WE WERE AND STILL ARE ACTIVE PARTICIPANT, BUT…

Southern Kaduna is an active participant in our democratic process, from set-go. Some of its political heavyweights participated in processes that birthed political parties that emerged at the beginning of this Republic in 1998/1999. Most if not all of these players had joined their ancestors.

Our participation in the democratization process was succeeded by active and massive engagement in electoral matters. Our republican and democratic nature is partially responsible for our hyper involvements. Some percentage of credit must be allotted to political gladiators that effectively and aggressively mobilized the people to participate in the process despite doubts of sincerity of the intention of the military by many communities.

Evidence of our belief in a democracy are:

(a) the votes we mill;(b)fierce contests of seats within the zone;(c) and massive interest demonstrated in gubernatorial and presidential polls. Records related to the above confirmed our unique peculiarity in Nigeria’s democratic project.

A few examples worthy of note for us here: In 2007 and 2012 and 2015, Senators Balat, Zagi, and Nenadi garnered over 800k votes each. Each of them got more votes than those garnered by Governors of Yobe, Ekiti, Bayelsa—put together. By extension, they were senators with the highest number of popular votes in the history of Nigeria. What a remarkable height!

Similarly, votes milled by LGAs called Southern Kaduna made and unmade governors and changed figures of presidential polls, significantly. This is an irrefutable fact that the actions of candidates are justified. For example, Chief Obasanjo campaigned in Kafanchan in the 2003 presidential poll. If the area had no significant votes, he wouldn’t come around. Sadly, there hasn’t been another visit by any presidential candidate since then.

Now, have the dividends of democracy or allocation of values taken cognizance of this realism thus far? My candid answer is; NO. Dividends accrued aren’t in tandem with the quantum of our electoral and political commitments. The next thing or question to ask here is, why? That is a discussion for tomorrow or next. If you want to know, visit this site tomorrow for a continuation of this discourse.

John Danfulani