ADC And The Danger Of Winner-Takes-All Syndrome
By Lawan A. Kazaure
Desperation is a state of extreme hopelessness or urgency where someone has run out of objective ideas and solutions, leading to wheeling and driving ill feelings to an extreme risk of an engagement towards recklessness! One of the basic characteristics as well amongst many others, was the urgency under intense need to fix a problem to achieve goals. The danger of recklessness was the desire to do whatever it takes including taking dangerous steps as well as also taking uncharacteristic manners at the expense of honor and dignity!
The Jigawa State Chapter of African Democratic Congress (ADC) is currently visibly seeing the unfortunate steps hurriedly being taken by some ‘Jonny Just dropped’ members of the Party in desperation and confusion seeking the intervention from some high profile personalities from all nooks and crannies of the Country. They are trying to circumvent and undermine the duly established political processes as per the provisions of the ADC’s Constitution and other extant guidelines to a selfish advantage without having the slightest courtesy of acknowledging the initial investments and sacrifices the legacy leaders of the ADC have made and are still making. This is a clear manifestation of a popular Hausa political lexicon-‘chasing Hen away in order to remove its laid eggs, thereby denying it the sacred duty to hatch its young ones’
What actually prompted His Excellency Chief Peter Obi and Sen Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to abandon the African Democratic Congress (ADC) was over their self centredness and over blown personalities syndrome. Having perceived the impossibilities clearly written on the wall, the action of pushing the hen away in order to remove its laid eggs could not be achieved given the high stakes national politicking within ADC, hence their abrupt departure. The Obi/Kwankwaso ticket was a child birth of former President Olusegun Obasanjo delivered to inculcate a desired arrangement towards blocking all means possible to the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Certainly the former Vice President, the Waziri of Adamawa, H.E Atiku Abubakar was the prime mover and an initiator of the Coalition Movement having painstakingly persuaded all and sundry into the movement. The greatest offence Atiku Abubakar committed to the former President, Obasanjo was his deliberate effort at truncating the Third Term Agenda which nearly threw Nigeria into political turmoil in 2006!
The exiting of Obi/Kwankwaso into another political platform from the ADC was rather a deal to weaken the strength of the Party on the realization of the fact that, their ambition could never be met under an entrenched new principles of Party Primary Election Processes, they invariably decided to change to a new platform.
Essentially, the import of the subject matter here was to showcase how a burning ambition, desperation and greediness could put some of our politicians into a state of hopelessness and wildness! Therefore, it is absurd under the above circumstances to further exemplify by comparing and contrasting another scenario in dreamy circumstances! Just visualise the effort put by Barr. Abubakar Malami, SAN former Minister of Justice at the formative stage of the Coalition fusing into ADC as an alternative political platform and then, suddenly from the blues, an undertaker could appear to subdued him! Frankly speaking, if our leaders or those aspiring to be at the top at all costs, could continue to be driven by selfish aggrandisement and irrationality, certainly this nation will have a long way to go. The imaginary trend is practically what is going on and if allowed to happen it will consume the Jigawa State Chapter of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) into a dustbin of political history.
Refreshingly and going into memory lane, Sen. Sabo Nakudu was once caught up into this kind of situation dating back to United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) era between 1997 to 1998, when he stood firmly by refusing to step-down for Arch. Muhammed Ahmed Hadejia at the gubernatorial contest of Jigawa State until the primary contest was done and was resoundingly defeated at the poll.
Matawallen Kazaure is a highly amenable democratic personality to the core! Therefore we have to outline five valid reasons why we stood for him in this very dabby as follows:-
1. That, Matawalle was amongst the first personalities to embrace the Coalition in Jigawa State and has invested heavily since June 2025 to the evolution and growth of the Party into a formidable platform to challenge the Ruling Party more than all his opponents. His early participation gave him an edge and the great opportunity to be part of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Party at its National Director Policy & Coordination and its Deputy Leader in this State.
2. That, Matawalle has more advantageous disposition in terms of gubernatorial campaign experience than most of his opponents who only participated in the Senatorial contests, save Malam Aminu Ringim who was on the ballot for the Governatorial election three times It is on record that Matawalle had fully participated in the 2019 general election as the Jigawa State Gubernatorial Candidate under the Social Democratic Party (SDP)
3. Matawalle has maintained his political structure capable of facilitating his gubernatorial campaign better than his opponents whose political presence could only be visible within their respective local government areas.
4. That, Matawalle has the war-chest to bankroll his campaign activities and as such, he has the Financial Disposition, National Network as well as his immense good-will within the State to strengthen his campaign strategy.
5. That, Matawalle has much greater amiability, friendliness and ease of accessibility to Party stalwarts and general voters. He is too generous to a fault and more amenable socially with the general public than his opponents.
In spite of the above core reasons to his advantages however, Matawalle’s only weakness is that, the foremost African Richest Person is not an acquaintance to him as a friend or godfather to leverage on, hence part of the reasons why, he was subjected to all sorts of intimidation and smear campaign just as witnessed by Malam Aminu Ringim in 2022.
For the records to contrast, Matawalle was fortunate to be a four-term ranking member of the National Assembly from 1999 to 2015 Similarly, in 2019, he leveraged on his good will and legislative experience spanning over 16 years on legislative duties and made up his mind to contest for the Jigawa State Governorship.
As a justification for comparison, the data from 2015 gubernatorial election enhanced Aminu Ringim political profile as gubernatorial candidate under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) by scoring the second highest votes of 479,447 in Jigawa State was indeed a collective effort involving many variables coupled along with the incumbency factors. However, the 2019 PDP gubernatorial election result sharply dropped in figures in comparison to 2015 having scored only 288,356. This was as a result of the characterisations of so many shortfalls that hit the party including the defection of Matawallen Kazaure amongst many party stalwarts! This is yet another expository to the inevitability of diminishing political profile of Malam Aminu Ringim. The result of 2019 gubernatorial election notwithstanding, was a topic for another chapter, however, be that as it may, the towering influence of former Governor Lamido’s political personality could not be discountenanced!
Nobody is disputing Malam Aminu Ringim political clout as far as political mobilisation is put into consideration but, no one could at the same time not deny the fact that is a toothless bull dog. The essence of political mobilisation as expectedly to anyone is to be translated into the ballot box victory. The 2023 gubernatorial election result where Malam Aminu Ringim contested as a Gubernatorial Candidate under New Nigeria’s People Party (NNPP) was a case study for an examination to prove my assertion.
The equation in profiling the ADC movers and shakers in Jigawa State could only be measured by their individual political standing strictly on the basis of their past participation as gubernatorial candidates of their former political parties to which in this case only Matawalle and Malam Aminu Ringim tested the waters! They stand shoulder to shoulder judging by their individual political personality going by the outcome of the 2019 gubernatorial election result where Matawalle contested under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and came third with 32,894 votes while in, 2023 gubernatorial election result where Malam Aminu Ringim equally contested under the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) came third with 37,157 votes.
Lawan A. Kazaure is a former Sole Administrator of Kazaure Local Government in Jigawa State