By Elder Karofi
Politics like every other game is a game of interest. People could be so desperate for public attention that they sometimes digress and go off on an inconsequential and puerile tangent, damaging their residue of their reputation because they allow their personal political interests to outweigh public or even national interests.
Zainab Babantakko was a total political neophyte before Governor Bala Muhammad brought her to the limelight. Right from being a senior adviser, Bauchi Local Government Chairwoman and eventually a commissioner of Women Affairs, Zainab Babantakko, despite favourably being seen as once one of the the new breeds of women who can one or another help open a new chapter for uplifting women, Zainab Babantakko’s ambition was abruptly brought to an ignominious end when she was fired by Governor Bala Muhammad, and publicly, after her dismissal that he could not countenance any type of insult to Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a deeply revered former prime minister who hailed from Bauchi. His remarks were swiftly interpreted as an indirect response to the speculation surrounding her sack. Her reported disparaging remarks against Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa angered people which eventually brought her the job, and the ambition and the political niches she desperately wanted to curve for herself.
Embittered, politically ostracized. She defected to PRP and she forged a close political alliance with Senator Shehu Buba, allowing her to run for the Bauchi State House of Assembly election under the PRP. She wanted to give a different picture, but people were in shock when she abruptly chickened out by withdrawing from the race only to defeat the APC.
Her political itineraries were all symbolic, and the fact that we are living in the digital age, Zainab Babantakko should have known that the Bauchi people judge whatever you said and they can no longer be fooled with baseless ventriloquism.
Recently, Zainab Babantakko was reportedly said to have taken a sharp rebuke on Governor Bala Muhammad, criticising his administration for not giving her a chance to impact others. I do not need bandy words to outdo her foolhardiness, one thing every right thinking citizen of Bauchi knows is it’s Bala Muhammad Kaura who made Zainab Babantakko who she is today. She was a nobody and politically not even relevant in the grand scheme of things. Zainab Babantakko was barely known in the city until Bala Muhammad politically mentored her, but what I know for sure, Bala Muhammad did not teach her insulting leaders.
Bala Muhammad does not have anything to do with her. That’s why he sacked her. Her criticism of him must have been borne out of resentment that continues to haunt her since Bala Muhammad kicked her out of his cabinet.
By joining the APC, I am sure Bauchi people know her every move. The interest of the people will prevail, and Bauchi people will never be subjected to the imposition of a deeply unpopular candidate.
She may have found a different niche by being critical of the same government that she was proudly part of-only after she was fired.
People watch everything and the Bauchi people will only respond at the polling units. Her political dalliance with the Bauchi APC would sooner or later fall apart because a leopard does, as they say, does not change its spot.
Elder Karofi is a political analyst based in Bauchi