As the 2027 general election gathers momentum with serious permutations, contestants for various positions are beginning to get desperate.
Governor Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir is in the race as the candidate of the Allied People’s Movement (APM) for the competitive seat of the Bauchi South Senatorial District, which pundits believe has always been a herculean task for governors exiting office to claim the exalted senatorial seat.
2027 is not different from the previous elections in the state, especially as the governor is going to contest under an unfamiliar platform, the APM.
Observers say that there are numerous factors that had always worked against his predecessors, who failed to clinch the Bauchi South Senatorial seat.
Records show that one of the political missteps of former Bauchi State Governor Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu, and former National chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was because he picked his Secretary to the State Government, Nadada Umar, to succeed him as governor.
Nadada was seen as incompetent and not the choice of the electorate. So, Mu’azu lost the Senate race, and Nadada lost the governorship to Isa Yuguda, despite the massive development Mu’azu brought to the state.
The second factor that cost Mu’azu the Senate seat was the frequent crises in the state, especially in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area, the largest LGA in the southern zone.
Another former governor who failed to win a Senatorial seat was Isa Yuguda in 2015. Immediately after leaving office, Yuguda backed Mohammed Auwal Jatau to succeed him. But Jatau did not have good relationship with the people, and that contributed to Yuguda’s defeat.
Despite all the infrastructural and human development that Yuguda brought to the state – youth and women empowerment, job creation, road construction, and water supply to all 20 local government areas – and despite making life easier for the people, voters still voted him out. Many believed it was because he imposed Auwal Jatau as the PDP governorship candidate, a candidate the people did not want.
Debates are on in the state around the candidacy of Governor Bala Mohammed on the platform of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) for Bauchi South Senatorial District, with some saying that he may lose the seat to someone from another political party.
This is because he anointed his former Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Yakubu Adamu, to succeed him as governor.
Yakubu was facing a case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and is seen as inexperienced in politics, and lacked the necessary exposure needed to govern a state as large as Bauchi.
The decision to impose Yakubu also led prominent politicians across the state to dump APM for other parties- APC, PRP, ADC, and others.
Speaking with the Bauchi State Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Shehu Dauda dismissed the senatorial ambition of Governor Bala Mohammed, saying that he would not win the Bauchi South Senatorial seat.
The APC spokesman said that what happened to the two former governors would happen again to Governor Bala in the 2027 general election, because ‘he does not deserve to win the seat, having failed to fulfil his promises of paying pension, gratuity and others.’
According to him, ‘We are fully prepared to challenge Governor Bala’s senatorial ambition, and we are confident that the APC will win the Bauchi South Senatorial seat against the candidate of the Allied People’s Movement, Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir.’
He further said that Governor Bala should drop his senatorial ambition because it has become a pattern that no one wins a senatorial seat after serving as state governor.
However, the Chief Whip of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Musa Wakili Nakwada, expressed his appreciation to the State governor for carrying everybody along in his administration.
He said that in Governor Bala’s administration, he has touched all the communities in terms of political appointments.
The state lawmaker, Nakwada further said that the seven (7) local government areas of Alkaleri, Bauchi, Bogoro, Dass, Kirfi, Tafawa-Balewa and Toro that formed the southern part of the state will vote for Governor Bala Mohammed as senator because of the massive infrastructural development across the zone.
He said that for the last seven years of Governor Bala’s administration, Bauchi State has not and never recorded religious crisis, adding that keeping the state peaceful for seven years would also make it easier for the governor to secure victory.
Former Senior Special Assistant on Christian Religious Affairs and current Chairman of Bogoro Local Government, Zakka Luka Magaji, said nothing will stop Governor Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir from winning the 2027 election due to his track record in both human and infrastructural development across the state.
Magaji said that the creation of new emirates and chiefdoms, employment opportunities for over 5,000 people, the construction of two flyovers at Wunti and Central Markets, and more than 5,000 kilometres of roads would help the governor win the Senate seat.
The council boss said that the new salary structure of the emirates, chiefs, district heads, village heads and other traditional leaders, would boost the governor’s electoral chances.