They were so sure that Shekarau and other ANPP candidates in their bad book could not make it to the governorship for the second time without Buhari s support, that in Kano for example, some TBO members destroyed most billboards showing the governor and General Buhari. They did not want the Governor to gain from Buhari s famed popularity. At the end, Shekarau rode on his own goodwill and won the election with God s support, while both Buhari and his TBO toiled in vain to make sure he failed the election!
So unhappy with this victory is General Buhari that he could not, even as presidential candidate of the ANPP, call the governor on phone to extend his congratulations, several months after the deserved victory. Talking about the government of national unity which President Yar adua proposed to three opposition political parties that have succeeded in winning at least a governorship seat, what the ANPP did only amounts to democracy in action. When the idea was broached to the party, it consulted Buhari and invited him for discussion where decision as to whether to accept the president s offer or not would be taken.
But what did Buhari do? He simply stayed away from the scheduled talks. Typical of him, Buhari did not take into consideration the fact that politics is all about consultation and not issuing directives.
Anywhere in the world, politics is a game of number, with the majority always having their way and the minority having their say. Betrayal would only have set in if at the time the carrot was dangled on the ANPP, it did not inform or sought to involve Buhari in its discussion. He did not even give the ANPP the chance to resolve the matter on consensus as Daily Trust was advocating.
He only insisted on imposing his personal opinion on the party, constituted of many established adults, in a manner school headmasters talk to their pupils. As I said earlier, rather than healing wounds, Buhari only exacerbated them. For example when former governors Attahiru Bafarawa and Saminu Turaki of Sokoto and Jigawa States , respectively, left the ANPP for other political parties, Buhari woefully failed to play the role of an elder statesman that was expected of him.
Instead of attempting to woo them back to the ANPP, he issued a statement describing their exit as good riddance to bad rubbish. The governors naturally felt offended, and this was how Bafarawa ended up contesting the presidential election alongside Buhari. The loser in this case is Buhari because if Bafarawa had supported him, he would certainly have got more votes in Sokoto and perhaps elsewhere, though Bafarawa himself ended up making a dismal showing in the election.
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