Close to five months after the conduct of the presidential, National Assembly, governorship and state assembly primaries, the scars from those exercises are yet to heal mostly in the opposition political parties in Jigawa State. The development, analyst believe could pose serious threat to their quest to wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) in the forthcoming general elections in 2027.

This can be noticed from the unending in-house schisms that have characterized the the aftermath of the conduct of exercises, most especially the replacement exercises that took place within some political parties, in the past three weeks, after of the submission of candidates’ list to the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC).

Though the APC cannot be said to be devoid of its internal wranglings, the problem appears more pronounced in the two main opposition parties, notably the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) where the top leadership echelons of the parties have remained far apart. So far, it’s only the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) that so far seems to be conducting its affairs rancour-free since INEC officially lifted the ban on political parties in the state.

With about four months to the next general elections, analysts believe that if the opposition parties fail to quickly put their houses in order not to jeopardize their chances of taking over the reins of leadership from the APC.

PDP and its internal contradictions

For the PDP in particular, managing its internal dynamics has become more of a larger challenge. As a one time ruling party in the state, it would amount to stating the obvious that being out of power for over a decade has proved to be a big challenge, not the fact it has lost a greater part of its support base, through defections and internal rebellion.

That the party is still breathing in the state today could be credited to the foresight of a former governor of the state Dr. Sule Lamido’s political family that has held it together. But that also has, to a large extent been the source of its problem as critics accuse the former Foreign Affairs Minister as holding the party not only to serve the political interest of his immediate family but also to allegedly to negotiate for political relevance.

However, despite the misfortune it has suffered since 2015, the party has proved to be a force to reckon with in the Central Senatorial District, when taking into consideration it’s impressive outing during the 2023 general elections, producing one of the three senatorial seats, two of the 11 House of Representatives seat as well as two seats of the then 30 state assembly seats.

Not only did the party lose its lone House of Assembly member Kabiru Ibrahim to the rival APC, due what he called the injustice of denying him to contest for a re-election by the leadership of the party in the state, bult has yet to effectively find the challenges arising from the replacement it effected in one it’s key House of Representatives seat.

The Dutse/Kiyawa Federal Constituency, one of the most fiercely contested seats in the state is being occupied by Hon. Dahiru Madaki of the PDP. Even though he was said to initially won the party’s primaries to re-contest the 2027 election during the recently conducted party primaries and his were particulars reportedly uploaded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Madaki was afterwards replaced by Hon. Aminu Wada Abubakar the party’s initial candidate for senatorial ticket of Jigawa Southwest Senatorial District.

Daily Sun gathered that the last minute decision to alter initial arrangement was as a result of the entrance in July of an erstwhile Inspector-General of Police ( IGP) Suleiman Abba, who dumped the ruling APC on the heels of the National Assembly primaries where he alleged that the national leadership of that party.

At a southwest stakeholders meeting of the party on August 16, it was resolved that the former IGP be offered automatic senatorial ticket, while Wada Abubakar be offered the Dutse) Federal Constituency ticket, a decision, that his supporters, who felt he was unfairly treated.

Both the State Chairman of PDP, Dr. Ibrahim Babandi Gumel, and the governorship of the party in the 2027 election, Dr. Mustapha Sule Lamido maintained that the change was taken interest of the party, adding that the party leadership hat considered the experiences and contributions of the former IGP before offering him the senatorial ticket believing that he could easily win the seat for the party.

Besides Abba, other notable politicians contesting the senatorial ticket for the zone include Engr. Sani Garba for the ruling APC and Ahmad Isa of the African Democratic Congress, (ADC). The Dutse/Kiyawa Reps. seat also parades old names in the politics of the area some of who were once political allies, especially in the ruling APC.

For APC is Hon. Is’haq Tasi’u Soja, currently representing Dutse State Constituency in the state assembly; Bala Usman Chamo, immediate past chairman of Dutse LGA and a one time Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, (ALGON) representing the ADC; Amb. Inuwa Dutse a former Special Adviser to the Governor on Investment representing the NDC; Hon. Musa Sule Dutse, a former state lawmaker representing the Allied People’s Movement (APM) and Abubakar representing the PDP.

Apart from Abubakar, the remaining candidates were once allies in APC. In fact, unconfirmed claim has it that, it was Chamo, who as the Dutse LGA boss that “facilitated” the victory of Soja who was said to be on the verge of defeat. But with both on the opposite of the divide, it would be seen how the whole thing would play out between the duo.

Though the lawmaker has yet to publicly react to his replacement, one his media aide, Ismail Muhammad, insisted that the lawmaker remained the authentic candidate of the party for the 207 election since his name had not been changed on INEC portal.

In an interview with Daily Sun in Dutse, Muhammad, who is known in the local parlance as Namalia Mainama said to best of his knowledge, “Hon. Dahiru Madaki has not said he’s stepping down for anybody, neither has he signed any paper to indicate that he would surrender his seat to Hon. Wada Abubakar.”

He believes that such arrangements should be with his clear consent, arguing that unless he’s carried along the problem would remained unresolved. However, the party’s Publicity Secretary Mr. Umar Kyari in an interview claimed that the issue has since been resolved adding that the lawmaker has even congratulated Wada and everybody had moved on.

But Mohammed did not share the view, even though he did not rule out the possibility of it being resolved before the full commencement of the campaigns. “You know, we in PDP have rules and regulations and we adhere to the rules, unlike the APC, I believe that very soon we’ll meet under our leader the political father in the state Alhaji Sule Lamido to resolve all the issues but for now we’re not there yet.”

According to him, “Sule Lamido is for everybody, Dahiru Madaki belongs to Lamido Domain belongs to Lamido, but to my understanding Lamido has not come out to say who we should support yet as a candidate but we’re waiting for instructions from him whatever he says, we the supporters of Madaki will accept the verdict as the will of God. If God says it’s Madaki for which we prefer well accept, but on the whole whoever he finally nominates, well support such a person.”

Disturbed about the unending crisis surrounding the candidacy of Abubakar, another round of stakeholders’ meeting for the zone was convened on Monday, where he addressed the circumstances that gave rise to his accepting the decision to contest the representative seat, instead of the Senate seat.

Addressing the issue, Abubakar, who holds the traditional title of Dokaji Dutse, attributed his aspiration into the National Assembly to Lamido, who, as the leader of the party called him to seek the nomination first into the Senate and later House of Representatives. He noted that even though his previous attempts at seeking elective positions were not successful, he never lost sleep.

According to him, “In 2019, I was not successful, then, in 2023, I was on the verge of filling forms, but had to have a rethink when my younger brother and leader, Mustapha Sule was contesting the governorship of the state and he asked to come and work with him.

In an address which he titled, “Endurance, patience and loyalty, Abubakar said he always remained to the former Foreign Affairs Minister, who he said played politics with his late father. Saying that despite his youthful age, he was not new to politics. His words, “no matter how small somebody is, he/she does not lack history.

“I was a District Head from 2002-2017, so, dealing with the people is our blood. We inherited it. These are the people who played politics with our parents, they know since we were small they always put us along the line of our parents, they always taught us to be trustworthy, loyal and we’ll succeed and I can tell you we’ve not deviated from that principle.”

He said it was as a result of that patience that Lamido asked him to come and contest for the Senate. “When I came to contest, the people accepted me with both hands. But like everything politics, if you’re involved today, if tomorrow they you should step aside, you have because they’re those who know it better than you do, in other words you should have superiors to be guiding you, if you don’t such people on politics you’d go astray.

“Baba called me to inform me that the former IGP had joined the party and that because of his record and background and for the success of the op party, what he wanted from me is to forget about the Senate and instead pick the reps ticket for Dutse/Kiyawa and I accepted the suggestion with both hands

“I thanked him and I went further to tell him that even if he wanted me to completely forego any contest I’d abide by whatever he decides for me and he told me he believes I’d be more useful in the House of Representatives. If you know we i don’t quarrel with anybody I believe we should be loyal, trustworthy and persevere and we shall be successful in life.”

For ADC, it’s a battle of ego between two leaders

What is the reason d’etre of the ongoing silent battle of the ego battle between the leaders of the party, notably, Sen. Sabo Muhammad Nakudu, the party’s governorship candidate for the 2027 election and Hon. Bashir Adamu Jimbo, a four-term Member of House of Representatives between 2999-2015 and acclaimed state leader of the party.

It was Jimbo, alongside other notable leaders like a former deputy governor of the state, Ahmad Muhammad Gumel, Abba Anas Adamu, the late for member of House of Representatives, who was kidnapped and subsequently assassinated by armed bandits along Kaduna-Abuja road early this year as well as Ali Tukur Gantsa, among other leaders that spearheaded the revival of the party when they broke away from their former party the PDP in protest against the outcome of the May, 2025 State Congress of the party.

Prior to the entrance of the party by Nakudu and his supporters it was assumed that the party’s governorship ticket was for Jumbo to pick after unsuccessfully aspired for the same position in the PDP. But Nakudu’s arrival on April 5 this year changed that calculation. Thus, on May 28, the former senator, famed for his deep pocket defeated Jimbo in highly controversial and charged governorship primaries held at Tahir Guest Palace in the state capital.

However, the emergence of Nakudu did not go down well with the camp of Jimbo who protested heavily against the outcome of the exercise to the national headquarters of the party in Abuja. As the cat-and-mouse game continued between the two leaders, then came the issue of running mate to the governor.

Earlier, Nakudu was reported to prefer and indeed named Malam Aminu Ibrahim Ringim, a four-term Chief of Staff (CoS) to the two previous governors for 16 years as his running mate, but the party at the national level up loaded the particulars of Ya’u Balarabe Kaugama a former Head of Service (HoS) in the state as his running mate, in what was described as a strategic alliance between the two camps

Jumbo’s spokesman Rabiu Muhammad Jarhula had conformed in a chat with Daily Sun that his principal had agreed in a negotiation with the other camp in the presence of some national leaders of the party to produce the running mate leading to the emergence of Kaugama.

The development forced Nakudu to disown any alleged power-sharing agreement said to have been reached between him and Jumbo. The former lawmaker in a statement posted on his Facebook page on August 8, described the purported “Strategic Alliance and Power-Sharing Agreement” dated July 3, 2026, as unauthorised, saying he neither negotiated, signed, approved nor consented to the document.

He specifically rejected the alleged 60:40 power-sharing arrangement, including claims concerning the deputy governorship slot, allocation of elective positions and future federal or state appointments, saying, “No person or group was authorised by me to make such commitments on my behalf,”

The governorship candidate also denied signing the document, saying the signature attributed to him was not his and should be subjected to forensic examination.

He further said he was unaware of, and did not authorise, the claim that the agreement was witnessed by former Sokoto State governor, Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal; Kashim Ibrahim-Imam; and the National Chairman of the party and former Senate President, David Mark.

Nakudu urged political actors, institutions and media organisations to refrain from treating or circulating the document as an agreement duly executed or authorised by him.

He warned that he would pursue legal action against anyone found responsible for allegedly fabricating, altering, falsely attributing or circulating the document or his purported signature.

Nakudu, however, maintained that he was not a party to the purported agreement and would not be bound by any of its provisions.

The Senator’s latest position has opened yet another chapter to the crisis as the Jimbo camp has expanded their attack base beyond him Indeed as alleged by one of Jumbo’s angry supporters, Nasiru Laraba, Sen. Nakudu was carrying out the agenda of the immediate past Defence Minister and former governor of the state, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar to undermine the support base of the party’s presidential candidate Abubakar in favour if the APC’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

According to him, Badaru, having fallen out of grace with the Jigawa State government which he installed he decided to use another of his APC decampees to work for the president while allegedly rinsing to support Nakudu during the governorship election. He cited the fact that most of Badaru’s loyalists in the APC governments were the ones that emerged as candidates in both the ADC and PDP for various positions in the state.

Besides, he questioned why is the governorship candidate not campaigning for Atiku in the state just as it is being done in other states, expressing displeasure that those who joined just few months were now trying to see to the destabilization of the party.

We are still united – ADC Chairman

While Nakudu’s camp has maintained silence in the ongoing proxy battle the state chapter of the party believes the problem would soon be resolved and appealed to not to put the interest of the party above all consideration

Responding to the allegations by Jumbo’s camp, the Jigawa ADC state chairperson, Sani Gumel, noted in an interview with reporters that only one person could emerge as the governorship candidate. He stated that since Nakudu had emerged, Jimbo and his supporters should stand behind the candidate to ensure the party’s success in the state.

Gumel appealed to Jumbo and the other aspirants who did not secure the party’s ticket to accept the outcomes for the party’s progress in Jigawa State.

Though he acknowledged Adamu’s contributions to building the ADC in Jigawa, urging him not to be discouraged or demoralised by the result.

“In any contest, there must be a winner, particularly in a democracy, but that does not mean those who did not win have no role to play in the party,” the chairperson said, insisting that the ADC remains united.

“After the contest, the party needs every member more than ever before, while individuals like Honourable Adamu must be respected and accommodated. Adamu is our leader and will continue to be a respected leader in our party. We are appealing to him to be patient and persevere through these democratic challenges to lead by example and provide a legacy worth emulating for the younger generation.”

Despite the chairman’s charge Jarhula still maintains Jumbo s supporters were still waiting for direction as to who they’d support in the February 6 governorship election in 2027. (The Sun)