As political parties and their candidates await the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to lift the ban on campaigns and to begin aggressive politicking, residents of Katsina State, particularly the allies of Dr Mustapha Muhammad Inuwa, the home of the immediate past secretary to the state government (SSG) is now a mecca of sort ahead of the 2023 election.
Dr Inuwa was one of the nine governorship aspirants in the state, who went into the APC guber primary election and came second in the contest with 442 votes after Dr Umar Dikko Radda who scored 506 votes to emerge the APC governorship flagbearer.
Like the biblical inscription, “the stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone”, the scenario in Katsina politics is typical, with Dr Inuwa being regarded as the winning factor for the APC in 2023, while other parties who knew his worth and capacity are also lobbying him to join their tent.
The APC in Katsina State is reportedly beginning to see the gaps it created for allegedly compromising at the guber primary election on shared sentiments against Inuwa. Political pundits in the state are of the opinion that the party is already regretting its actions and choice of guber candidate.
From the recent events in the state, it is becoming clear that Dr Inuwa is the emerging godfather, considering the number and calibre of people paying him ‘homage’, all in the effort to win his support and woo the electorate to vote for them in 2023.
At the moment, prominent politicians, party leaders and candidates of almost all the registered political parties in the state are trooping to his residence and campaign office, with each specifically soliciting his blessings and support to enable them to emerge victorious at the polls.
Kashim Shettima, the running mate to the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was accompanied by the APC guber candidate visited Inuwa. It was gathered that Shettima was in Katsina to reconcile the differences and other emerging issues after the primary election.
Also, the minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management, Sadiya Umar Faruk is among the bigwigs that have consulted Inuwa. Though what transpired was not made known to the public, political analysts believe that it is in connection with the unfolding issues and the stake of APC in Katsina.
The guber candidates of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Nura Khali and that of the Accord Party, Muhammad Barau Tanimu as well as some senatorial candidates across parties, have visited the former SSG, with the notion of allying with his political experience and myth.
Dr Inuwa who’s believed not to be happy with the outcome of the primary election and the role Governor Masari played in the exercise, seems to bother the APC.
His silence and body language lately are already posing threat and fear to the APC considering the calibre of politicians lobbying him to join their party. They knew his political prowess and might and should the former SSG pitch tent with any party in the state, the APC may lose.
Though he did not pick the party’s ticket, it is a fact that Dr Inuwa has a very strong support base, a perfect strategy or much affluence and connection to determine which party, or rather candidate(s) is (are) enthroned to occupy political seat(s) in Katsina.
The status and dignity of Inuwa are enough to endear people to his way, and as one who is being seen as a major playmaker in Katsina politics, is the reason presidential and guber candidates, including that of APC recently paid him homage. To put it simply, Inuwa has become a centre of attraction to political gladiators within and outside the state.
Indeed, he is a fine gentleman, a strong party man and a competent politician, who in history understood too well the politics of the state. He rose from grass to grace to earn the status he is now enjoying and was one of those who helped in establishing a formidable political structure across the ward and local government levels.
Despite his commitment, support and investment in building the party, the state leadership of the party, alongside a few stalwarts, were alleged to have contrived with Governor Masari to work against his life-long ambition to occupy the state’s number one seat of power.
The ploy which is haunting the plotters has undoubtedly changed the political atmosphere of the state, as APC is watching closely not to lose Inuwa to another party.
Dr Inuwa felt he was unfairly deprived of the chance to replace the governor and therefore became sequestered from the party he had fought together to form government in 2015.
Interestingly, his mute over time has continued to attract other parties’ leaders, extending invitations for him to join their movement and form a new government for a better Katsina State.
Consequently, the recent visit by the main opposition party’s guber candidate, Senator Yakubu Danmarke Lado, has provoked reactions in the state. While members of the PDP are celebrating the visit as a reunion, considering the warm reception accorded them at the campaign office of Dr Inuwa, the ruling APC’s loyalists are jittery and nervous about losing one of their strongest pillars.
While addressing his teeming supporters, Senator Lado appealed to the elder statesman, Inuwa, who left the PDP sometimes back to APC, to ‘return home’ in a bid to rescue Katsina State from its current challenges.
But, Dr Inuwa in his response said that he has to make a consultation with his political associates within and outside the state before deciding on his next move.
This development however triggered a counter reaction from the APC governorship candidate, Dr Radda who dismissed the rumours of Inuwa leaving the ruling party, and affirmed that the former SSG would never decamp from the party to any opposition.
Dr Radda admitted that Dr Inuwa had contributed a lot to the development of APC in the State and country hence, he will not leave the party especially now that he is about to reap the fruits of his labour.
“The PDP was desperate in the forthcoming election, but Inuwa is a loyal APC chieftain who would never defect to any party, especially now that the general election is nearer.
“Inuwa has given us his words to work for the party (APC), as a gentleman, he would not go back on his words.
“The PDP as a party is desperate, they have done more than this before and they are still doing it. The fundamental issue is that we in the APC have been wooing the general populace of Katsina to vote for us.
‘’We have been telling them what the party has done and what the party is doing and the people of the state believe in us after seeing our various achievements. As a loyal party man, he will always work by his assurance for the party.
“As an elder statesman of our party and as my elder brother, it is a payback time for him. And I have good respect and highest regard for him. He will never leave a party he has built for over seven and a half years.
“Those wooing him now, he knows them very well, they have said several things about him and all these past speeches are in the public already. The PDP will never change and they will remain the same set of people,” the APC guber candidate stated.
Pundits believe that Inuwa has been the engine room of Governor Masari’s government and leaving the APC at this time considered critical would affect the chances of the ruling party to retain power in the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
