POLITICS TODAY

By Habib Bello

Many people don’t know how the Kaduna Central’s Senator-elect, Uba Sani got to the point he is today. Majority think he got the seat on a platter of gold. This is far from the truth. And the challenge is that many people who claim to know, or undestand the Senator-elect don’t bother to read his past records of democracy activism, of public service or his successful  business life. They probably only know a little about his foray into politics. A recourse to history is important in appreciating the persona of the Senator-elect and the point of convergence between his past (especially the immediate past) and the present as we see it.

From strengthening the Kaduna APC structure, to building a reservoir of loyal and die-hards ready to defend the party’s constitution, he proceeded with checkmating the judas from within the party. One-by-one, the judases invented excuses and left behind the truly loyal party members. It was this army of committed party members that held on until the successful primaries of the Kaduna APC (which he won by a landslide) that was adjudged to be very free and fair.

After working hard, with the support of the fearless Governor Nasir Elrufai to consolidate the party, the remnants of the judases in the system saw the handwriting on the wall and began another mass escape. The party was then put  on a more stronger footing.

The next hurdle was to deal with the likes of outgoing Senator Shehu Sani and others,  who went into alliance with a section of the media to try to dent both the State government and the governor. The loquacious lawmaker was part of a gang-up that worked on a script designed to portray the Kaduna APC as an organization already swallowed by irreconcilable differences and set for a collapse. Both the incumbent Senator and his co-travellers in the conspirators’ foiled bid to bring the APC on its knees, found themselves trapped in their own calculations. The rest is now history.

Series after series of political plots against Malam Uba Sani kept on collapsing like a pack of cards. The plot by these marauders kept crashing with the same speed that they were hatched, until they dispersed into political oblivion. But the politically-combative
gang of anti-Elrufai and anti-Uba Sani Marauder’s did not go down without a fight. They killed the $350m loan approved by the World Bank for modern infrastructure in the State. And this came with a heavy price: Kaduna voters of Zone 1, 2 and 3 were waiting with their PVCs to purge the Kaduna democratic space of these clowns.

The next challenge after winning the APC ticket for senatorial seat, was countering last minute misinformation and disinformation by the desperate anti-Elrufai Marauder’s in the media. They finally lost out during the just-concluded general elections of 2019, when they crashed in one piece.

But before the rise and fall of the anti-Elrufai elements who, having been exposed have had no choice than to quickly migrate, they struggled for political relevance to no avail.

Senator-elect Uba Sani went through tough odds, meeting sometimes with up to four sets of political pressure groups in one day! He was all over the place displaying his selling points in the seven local governments that make up Kaduna Central. During this period, those of us who watched Uba Sani very closely knew he hardly slept for more than four hours a day during the campaign period. I can’t recall how many times I saw him resting during that period. He was also lucky having the Uba Sani Campaign Organization(USCO) members defying sleep as they too worked for victory. Their candidate was equally coordinating meetings at regular intervals, assigning responsibilities, demanding feedback and moving to the next step. This was not easy because of the bickering among members of the USCO, for which Malam Uba sat as the mediator and the journey continued. He ensured that the bickering did not divide USCO up to the very end.

All the while, the Senator-elect’s NGO, the Uba Sani Foundation for the Underpriviledged (USEFUL) was training thousands across the board on skills and trades. This upped the ante of his campaigns as he rescued a considerable number of USEFUL’s beneficiaries from biting poverty and joblessness. It was just like the Gani Fawenhinmi scholarship he once brought to the North, which produced good First Degree holders in various fields. Or his ability to secure gainful employment for thousands of youth in the multitudes of development agencies established by the Elrufai administration.

One big myth about this Senator-elect is that he is such a difficult or rather too tough  person in terms of relating with the people. His political rivals did a lot to spread this myth far and wide. As someone close to the man, I can say with pinpoint accuracy that this is untrue. Malam Uba is a disciplinarian with set standards and few can make the cut. He can be cross with you for being avoidably lazy. He can blow up your lid for gossipping. He frowns at eye-service and rewards harwork in a big way. Dishonesty? You should be very lucky if you get away with that twice – when you work with him. And when you work with him, don’t bother about conspiracy by your colleagurs to pull you down. He is watching your back, if you are doing great and he would protect you even in your absence; whenever he detects any form of conspiracy against you. He watches very closely, those working with him and can almost always tell exactly what everyone’s capacity is. He has so many secret means of checking your competence, trustworthiness and loyalty. These are just a few of the things that make him different from the average leader of men and manager of resources.

What is Malam Uba’s agenda as a Senator now representing Kaduna Central, by the time he finally settles down for legislative duties? We take off from this point in the second part of this series. Keep a date.

Habibu is a member of USCO