Why Lamido's son lost senatorial bid in Jigawa
Pointers have begun to emerge on why Mustapha Sule Lamido, son of former Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, lost his recent bid for Jigawa Central senatorial seat.
The young Lamido, a popular politician and Santurakin Dutse, unveiled his ambition to contest for the Senate seat after pressures from his constituents and supporters.
Some analysts believe the young Lamido lost the election because of the voting pattern of the electorate in his constituency.
According to them, “to avoid the fear of not voting President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the voters decided to vote for APC in all the elections, otherwise referred to as ‘APC Sak’.”
Others, however, attributed his loss to the size and complicated nature of the ballot paper.
Yet, there are those who are of the view that Lamido’s loss was not unconnected with the massive defection from the PDP prior to the election.
To them, the high-profile personalities who left the party few months to the election had affected the fortunes of the party, as well as Lamido’s chances at the poll.
However, Mustapha’s father, Sule Lamido, had always insisted that he never asked his son to contest for any political position, which might have narrowed the young Lamido’s chances.
Although a political debutante, the young Lamido was able to clinch the PDP senatorial ticket for Jigawa Central. According to reports, the graduate of University of Abuja was said to have ensured that only his supporters and admirers made the list of delegates to the primaries, which made him emerge unopposed without any clear opposition.
Equally, the goodwill he enjoyed across the state received a significant boost from the predominantly young voters who always chanted his name, with billboards and posters in virtually all vantage points in the state.
This, perhaps, demonstrated the level of acceptance of the young Lamido, not only by the people of Jigawa Central but also the state in general.
During campaigns, the young Lamido was said to have relocated to the villages to mobilize the grassroots.
In fact his surging popularity left no one in doubt that he was coasting to victory, unhindered, especially with the unflinching support of the youth and women.
When the election was shifted, the confident Lamido told newsmen he was confident of victory at the polls. At the other hand, the popularity scale of the young Lamido had dampened the spirit of political fight of his political opponent in the race, Senator Sabo Nakudu.
Nakudu, a serving senator under the All Progressives Congress (APC), appeared to have gone into oblivion in the days of the campaign.
Nakudu was hardly seen in the campaign proceedings of the state governor, as is the practice.
In fact, when journalists visited Nakudu in his Sundumina village in Birnin Kudu on the day of the election, he looked demoralized, an indication that he might have lost hope of victory.
However, things started changing when preliminary results from some polling units started filtering in, showing that the young, confident Lamido was losing.
Thus, the political atmosphere became tense, with social media posting of results suggesting that the PDP candidate might have lost.