By Rayyanu Bala
For most of the past two weeks, the trending news in our social media
particularly in Nasarawa state was no other than the malicious story
which tried to portray the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a party
for Muslims and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Christians. The
author of this spiteful story entitled: ‘PDP’s stakeholders regroup
for 2019 battle in Nasarawa state’ hinged his argument on the outcome
of the just concluded primary elections in the state where the APC has
majority of its candidates drawn from the Islamic faith and those of
the PDP drawn largely from the Christian faith. Candidly, both parties
did not choose to have majority of their candidates from one
particular religion. That majority of those who emerged as candidates
from the APC are Muslims and those who emerged from PDP majorly
Christians does not mean that the two parties belong exclusively to
people of the two different faiths.
The outcome of the primaries for the two political parties was just a
mere coincidence as it was not predetermined by either of the two
parties. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not deliberately set
out to have most of its candidates for the 2019 elections from the
Christian faith; likewise the All Progressives Party (APC) did not
intentionally choose its candidates for the elections from the Islamic
faith. So it is mischievous for anyone to assume that the APC is a
party for Muslims and the PDP for Christians on account of both
parties’ primary election results in the state.
Since the PDP lost the election in Nasarawa state in 2011, there had
been a grand plot by some politicians to foist religious politics on
the state with the aim of causing confusion and violence in order to
give the administration of Governor Al-makura a bad name. All the
confusion and the violence we experienced in the past in the state
were all part of the grand plot to achieve these set objectives. The
herders/farmers conflict, the Ombatse crisis and the attempted
impeachment of Governor Al-makura by the then PDP-controlled House of
Assembly as well as other pockets of communal violence that ravaged
the state in the past, are clear pointers to the calculating attempt
by these politicians to achieve their desire of dividing the state
along religions lines to realize their political dreams. It was to
everybody’s knowledge that the numerous crises which engulfed the
state in the past, received the coloration of religion especially, the
herders/farmers conflicts and the impeachment saga.
It is chilling to know however, that these very set of politicians who
are hell-bent on foisting religious politics on Nasarawa state are
still around and are not relenting. The sordid news concerning the
outcome of the party primaries in the state is indeed, the handiwork
of these desperate politicians.
Without prejudice, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Nasarawa
state must avoid politics of sentiments and start considering
issue-based politics because exploiting peoples’ differences to
achieve political goals has never yielded any positive result and
since it had not been helpful in the past it will not be now. Nothing
demonstrates more succinctly how the PDP is exploiting people’s
sentiments to achieve political objectives in the recent time than in
the way and manner it (PDP) handled the issue of establishment of
cattle ranching in Nasarawa state when the state government directed
the conversion of some gazette grazing reserves to cattle ranches.
The way the PDP responded to the news truly left much to be desired.
The PDP through its State chairman, Francis Orogo tried to whip up
ethnic and religious sentiments when he went on air to condemn the
government for siting the cattle ranches in ‘‘only Alago lands”. Again
another good example of how PDP is exploiting people’s sentiments also
is in the manner the party Chairman Francis Orogo is going about
parading himself as the conscience of our society pontificating over
matters that did not even fall within his purview as leader of
opposition party in the state. The press conference which he
addressed some months ago where he alleged Governor Al-makura ordered
for the closure of Alago programme on state radio and television was
to say the least, targeted at whipping up sentiments. Indeed, if all
these actions of Francis Orogo was not an attempt to whip up ethnic
and religious sentiments, I do not know what else to call them.
While I am not in anyway against criticizing government policies and
programmes by the opposition, however, viewing matters from a
religious or ethnic perspective in order to achieve political aims is
not only an aberration in a democratic environment but is also
callous and uncivilized.
There is no iota of truth in all of PDP’s public posturing other than
the fact that the party lacked what to campaign with in 2019 hence the
resort to whipping up ethnic and religious sentiments to curry
sympathy of the people. The PDP in Nasarawa state should know that the
people of the state are wise to their antics and they can no longer
fall for their gimmicks. The 2019 campaign must be issue based. The
people can not vote on the basis of religious or ethnic sentiments
rather they can only vote on the basis of competency, integrity and
credibility of the candidates as well as on the basis of concrete
infrastructures being provided by the APC government in the state in
the last seven and half years which twelve years of PDP failed to
provide.