Marwa’s Bold Move into APC
Early in the month, the media reported on the resignation of one time military administrator of old Borno and Lagos States, General Buba Marwa, from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. It was a prelude for his later embracing the All Progressives Congress, APC. Many were not surprised because Marwa belongs to the crop of founding leaders of the PDP, who today are either non-active or have jettisoned the party due to incessant frustration experienced in the day –to-day affairs of the party. Some of these founding leaders include but not limited to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Barnabas Gemade, Chief Audu Ogbe, late Dr. Olusola Saraki, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Chief Richard Akinjide.
Nigeria’s political landscape is fast getting interesting. The APC is pulling and pooling the best of our political actors. Marwa was a leading figure in the legacy Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, (an integral part of the fusion that became APC) which President Muhammadu Buhari led as the flagbearer in the 2011 Presidential elections. Marwa was the gubernatorial flagbearer of the CPC in 2011, when he ran against then incumbent Murtala Nyako, who contested under the PDP in Adamawa State. With the likes of Marwa getting into the mainstream political structure, APC can be sure of competent and tested administrators and amiable political players devoid of bitterness. Marwa is indeed a bridge builder of repute. His achievements as past military administrator in Borno and Lagos States which would be briefly enumerated are unrivalled and still a point of reference in these two states.
The disgraceful defeat of the PDP-led federal government at the last polls did not come as a surprise to keen watchers but as a unique study in African political history, in self destruct. The acclaimed largest political party on the African continent with the potentials to rule for decades became suddenly decimated by forces largely attributable to internal squabbles.
The party started well in the events leading to its triumph in 1999, with General Olusegun Obasanjo coming in as President. Obasanjo’s emergence was seen as compensation to the South west for the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections popularly believed to have been won by late business mogul, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. The PDP became very strong under President Olusegun Obasanjo. The euphoria was so intimidating that the party was an equivalent of success. Anyone that wanted power or wanted to get close to real power chose the PDP. Other political parties were only trailing behind. This was the euphoria that engaged the mind of a former Chairman of PDP, Vincent Ogbulafor, when he stated most hysterically that the party was going to be in power for at least sixty years.
The events that led to the decimation of then ruling PDP is still under scrutiny and historians would do justice to the chronicle. Such events eventually led to most of the respected founding fathers of the party, including Generals Obasanjo and now Marwa leaving the party they had labored to build.
And like the proverbial object that is so powerful, yet possesses the internal element needed for self destruct, the PDP is today a shadow of its old self. What went wrong?
A lot of theories and theorems have been propounded. And I dare say, for years to come, intellectual and lay discussions will continue to come up on this issue. But one plausible factor is the belief that success not well managed oftentimes comes to an abrupt end the way it does for the PDP.
Quite a lot went wrong in national security, economy, international image, political tolerance and a host of other factors that made the ruling PDP to be rejected at the polls. It seemed Nigerians were fed up with most of the policies of the past administration. Not helping matters was the subtle and open sidelin- ing of founding leaders of the party, and it seemed the newcomers held sway. This no doubt brought frustration into the former’s minds culminating into some receding to the background while others sought political relevance in the alternate party. This was actually the beginning of the political self destruct of the largest party in the land.
It might be convenient to castigate those gradually leaving the party, right from the days and months preceding the elections, as typified by the open frustration shown by Obasanjo when he publicly shredded his party card. If a most respected party leader in the mould of Obasanjo could let out such anger publicly, what do we expect of others following in his trail, who look up to him for direction? It was a very bad and sad situation to continue to stay under a leaking umbrella after several efforts of leaders to mend the leakages became rabid failure.
Few days back, when Marwa announced the decision of his supporters and himself moving on to the APC, it was a soothing relief for his teeming admirers both in his Adamawa home state as well as the rest of the country.
As military administrator of old Borno State, Marwa got rid of armed banditry by launching “Operation Zaki”, a feat he repeated in Lagos State.
Shortly after he assumed office in Lagos, Marwa was able to prioritize the grey areas of governance in the state, which seemed to overwhelm his predecessor. The Marwa administration launched “Operation 100 Roads” “Operation 250 Roads”, revamped and energized his predecessor’s “Operation Sweep”. Within a very short period of his being at the helm of affairs, roads in Lagos metropolis became motorable again; residents of Lagos began to sleep with their two eyes closed because of the effective security outfit comprising the personnel of the three Armed Forces and the Police. It was not surprising that long after leaving office as the governor in Lagos, Marwa’s legacy is still the point of reference in the former nation’s capital. People were so obsessed with his success that he almost became a consultant of sort on every indices of governance not only in Lagos but across the country.
Buba Marwa made positive impact in the areas of health for all in Lagos by revamping public health institutions especially the free malaria treatment that was available to all and sundry. The administration also touched the lives of the poor by way of modest infrastructure improvements in areas occupied by the poor in the state. Not only that, Marwa’s government also proclaimed an edict to regulate rents that was aimed to discourage the abuse and suffocation of tenants by the landlords. The popular “Jankara” method of eviction of tenants by landlords gave way to due process and the legacy is still in force in Lagos till date, with slight modification by the present regime in the state.
The paradox of this all is that Marwa served under a unitary government(the most brutal dictatorship in Nigeria’s history) that was not only weary of, but suspicious of the activities of the leaders of the people from the South West, especially Lagos. Marwa, a Northerner like the late Head of State of the time, General Sani Abacha, never showed any sign of tribal sentiments in his conduct of affairs in the state. It is to his eternal credit that he did not give an inkling of representing the interest of Gen. Sani Abacha. Pro-Democracy activists could stage protests with mild harassment from Lagos State. Whilst the likes of Col. Usman and late Squadron Anthony Onyereagbulem, governors of Oyo and Ondo States respectively, got carried away by their military postings and were always trying to impress and deify Abacha, Marwa did not. He was seen as a friend of pro-democratic institutions as well as advocate of the masses. He was loved by all and sundry in the state and even beyond.
It is no wonder then that the people of the state asked Marwa to pull off his military uniform and contest for the governorship position of Lagos at the dawn of democracy in 1999, a suggestion he vehemently and humbly rejected probably on the belief that there were capable Lagos indigenes who were fit for the job. Not many will today forget who brought the mass-purposed Keke-Marwa, pioneered by him in Nigeria and imitated by all states in Nigeria, even up to this democratic dispensation. Marwa Gardens in Lagos is another legacy he left behind, to provide decent accommodation for the then emerging new middle-class which his administration’s employment and entrepreneurial policies was instrumental in creating.
It is heartwarming that Marwa has finally embraced the APC. The numerous challenges facing Nigeria today calls for all well-meaning Nigerians to come to the rescue. Security, the economy, foreign policy summersault as well as corruption top the list. You cannot sweep the house from without. This is why all well meaning members of the PDP and other founding members are enjoined to embrace APC as Marwa has courageously done in order to move us out of the woods.