When his people called on him to be their voices and represents them in the National Assembly little did he knew he was going to face the horrendous voyage of his professional life. He faced the most excruciating political experience perhaps in the history of modern Nigeria. He was greeted with crude injustice, intimidation and elites conspiracy – this time from the party he laboured to build to its present status.
The rains of this crude onslaught started for Mohammed Sani Musa in August 2018 when he overwhelmingly won the All Progressives Congress ‘s senatorial primaries for the Niger East Senatorial District. In what was adjudged widely credible, free and participatory, Sani Musa defeated Senator David Umaru with a frightening margin of votes. While David merely garnered a paltry 5,870 votes, Sani Musa scored convincing votes of about 39, 192 counts. It was unprecedented and the people who came out to vote went frenzy celebrating far and wide of the district. It was a victory never seen before. Then the unimaginable happened, the forces of evil reared its ugly pangs, overnight, Sani’s victory was upturned by a highly compromised leadership of the APC and two known highly positioned appointees of government. The winner became the loser as the loser junkets around with inflated arrogance and stolen mandate. The world was stunned with such an absurdity as the train of injustice throttle around with offensive impunity.
Defined by civility and decorum, Mohammed Sani Musa exhausted all entreaties with his party, but acting the script of deceit and compromise, the party hierarchy refused to hear him out neither were they ready to return his ticket. And the die was cast as he resorted to the mechanism of adjudication, the court became Sani’s resort and so begun the most excruciating legal voyage in the life of this business mogul turned politician.
The Federal High Court in Abuja was the first point of refuge, with the services and experiences of a seasoned and cerebral lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun SAN, Sani Musa got his first victory when her lordship Justice F.O Giwa Ogunbanjo came very hard on the sheer treachery and crass impunity of the APC in supplanting a winner for a loser. In giving her judgment, Justice Giwa berated in vitriolic terms party’s ugly distortion of what was a fair and credible process.
“The All Progressives Congress APC leadership acted in bad faith with total disregards for the electoral act, the constitution and party guidelines. Any act that negates party guidelines, the electoral act and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is an illegality and party impunity taken too far that cannot be tolerated. ” She thundered.
With this judgment, Mohammed Sani Musa deployed all arsenals as he mounted the campaign podiums crisscrossing the length and breadth of his senatorial district. The people witnessed real political engagements as he toured every available ward in Zone B senatorial district of Niger state. So coordinated was his campaigns that the people joined in echoing his message of real representations in the National Assembly. He made the job of the President very easy in Niger State as he coordinated the activities of Buhari Support Groups donating 100 campaign vehicles and a giant 3 floor edifice as Presidential Campaign Office at a swoop. The reward of hard work results to success as Mohammed Sani Musa didn’t only deliver himself in the senatorial elections by defeating the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party but garnered majority votes for President Muhammadu Buhari in the presidential elections.
Respite came; reason prevailed as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) issued him his certificate of return. All was set for Mohammed Sani Musa to begin a robust representation in the red chamber of the National Assembly then came what would last as the most excruciating legal tussle that didn’t only chop off time, energy but drained available resources that would have solved many interventions. Holding on to mischief and deliberate wickedness, Senator David Umaru approached the Appeal Court with fictitious and anomalous claims citing what never transpired as the basis for his argument. Hinging on baseless technicalities, the Appeal Court gave him victory thus upturning the stainless victory of Sani Musa.
A defined and dogged fighter that he is, Sani Musa slide again into another deprecating legal fight as he approached the Supreme Court in pursuit of his stolen mandate. To say, the time in courts was tiring was to deny the pains of the bullets. It was a grueling experience for Sani Musa as he painstakingly fought for his mandate. And the Supreme Court acted as the arbiter that it’s by carefully scrutinizing the facts, fictions, mischief and deliberate attempt to hoodwink commonsense by the litigant.
Delivering his Judgment, His Lordship Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, said Alhaji Musa Sani won the primary Election dully conducted by APC at the state level and was the rightful candidate for election, which was conducted. It was indeed a resounding victory for the good people of Niger East Senatorial District and a victory for rule of law. Once again the Judiciary of Nigeria re-affirmed their resolve to fair hearing and judgment. It restored hope for the ordinary and voiceless and ensured that the will of the people is upheld.
For Senator Muhammed Sani Musa (313) this is indeed a long torturous journey to the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As the odds kowtowed on his heels, as the constricted onslaught of conspiracy crumbled against him and the reign of truth prevails over evil manipulations, this is Musa’s time to right the ruins of legislative governance that has eluded the good people of Niger East Senatorial District.
Haruna (Haruspice) writes from Niger
