Yuguda’s risky Jonathan sale in Bauchi

Last Sunday, Governor Isa Yuguda returned to Bauchi at about noon, after attending the PDP’s grand finale presidential rally in Abuja. Within an hour of his return, he was off to Liman Katagun in Zungur District for a campaign rally. He returned to Bauchi at sunset and had barely sat down when he was told that thousands of people had been waiting for him since morning at Miri, just outside Bauchi metropolis, so he immediately took off for Miri.

Two hours later, he left Miri and drove an hour and a half to Giade, arriving at midnight, where he held more rounds of campaign meetings. The following day, Monday, after receiving ANPP presidential candidate Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, who was visiting Bauchi, Yuguda took off for Alkaleri where he held a spectacular campaign rally, the last of the 20 local government areas in the state.

At all these locations and all the ones before them, the arrangement was similar: thousands of party supporters drumming and dancing to welcome the gubernatorial candidate, then a courtesy call on the emir or district head, followed by meetings with, in that order, community and business leaders, party leaders, women, decampees from other parties, and then youth leaders.

The occasions were very crowded, very hectic, often very dusty, very noisy, with the speakers shouting into microphones to be heard above the noise of drummers, singers and jostling crowds.

Listening to the soft-spoken governor deliver his speeches—a total of 30 in those two days alone—the dominant theme, surprisingly, was not a pitch for his own gubernatorial re-election, but a very intent pitch for the election of President Goodluck Jonathan and his running mate, Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo.

It is a very hard sale, as I noticed those two days. Governor Yuguda will begin with a summary of his own achievements in the locality, usually after the local party chiefs had already enumerated them. He will launch a few jabs at his opponents within the PDP (SGF Yayale Ahmed, former governor Ahmadu Mu’azu and FCT minister Bala Mohamed) without mentioning their names, saying they have not set foot in Bauchi even once to campaign for the President.  He will then speak on the PDP-controlled Federal Government’s achievements in Bauchi State and in the North, specially emphasising the takeover of the Bauchi State Specialist Hospital and the almajirai programme.

Next, he will launch into a history of close political collaboration between Northern Nigeria and the Niger Delta region since independence, and how the Niger Delta people helped Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Alhaji Shehu Shagari to gain power. He will lace the speech with Islamic injunctions about the imperative of co-operation with friendly non-Muslims. Next, he will speak about Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s loyalty to the late President Yar’adua and how his re-election will benefit the North and Nigeria, and add that in any case, Jonathan will serve only one term and be succeeded by a northerner.

At least 80 percent of Yuguda’s speeches dwelt on Jonathan, not himself. I was puzzled by it, as were most of the people around, especially because it was a risky thing to do, given the mood of the Bauchi voters. On many occasions, after Yuguda finished speaking, party chieftains will shout, “Bauchi!” and the crowd will shout “Sai Malam!” They will then say, “Nigeria!” About half of the crowd will say, “Sai Goodluck!” while the other half will say, “Sai Buhari!”

At Alkaleri, Yuguda changed tack and said, “PDP sak!” (that is, vote for all PDP candidates). To which some young men nearby shouted, “Amma banda shugaban kasa!” (apart from the president).

When I asked an aide of the governor why Yuguda was persisting with his Jonathan theme in the face of so much hostility from even PDP supporters, he said, “Everyone here told him to stop it, but he refused! There is no other governor in the North who is doing this! Everyone is campaigning only for himself. Other PDP governors are already telling voters to ‘vote for me and for Buhari’. Malam (Isa Yuguda) is very lucky that the people of Bauchi overwhelmingly support him and he has no serious opponent in this election. Still, we are not happy that he is taking this risk, even though he himself does not see it as a risk. He is confident that the people of Bauchi have bought his message.”

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