As Bauchi State electorate get set to exercise their franchise few hours from now to elect new Governor and state Assembly Lawmakers that will govern them in the next four years, it is observed that the incumbent governor Mohammed Abubakar of the All Progressive Congress may likely be reelected in view of his political strengths.
Firstly; power of incumbency may give him advantage over his contenders as he has adequate control of the state and commands respect of traditional rulers and other influential people across the state who can mobilize their followers for the governor.
Being in the ruling party will also give him additional advantage as President Buhari is still popular in the state. The party won all the three senatorial seats in the state and most house of representatives seats in the last presidential and National Assembly election. The president raised the hand of the governor during his campaign in Bauchi and asked people to vote for him.
Abubakar campaigned vigorously in the 20 Local governments of the state and he has care taker chairmen who could help him deliver their various councils in today’s election as they were all appointed by him and would work vigorously towards his re-election.
Last year, he sacked all his cabinet commissioners, SSG and spokespersons and replaced them with grassroots politicians. All these were viewed by analysts as strategies by M. A to win again in 2019.
His regular payments of salaries may win him the support of civil servants at the polls.
Weaknesses:
Just as he has strengths, the governor also has some weaknesses which include Inability to complete capital projects such as federal low-cost Bauchi roads, Wuntin Dada to miri which cause serious problems to motorists and residents of the areas especially during rainy season.
Critics often lambast the governor that even the roads he invited the president to commission such as Maiduguri bye pass to Awalah, Guni housing estate were all uncompleted projects.
His dissolution of traditional leaders appointed by his predecessor also irritated the victims and their followers and might work against him at the polls.
Failure to conduct local governments elections for four years contrary to his campaign promise was used by the opposition to decampaign him in the this election.
Aggrieved aspirants who alleged that they were shortchanged in the recent APC primaries also indulged in anti party activities as he has still failed to reconcile with most of them.
Najib Sani writes from Bauchi.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect WikkiTimes’ editorial stance.
