Adamawa North: With Buba Shafani, The era when senators could take the people for granted is no more.
Buba Shafani has declared to contest for senate Adamawa northern senatorial district because of the issues that mattered to Adamawa north’s people. He had more credibility than his many rivals in the PDP and the opposition.
Quality representation dominated the agenda of Adamawa north’s most competitive senatorial election since the return to democracy in 1999.
Research has shown that 72% of voters in Adamawa north are concerned about quality representation in the Senate, while more than eight in 10 feel that lack of FG presence is a massive” problem.
Buba Shafani vowed to tackle these issues, especially by bringing FG presence to Adamawa North, ravaged by Boko Haram. This Islamist terrorist group has killed more than 13,000 Nigerians and displaced 1.5 million.
But Buba Shafani, a businessman turned politician, enjoyed advantages on these fronts. His record as one of Nigeria’s successful businesses man lent credence to his promises to attract FG presence to Adamawa north.
His reputation as an incorruptible businessman who lives modestly rendered his pledges to tackle ineffective representation believable.
Adamawa north constituents agree that Shafani was serious about tackling what is widely regarded as the senatorial districts’ biggest curse.
Shafani’s rivals’ campaign of calumny did what it could to discredit him but haphazardly.
One day Shafani rivals in PDP would accuse him of being a weakling that will be a stooge to the governor wanting to use him in 2023 to get Senate in 2027.
Shafani, for his part, will exhibit grace under fire throughout the campaign and maintain an air of dignity. His never-say-die attitude invited respect; this was his first attempt at the Senate.
The people of Adamawa North and the PDP delegates will respond in their millions to Shafani’s unoriginal yet effective slogan of “change”.
The People of Adamawa north have suffered from mediocre leadership for as long as I can remember. Most senators that represent them in the Senate are small-minded men, incapable of seeing further than the ends of their noses.
A principled man in the Senate is nothing short of revolutionary in Adamawa north. The excited reactions to Shafani’s declaration to contest for Senate in 2023 in various parts of Adamawa north attest to the hope he inspires many.
If history is anything to go by, Shafani will restore the lost glory of Adamawa north in the Senate in 2023.
But whatever happens, Adamawa north will never be the same again. Something has changed in the psyche of the people of the zone.
For the first time since independence in 1960, with Shafani as PDP candidate, the people will defenestrate a sitting Senator.
The masses now realise the tremendous might they can wield when they act collectively.
It is a lesson that will embolden them. The era when senators could take the people for granted is no more.