What has unfolded in the politics of Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) may look very insignificant to people who are interested only in larger political environment. To other people, the Gwagwalada political tango represents the small thing that gives a bigger lesson. It may even surprise many and disturb others. It was like turning the world on its head, or it was like one of the wonders of the world.
It indeed, represents a classic case of political and personal vengeance, vendetta, superiority, muscle-flexing, and above all, it was a case of killing the vulture, even though not good for human consumption, but simply to throw it away.
As a matter of fact, it looked and sounded strange to hear that All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) won the chairmanship of the Council in the main and rerun elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in a place like Gwagwalada where All Progressives Congress (APC) holds sway at all times.
How did APGA do it?
A story was repeatedly told in whispers about how the newly defeated APC incumbent chairman and chairmanship candidate, Jibril Abubakar Giri committed hara-kiri; an unforgivable offence against his predecessor and benefactor, Alhaji Zakari Angulu Dobi. Information had it that it was Angulu who put him there in the first place.
Abubakar was said to be the deputy to Angulu, who served two-term tenure as chairman of the Council. Angulu was said to have so trusted Abubakar so much that he did not find anything wrong, indeed, he felt comfortable putting Abubakar up to succeed him. That was even as information filtered in that Abubakar, his trusted second-in-command was having affairs with his (Angulu’s) wife while they were still together. Angulu was said to have always regarded those who were peddling such ‘rumour’ as enemies that wanted to create friction between him and his deputy.
Angulu, who is believed to be a confirmed god-father of Gwagwalada politics stood solidly behind Abubakar and saw him through to electoral success. It was when Abubakar won the election as chairman that he showed his real colour: he was said to have cajoled Angulu’s wife (with whom he had been having secret affairs) to divorce him after which he moved swiftly to marry her fully. He left Angulu gasping for air! It was when Abubakar finally married his wife after the divorce that Angulu recalled the rumour which he had always brushed aside, even when it was too late to do anything.
Angulu, who went on to win the House of Representatives election on the platform of APC to represent FCT South, laid in waiting for the second-term attempt of his erstwhile friend who “took” his wife away from him.
And so when the April 9 Council election came, it was a pay-day time. At the risk of being branded anti-party person, Angulu threw his support behind the least expected candidate, the APGA’s Adamu Mustapha Danze. The sitting chairman was said to have tried to manipulate the electoral process in his own favour as a result of which the first ballot of the FCT Area Council election, held on April 9, was declared inconclusive by the INEC, even though it was APGA candidate that had taken the lead. And when the rerun was conducted on April 13, the APGA candidate still topped the chart.
For Angulu, yes, there might be nothing to jubilate about helping the candidate of another party to win the election, but he had proved to the incumbent, his erstwhile friend that the hand that put food into someone’s mouth can also remove the food.
It is like killing the vulture even though it is not for eating, but so as to throw it away.
The Gwagwalada political muscle-flexing may look insignificant against the background of the larger political map of Nigeria, but the reality of it is widespread. It is indeed, a reminder of the immorality that has defined most of the nation’s politicians, vis-avis their wives or the women within.
The fight for supremacy on the political turf between the god-father and the god-son had, time immemorial, resulted in bloody nose, like it happened in Gwagwalada. The fight has always taken the form of the control of the spoils of office, personal and political worth but the end result had always left deep scars and created deep-seated enmity. That is the political dimension which Nigerian political system has brought forth.
But to think of wife snatching as part of it! [myad]
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