To many, the result of the elections in Yobe South was like seeing a child lift his pillow on a fine morning to find that the tooth fairy didn’t leave him any gift at all and the tooth is still there. His surprise, or shock if you wish, will never be the same with an adult who already knows that the tooth fairy doesn’t exist. It is why my preelection analysis favoured the PDP candidate, Halilu Mazagane, who was rather unknown to clinch the ticket.
The major reason is that Senator Ibrahim Bomai has refused to learn from the mistakes of his predecessor, Senator Mohammed Hassan who lost due to a variety of factors that in 2019 including causing division within his party, causing division within the constituency and doing very little in way of legislating.
Bomai has also lacked greatly in terms of legislating, the saving grace being that most of the constituents don’t understand the primary role of a lawmaker. A theory has emerged as to why he has performed poorly in the Red Chambers –choosing Ndume over Ahmad Lawan in the Senate President elections of the ninth senate hinders his capacity to perform on the floor. Whether that is true or not, one would believe that by choosing Ndume, Bomai was building valuable connections to help out in the politics of the red chambers – Ndume is the majority leader and has a wide connection across party divide which is something Bomai should have leveraged upon to get the needed votes had he put forth any bill or motion.
While having done great in constituency projects, earning him the nickname “mai Ruwan kwalta” loosely translated to “the one who rains roads”. There is more to it that meets the eye. The spread of the roads has been lopsided with most if not all being in Potiskum. If he rains roads then the people of Nangere, Fika and Fune might wonder why it doesn’t rain on them when their votes are the water droplets that condensed to form the clouds whence the rain now pours.
A bird at hand is better than two in the bush but his supporters don’t seem to know this as they got ahead of themselves with the mantra being “daga Buni sai Bomai” showing clearly their focus is on 2027 and not now.
Throughout his stay in office, he failed to visit the Pataskum Emirate until days to the elections. It is this same attitude that his predecessor had – of thinking you can pick one people over the other when you were elected to represent all. This has also made it impossible to unite the complex tribes of Yobe south, with leader after leader coming to repeat the same mistake.
This is made all the truer when you factor in that he polled 69,416 votes to Mazagane’s 68,800. Meaning one half the population want him in and the other wants him out. The failure to carry everyone along seems to be everywhere with rumours of discontent amongst the APC ranks in the zone for being sidelined.
There is the Adamu Waziri factor too who was very instrumental in his emergence as senator and even more instrumental in the turnout of the current elections. Since 2007 all the candidates that contested the senatorial elections with Adamu Waziri’s support have won and all that contested without his support have lost. While there is little he could have done to convince the opposition leader and elder statesman to join him, he could have strategized better on waning his influence now that he is sure not going to get his support. Which is no mean feat but totally worth the try.
Alack, like Senator Mohammed Hassan left himself isolated four years ago with members of his party, the opposition APC at the time and different sections of the constituency up in arms – you get a sense of deja vu as Bomai finds himself in a similar position. And since Cersei gave her “enemies to the east, enemies to the west, enemies to the south, enemies to the north. Whatever stands in our way we will defeat it” speech, anyone can attempt to fight on multiple fronts with the hope of being triumphant. But he is no Cersei and even as he now plays the Game of Thrones, we don’t live in a fictional world. Ours is to advise and these are areas he needs to work on should he return to his seat.
This is an awesome analysis on Senator Bomai. I pray and believe he will learn from his mistakes. We formerly learn from others mistakes but these days, we’re overshadowed by deception of people around us.
May Allah guide us right, aameen.
“ You cannot stop the winner from celebrating or prevent the loser from grieving. You must avoid words & conduct that will do more harm than good. Avoid hate & divisive comments. Respect the choices that people have made, and move on. Be magnanimous in victory & gracious in defeat.”
That is very true, Malam Mukhtar. Thank you.