The political tension in the Borno South Senatorial District took a new dimension on Monday as prominent stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress rejected the continued stay of Senator Ali Ndume in the National Assembly.
The stakeholders, during high-level consultative meetings held in Biu, Gwoza, and Shani, threw their weight behind the Deputy Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Abdullahi Musa Askira, to contest the seat in 2027.
The move, our correspondent gathered, is aimed at ending what the stakeholders described as the “20-year dominance” of the Gwoza local government area in the senatorial representation of the zone.
A Second Republic politician and APC chieftain, Sule Gambo, who spoke on behalf of the elders, insisted that the seat must rotate among the constituent local government areas of Chibok, Damboa, Gwoza, and Askira/Uba.
Gambo said, “It was we, the people of Askira/Uba, who started this journey. We agreed that the seat should shift to Gwoza so they could also have a taste of representation.
“However, the spirit of fairness has stalled. The seat was never moved to another local government after Senator Abubakar Mahdi. It is supposed to rotate so that every part of this constituency feels carried along.”
He added that the time had come for the people of Askira/Uba to produce the next senator, identifying the Deputy Speaker as a candidate with the “right intellectual capacity.”
Also speaking, a prominent woman leader in the zone, Dr Hawa Mai-Musa, warned that women, who she claimed constitute 70 per cent of the voters in the state, were ready to enforce the rotation.
“For the past 20 years, Gwoza has held this seat. To be fair to the people of Chibok and Askira/Uba, it is time for a change. Engineer Askira is a proven leader and we are with him,” she said.
Another stakeholder, Tafu Malla, praised the Deputy Speaker’s “open-door policy,” noting that his efforts in facilitating youth employment in the military and police had endeared him to the grassroots.
The Galadima of Uba Emirate, Alhaji Adamu Jafiya, also joined the call, stating that the district was yearning for a representative with a “calm disposition” focused on development rather than controversies.
When contacted, an aide to the Deputy Speaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said his principal was still “consulting and listening” to the yearnings of the people.
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