Wase Politics And The Changing Of A Chameleon Leader

Yakubu Busari

It has become necessary for the voters in Wase Federal Constituency of Plateau State to begin to regroup themselves and identify those with genuine intentions to deliver on their campaign promises.

The Local Government Council of Wase has the largest landmass that accommodates the Tarok ,Jukun, Fulani, and Boggwom with Bashar people in the bordering KanamLGA  ,Gombe ,Taraba ,and Bauchi states and the people are predominantly farmers.

However, this is a council that occupies the highest mineral deposits in the north-central region of Nigeria with a population of agrarian occupants living alongside herders who might have migrated from Cameroon.

The political crisis which was masterminded in 1998 between the councillorship of Lamba Wakkat ward left many Tarok-speaking natives dead and their women are still in captivity as prisoners in some communities.

The present House of Representatives Member Rt.Hon.Idris Ahmed Maje Wase had been their member since 1998 and the longest in the history of the council that a particular district continued to remain in the corridor of power.

On the issues of the aftermath of the council crisis, they used the divide and rule policy to deny many zones by jettisoning the zoning arrangement which is enshrined as one of the gentleman’s agreements for winning the elections.

The problem that is now steering the Kadarko district is that they are completely sidelined and denied full participation in politicking which is now brewing criminal elements taking over some settlements and causing youth restiveness.

It gathered that Idris Ahmed Maje has succeeded in creating a political dynasty not to give political space for other citizens to contest for any elective position , and with this ugly development the present member of Wase state constituency, Hon Adamu Yahaya Mavo had dragged Maje to court to challenge the outcome of the primaries .

According to him, the primaries were just a kangaroo arrangement by Rt .Hon.Idris Ahmed on the day of the elections hijacked all the delegates, and hide them in a private hotel and the venue of the election was empty and deserted completely.

The long agitation by the four districts is now causing upheaval, and impasse, with poor infrastructures with the only bridge connecting Langtang North and South LGAs, cut off and contracts awarded several times.

The roads linking Bashar, Nasarawa, Lamba through Wase headquarters are an eye sore during the rainy seasons with the deplorable state of schools, lacking functional hospitals, and portable drinking water as human being struggle with animals in search of water from the stream source.

However, now that the electioneering period is here, they have begun to carry fresh tactics of the political gimmick of misleading principle to use money and party to deceive the electorates to vote under the disguise of religious or sentiment of tribes for another branded suffering flittering the air.

The formula of power sharing and government support machinery that has been deployed to cause an unnecessary and forceful change of transmission of wrong results through vote buying is very imminent in the council.

Our night falls in politics and the building blocks of poor performance may continue if the present dirty games of Wase LGA political atmosphere continue and if urgent steps are not taken by the appropriate authority to end money bag politics .