State be thrust on him.
Albishir, however, does not seem to be in any mood to accept what is clearly a divine arrangement. At his age, one would expect that he looks more to a consonant relationship both with his creator and fellow beings.
The signs are there for anyone who cares to check out. Once he was replaced as governorship flag bearer, for instance, the Nguru-born politician almost ran amok, making pronouncements that did not befit his stature as an elder statesman and respected person in the society.
Long before the election following Albishir’s replacement, it is common knowledge that the ANPP in Yobe State did a lot to reconcile the situation by hosting various stakeholder meetings to chart the way forward. In those meetings, elders of the party, under the leadership of the former state governor, made frantic moves to make Albishir understand and accept the situation as something that was not a do-or-die affair. If it is not God’s will that he becomes governor, Albishir should accept it as the good Muslim, who believes that God gives power to whom He wills, that he is.
It was likely that the Nguru-born senator would have had no qualms making do with the situation but for the antics of ‘election middlemen’ who falsely disguise as his supporters, but who are actually interested in the money they would make or other favours they might receive by making his replacement look as if all heavens would fall.
It was with the prodding of these people that Albishir went to the Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge his replacement as governorship candidate of the ANPP in a move now laden with far reaching consequences.
From the Federal High Court Abuja, Albishir went to another Federal High Court in Maiduguri which struck out his case, referring him instead back to the ANPP platform for settlement. He went on appeal in Jos, but again ran out of patience to see the case go through the normal court processes. The ‘middlemen’ and perhaps Albishir’s own crave for leadership would simply not allow it. He therefore moved again to the Federal High Court in Kaduna.
Although I am not a lawyer, I could not see how Albishir’s case is helped by a recourse to ‘court-trotting’; because a true believer in the courts would never go on what amounts to ‘forum-shopping’ when he could as well remain in the initial court where he lodged his complaint and still prosecute his case.
On the other end of the pendulum stands Governor Mamman Ali. It is interesting that while all the fuming was going on, Ali kept his cool. He kept on referring to Albishir as his elder brother and refused to be joined in the tirade flying all over the place.
It is true that Governor Ali is the direct beneficiary of Albishir’s replacement. But it is my submission that the whole issue was one in which Ali could not have done anything either way had God wanted it differently.
This is because the ANPP, which earlier fielded Albishir, itself came to Governor Ali to ask him to make available his papers to represent the party at the polls once it decided that for reasons which it has already made public, Albishir could not carry the ANPP flag.
It is to Governor Ali’s credit that in the whole episode, people who knew what was happening knew how he made effort to join hands with his elder brother for the greater benefit of the people of Yobe State. After his inauguration through to his first hundred days in office, Governor Ali kept reaching out to Albishir and others opposed to him to come join hands with him to develop Yobe State.
At a public forum to mark his 100 days in office, in particular, which was broadcast live on local and national radio, the governor revealed how he went to the extent of telling Albishir how he wanted to make him his ‘partner’ in the government far above every other person, so that he makes his input in whatever the government does.
The governor explained that he had asked him to bring in the names of anyone he likes to be appointed into the administration, but he turned away the offer, thereby depriving his supporters the opportunity to serve and be served.
Again, it is probably the antics of the election middlemen that kept barring the elderly former senator from seeing reason in the overtures made by Ali. For, that was a great opportunity Albishir had to show the people that what mattered to him, in the end, was their well being and not mere political ambition. That he repeatedly rejected the olive branch extended by his younger brother certainly gives reason for one to re-think his philosophy of politics.
As he increasingly looks desolate with old age creeping in fast on him, it is time Albishir realizes that the flock out there who feign support for him could not change the course of destiny for him or anyone else.
Many Yobe people like this writer would be happy to see Senator Albishir sheath his sword and extend a hand of fellowship to his younger brother, whom God has chosen to be the chief servant of the good people of the state.

Jajimaji writes from Jajimaji town, Karasuwa Local Government Area, Yobe State. He can be reached at jajifriendly@gmail.com