Among those who have bought nomination and express of interest forms to contest for the Katsina governorship ticket of the APC are five top loyalists of Governor Aminu Masari.
As the race for the 2023 general elections gains momentum, many political appointees and top allies of the Katsina State governor, Aminu Masari, have indicated interest to succeed him, a development many see as posing the toughest political test yet for the governor.
Mr Masari has been on the political scene since the early 1990s. He has faced several political battles but political pundits see this as his biggest trial that he needs to fix right.
Among those who have bought nomination and express of interest forms to contest for the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are five of his top loyalists, including the immediate former Secretary to the State Government, Mustapha Inuwa; the deputy governor, Mannir Yakubu; the immediate former Budget and Economic Planning Commissioner, Faruk Jobe; the immediate pasy Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank, Ahmed Dangiwa, and the Director-General of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), Dikko Radda.
The governor had, twice, said he would be retiring from public affairs after his second term in 2023 when he will be 73 years old.
Mr Masari said: “I am not going to contest for any office either in the party or in government.
“I was in the National Assembly as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, so what should I go back to the place to do again?
“In the party, I was the Deputy National Chairman of APC for the North. So what should I go back to the party to contest for? In the state, I have gone up to the level of a governor, where will I go? I think it is time to allow the younger generation to play their own part.”
Though he will not be contesting for any position, he will be involved in determining who his party chooses to succeed him as governor and who goes to the national and state assemblies.
Headache
As it is now, Mr Masari’s headache over 2023 is not the main opposition party, the PDP. Rather, it comes from some of his appointees parading themselves as his anointed candidates. He has not publicly aligned with any of the candidates that have secured forms to contest under the APC and his body language remains neutral so far, but pundits believe it is not because he wants it that way.
“He is in a difficult position,” a political analyst, Saifullahi Kuraye, told PREMIUM TIMES. “This is his greatest test. He can’t afford to be careless with it because he has arguably not been the best governor and has so many issues.”
“He knows that the only thing he can do for the state is to anoint a capable candidate but he has blessed all five strong candidates and that is where the problem is.”
During an APC stakeholders meeting in 2020, Mr Masari said he had no favourite contestant, insisting he would allow delegates to choose among those interested.
Mr Masari, PREMIUM TIMES gathered, is in a dilemma over who to endorse as the governor because all of the top contestants had in one way or the other helped or complemented the governor as “trusted allies”
Loyalists and cabals
Promoters and supporters of the top loyalists of the governor have been banking on the relationship between their candidate and the governor to the extent that some of them feel a certain sense of entitlement to the seat.
Most of the banners and billboards of the deputy governor, Mr Yakubu, carry the slogan “Daga Liman Sai Na’ibi” meaning: “After the leader then the deputy”. They believe the deputy governor, who was also the commissioner for agriculture for seven years until he resigned recently, should be Mr Masari’s successor to continue the legacy of the administration.
For seven years, they have ruled the state together amicably and the governor has never shied away from praising his deputy.
On his part, Mr Inuwa, the immediate former SGS, is seen as the leader of the cabal at the Government House, and even if there is no cabal, the opportunities given to him by the governor would leave no one in doubt that there is a kitchen cabinet of the governor’s trusted allies led by Mr Inuwa.
Mr Masari, this newspaper learnt, likes Mr Inuwa for the role he played in Mr Masari’s victory in the 2015 general elections as the APC state chairman then.
He became the governor’s “Mr Fix it” and is believed to have a solution to every administrative problem.
The former university lecturer is not oblivious of the fact that some people resent his influence with the governor. During an interview with a local radio station, Vision FM 92.1 Katsina, last year, Mr Inuwa said those complaining that the governor assigned him (Mr Inuwa) every responsibility needed to know that he did every assignment given to him by the governor deligently, hence the trust.
Mr Jobe, a banker and financal expert, is another member of the cabal in the administration. There is a joke in the corridors of power that “if Jobe can’t convince the governor on an issue, no one can.”
He was part of the campaigns in 2015 and 2019 and it is believed that he contributed a lot of money into the campaigns. He also has the governor’s ears and it is said he alone can change the governor’s mind on decisions because of the confidence and trust the governor has in him.
The SMEDAN boss, Mr Radda, has come a long way with the governor. He was a youth mobiliser and one of the most connected grassroots supporters of Mr Masari since 2007. When Mr Masari became governor in 2015, he allowed Mr Radda the privilege of participating in selecting his officials.
In 2007, Mr Radda sacrificed his seat as a local government chairman after he disagreed with then governor Umaru Yar’adu’a over the choice of his successor, between Mr Masari and Ibrahim Shema.
Mr Radda was the Chief of Staff to Mr Masari before the governor proposed him to President Muhammadu Buhari for a federal government appointment and he got the SMEDAN job. In 2014, when Mr Masari was the deputy national Chairman of the APC, he helped Mr Radda to become the national welfare secretary of the party.
At the height of a power struggle in 2015 between Katsina-based and Abuja-based APC politicians, it was said that Mr Radda played a key role in convincing President Muhammadu Buhari that Mr Masari was on course. His promoters said Mr Radda’s intervention was critical to the defeat of the Abuja-based politicians.
Mr Dangiwa, who just finished his tenure at Federal Mortgage Bank, has a special spot in the governor’s heart, this newspaper learnt. He was the acting chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and led the actualisation of the merger in Katsina State that produced the APC. He nearly become the deputy governor in 2015 due to his closeness to Mr Masari. The governor is believed to have influenced his appointment as the MD of FMBN.
Around December 2020, while Mr Masari was launching an empowerment progrmamme, he said Mr Dangiwa was one of the few appointees of President Buhari that remembered his state and its people in terms of support.
Two days after that, posters of Mr Dangiwa flooded the state and his promoters still bank on the statement and the fact that Messrs Masari and Dangiwa have been close allies for years.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that all the five camps have support from different government appointees and politicians. But the top loyalists of the governor and other stakeholders in the party have been keeping their distance from the contestants for now.
One of the governor’s close aides told PREMIUM TIMES that none of them has taken a position “because the body language of the governor is unpredictable.”
“Walahi, anyone who tells you that this is Oga’s candidate is a liar,” the aide said, asking not to be named as he has no permission to talk to journalists.
The aide said Mr Masari is keeping his promise of allowing free and fair primary elections.
Who picks APC flag?
Jamilu Abdulsalam, a lecturer at the department of Political Science, Ummaru Musa Yar’adu’a University, said it would be hard for Mr Masari to pick one out of the five because of the role they played in his life.
“The issue is that all the contestants have a say in the political structure of the governor. They have played key roles for the development of the party and Masari himself. When you take them one by one, you will see that they have a right to seek for the governor’s endorsement,” he said.
However, Mr Abdulsalam said the delay by the governor to annoint a successor may generate bad blood among the contestants and the party.
“They are spending their money and reaching out to stakeholders. If you waste a lot of money, it will be hard to convince you to withdraw for somebody. That is why I think the governor should have at least spoken to some of them because going to the primaries with five top aides will be dangerous for the party and the governor himself.”
Mr Abdulsalam also noted that the governor might be waiting for the right person because of the threats the party is facing currently from the PDP.
A local political reporter, Abdul Jani, agreed that the delay may affect the chances of the APC and the legacy of the governor
“I am sure he has his reasons for not siding with any of them because, as we all know, they are all his boys and allies. He has a good working relationship with the deputy, Mustapha (Mr Inuwa) has been his most important aide while Jobe is a top cabinet member. Dangiwa and Radda both helped Masari with platforms and grassroots support and were with him in all situations. It is very difficult for him to come out and side with one of them now, but the delay is dangerous,” he said.
Zoning
Three of the top contenders, Messrs Inuwa, Yakubu and Radda are from Katsina Central zone. Mr Dangiwa is from the North zone (Daura) while Mr Jobe is from the southern zone (Funtua zone).
Mr Masari is from Funtua zone. From 1999 – 2007, the late President Umar Yar’adu’a from the central zone was the governor and after him, Ibrahim Shema, also from the central zone led for another eight years.
While politicians from Daura zone have been clamouring for the seat to shift to their zone, those from the Funtua zone are insisting that they will do as the central zone did (16 years) while politicians from the central zone are adamant that it is also their turn.
Even with this in mind, the top contenders have been campaigning, recruiting government officials, business leaders, Islamic scholars and traditional rulers to join their campaigns.