BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
Lawal Gumau, candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in last Saturday’s by-election for Bauchi south senatorial seat has won with a landslide. Gumau who polled 119, 489 votes defeated his closest rival Ladan Salihu, ace broadcaster and candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP who scored 50,256 votes.
Gumau, a member of the federal House of Representatives obviously rode on the popularity of President Muhammadu Buhari and the acceptance of the APC in the state. Reports indicate that a group of women displayed their ballot papers as they voted on Saturday, shouting “Sai Baba”, a campaign slogan in honour of Buhari.
A notable politician once said that if a donkey runs for an election on the platform associated with Buhari in Bauchi, it will surely win at the polls.
Gumau sure knows his onions. He was quoted to have said on the eve of the election that he had fulfilled all his legislative agenda at the lower house of the National Assembly. But the only thing he needs to do at the Senate is for him do move a motion for the perpetuation of President Buhari in office. The lawmaker who recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo did not realise his ambition for a third term, boasted that Buhari would not only get a third term through his bill, he will also be in office till his death. Hear him: “By God’s grace, we will amend Nigeria’s Constitution to allow Buhari to be President for the remaining years of his life. He will only cease to be President when God takes his life.”
That perhaps must be what his mandate is meant to achieve. Or what he has set for himself to do with the mandate. H said, ” I, Lawal-Yahaya Gumau, want you to know that the mandate that will be given to me on Saturday is to go and protect Buhari’s interest in the Senate. This is the only mandate that I will be going to the Senate with, having fulfilled every other mandate to the best of my ability while in the House of Representatives for eight years.” The popularity of Buhari in the state must have encouraged him to make that kind of pledge, and the electorate would surely be looking forward to that promise being fulfilled. But it is going to be a Herculean task.