Things are not looking up for the former ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State. It is obvious that since His Excellency, Dauda Lawal Dare, was sworn in as governor, the state APC appears to be exhibiting an overdose of post-election trauma.

The agony of defeat trails Dr. Bello Matawalle’s poor performance, which negatively affected APC. Hardly a day passes by without the party offloading a press release, through which it tells one insensible story or another against the new governor and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

This makes it possible to conclude that APC is indeed living in downright delusion. Perhaps they are acting out of the realisation and seeming disbelief that power is no longer with them and a new Sherriff has taken over the affairs of Zamfara State.

It will appear that Zamfara APC is now only piecing together the full ramifications of their monumental loss at the last elections. Although the party has been living in denial since, somehow the veil has been lifted and they are just realising how woefully they failed the people of Zamfara.

In their warped sense of guilt, the party believes the best way to hide that failure is to constitute themselves into a nuisance brigade against the new administration of Dare. They are trying to be a cog in the wheel of the ongoing economic, social and security emancipation of the state. This is quite unfortunate. Isn’t it funny that the APC whose candidate ruled Zamfara for four years albeit spending just below two in their party, but failed to tame insecurity is now accusing a two-month old government of failing to do what Matawalle couldn’t do in four years? We are talking about Matawalle, who is on record to have sworn to high heavens that he would never leave the PDP, the party on which the Supreme Court declared him governor. But he later dishonourably decamped to APC, believing that APC, as the club of former governors of the state such as Senator Ahmad Sani Yarima, Mahmud Shinkafi and Senator Abdulaziz Yari, among other political big shots in the state, would save him from the verdict of the people. Matawalle forgot that the same God that mysteriously and miraculously made him governor in 2019 gives and takes power at will.

No matter the gang up, since it was predestined by God that Dare’s time is now, nothing can stop the incumbent from possibly rescuing the state, which had suffered greatly from the maladministration of the ex-governors.

It is obvious that Dare defeated not only Matawalle and APC, but also the sanctuary of all past governors of Zamfara State. They were put to shame and disgraced, having collectively and roundly been defeated at the polls by the same PDP it had severally dismissed as not having the wherewithal to win elections.

Recently, in one of their bizarre press releases, the APC claimed that Dare’s asset declaration form is riddled with falsehoods, adding that the governor couldn’t have been worth the assets associated with him.

They implied that Dare may be making bogus claim to stupendous wealth in anticipation of looting Zamfara State dry as the erstwhile governor, Matawalle, whose entire fortune can be traced to politics. Governor Dare, having nothing to hide, may have given assent to his asset declaration form to be made public and no entry in the form was vague or unverifiable. APC can go and verify!

At the rate the APC is going, they may soon start lurking around the governor’s restroom to get whiffs of his business with a view to using it to craft another of their hackneyed press releases. It’s really embarrassing to see that within a space of two months, the APC in Zamfara has become so jobless that the only work they can carve for themselves is that of unwholesome ramblings over issues that continue to mirror the failure of former governor Matawalle.

It’s settled that the opposition has a watchdog role in a democracy, but it must be seen that this role is deployed for the general good of the people and not in furtherance of campaign after elections. This reduces the seriousness of governance into petty kerfuffle that targets the pre-office progress of individual political players. In fairness to the APC in Zamfara, this is the first time they can be said to be really out of the Government House in Gusau as the Matawalle Supreme Court declaration doesn’t count. Therefore, they may really be progressive-opposition rusty, so, we must cut them some slacks.

However, regardless of their rustiness, they need to be reminded that elections have since been won and lost. Matawalle, for all his failures, engaged in an ugly fight and confrontation against the government that was legitimately voted into power by the good and the hitherto beleaguered people of Zamfara State.

Apart from the contrived media war against the present government, he went to the tribunal to waste time and distract the new government from delivering on its campaign promises to the people of Zamfara. The APC and Matawalle must now need to retool and really oil its opposition machinery and set it on the course of supporting the government of the day to succeed where they failed.

From the onset and considering his official engagements and actions, Dare is well equipped and determined to take Zamfara State out of the woods. The state has plunged into ruins owing to the insincerity of its previous leaders. Thus, no amount of campaign of calumny will derail Dare’s drive in resetting and rebooting the state to an enviable status.

The journey is very long and only those without experience will start panting at the take-off point. Zamfara APC should learn from the opposition at the centre, which has been very mature with their disagreement and/or praise of the APC government in Abuja.

Besides, Matawalle and his failed armies should have got an iota of dignity and modesty by seeing reason to keep quiet and watch how things are done, having failed Zamfara people.

Members of an administration that oversaw the abduction of over 300 Jengebe school children and other security fallouts, should have buried themselves in shame rather than turning to needless verbosity to excuse its woes. We aren’t going to be deceived again; we’ll rally round the present and passionate administration for a better and glorious Zamfara State.
*Abubakar, a social commentator, writes from Gusau, Zamfara State