By Ibrahim Dan-Halilu
Those who know Senator Ahmed Babba Kaita, Senator representing Katsina North Senatorial District at the National Assembly have described him as an astute and resourceful politician who puts the interest of his constituents first.
They also described him as a visionary who understands the problems of the people he represents, and is doing everything possible to address them.
That may be the reason he founded it easy to transit from the Federal House of Representatives to his present position as a senator. No Katsina politician has achieved this vote of confidence from his constituents.
His records in NASS projected Sen. Babba Kaita as a great achiever whose tenure at the two chambers have brought so much dividends of democracy to his constituents.
He has wiped away tears of thousands of young men and women who had no hope of securing jobs. Every day, week and month, his aides come home with scores of job offers to distribute to qualified candidates. Thousands have been enlisted in the N-Power programme through his personal efforts.
Sen. Babba Kaita has brought succour to many rural communities in his constituency through his constituency projects which include sinking of hundreds of solar operated boreholes, construction of roads, health centres, and blocks of classrooms for both basic and Islamiyya schools.
According to some beneficiaries of his good representation, “we just received text messages to go to Abuja and collect our job offers. Some of our friends had their offers delivered to them through his aides.”
During the first outbreak of corona virus pandemic, Senator Babba Kaita singled out himself as the most generous of all the federal and state legislators from Katsina State when he bought and distributed rice, maize, beans, cooking oil, and other essential commodities worth millions of Naira to his constituents to cushion the effect of the imposed lock down.
How a man with such a large heart and exceptional records of performance found himself in the cross, maligned by some misguided youths and called derogatory names by some political hangers on, remains a rude shock to many.
Is it lack of political education or sheer ingratitude?
But those who know the politics of Katsina very well will not be surprised at this turn of events.
With his intimidating credentials and unbeatable records of service as a federal law maker, Senator Babba Kaita has put himself on the spotlight to be a subject of envy by the teeming crowd of contenders for the governorship ticket of his party, the APC.
Some have attributed his current ordeal to his strident moves to curtail the power of governors through constitutional amendment.
They argued that he was among the fronline senators who supported the adoption of direct primaries in the newly amended electoral act.
In a VOA interview monitored in Abuja recently, Sen. Babba Kaita himself corroborated this claim when he told the VOA reporter that they were summoned at the presidency to resolve the conflict between them Senators and Governors of the APC who wanted to maintain their control over the party machinery and reduce other members to keen watchers, which the Senators disagree with, hence the reason for passing the Electoral Bill Amendment Bill that seeks to make direct primaries compulsory for all political parties.
“My colleagues in the Red Chamber and I passed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill because we wanted to restore power back to the people which the governors have usurped to impose candidates on the people,” Senator Babba Kaita told the VOA reporter.
The senator has attracted to himself virulent attacks from the supporters of Gov. Masari and other local politicians who described him by various derogatory names. Some called him an ingrate, other said he was overambitious.
Whatever the case, Sen. Babba Kaita has displayed an uncommon courage in challenging the status quo under which governors behave like Emperors who install and dethrone elected officials whether they are liked by the electorate or not.
The power of the governors cannot be disputed having seen how they convinced President Buhari to reject the amended electoral act and express his preference for a mixture of direct, delegates and consensus primaries.
The move by the NASS to clip the heavy wings of governos is seen in many circles as timely and desirable in view of the gross abuse they use it for. For instance, majority of them have not conducted LGC elections since they came into office. They feel comfortable to appoint toothless caretaker committees led by their surrogates, they spend state funds without recourse to state legislature for appropriation.
In many states, govs are solely responsible for nominating delegates, candidates, and the electoral umpire is under their control. So they decide the election results and how power should be shared. This is dictatorship, not democracy!
It is this status quo being challenged by Sen. Babba Kaita and his colleagues that has put them on a coalition course with the governors. It is left for the people of Katsina State to decide whether to take a cue from Sen. Babba and regain their power to elect party leaders and those to represent them at the local, state and federal levels or leave it in the hands of moneybags politicians who treat politics as an investment from which they expect returns. Sen. Ahmed Babba Kaita should be given a heroes welcome, not condemnation for speaking the truth to power.
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