MEET DONATUS MATHEW, 'OKADA MAN’ WHO DEFEATED AN INCUMBENT AT POLL
Perhaps he rode on the rising popularity of the Labour Party and the influence of its presidential candidate, Peter Obi. Or maybe the groundwork he laid prior to his declaration to run for office made his emergence as a lawmaker-elect possible. Whatever the reason, Donatus Mathew, a motorcycle (Okada) rider succeeded in trouncing Hon. Giden Gwani, a four-term member of the House of Representatives who was the minority Chief Whip in the lower chamber. Mathew will be replacing Gwani come May 29 as the representative of Kaura Federal Constituency, Kaduna State. Gwani must have thought that an Okada man stood no chance against him, a veteran who has been in the game long enough to know what it takes to persuade the electorates to allow him return to the House for a fifth term. Little did he know that fate had other things in store for him. Mathew had started out his political career as a Councillor in his ward, but the rising inflation and other life's vicissitudes reduced him to an Okada rider.
The trio of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the president-elect; Senator George Akume and Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, have a few things in common. They have all been former governors, they were all governors from 1999, at the start of the democratic dispensation, in Lagos, Benue and Yobe States respectively. They have all been Senators Tinubu during the brief Third Republic; Akume between 2011 to 2015 and Ibrahim between 2007 and 2015. One last thing they all have in common is all trio putting their wives in the national assembly as lawmakers. While Tinubu's wife, Remi, is a serving Senator and has been for three terms, one of the more cerebral wives of Ibrahim, Khadija is a current member of the Federal House of Representatives. She was first elected in 2007, reelected in 2011 and 2015. In 2019 after resigning her appointment as the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, she returned to the house for a fourth term. Following in the footsteps of his former colleagues, Akume who is the current minister of special duties and intergovernmental affairs, ensured that his wife, Regina got elected to the House of Representative in the just concluded National Assembly elections on the platform of All Progressives Congress. Regina dislodged the incumbent, John Dyeh of the Peoples Democratic Party by a wide margin. She will be representing the people of Tarka/Gboko federal constituency. Hopefully, she ends up not becoming just another number but one whose inputs in bills that will affect lives positively, will be felt.