The New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Yendi, Alhaji Mohammed Habibu Tijani, must brace up for the worse in the upcoming parliamentary elections as executives of the governing National Democratic Congress in the constituency say they will snatch back “their seat”.
According to the Yendi constituency chairman of the NDC, Mohammed Ibrahim, the work the party has done in the constituency since the party lost the seat to the NPP in the last election coupled with assurances from the people as was manifested in the District Assembly election indicates that “we are on course to reclaim the seat.”
In an exclusive interview with The aL-hAJJ, an optimistic Chairman Ibrahim said “several factors contributed to our defeat in the last election. We contested that election with a divided front. We couldn’t manage our differences well after our primaries ahead of the 2012 elections so one of the candidates who lost contested as an independent candidate and the votes he polled cost us the seat.”
He said “we have since learnt our lessons and ever since I was voted Chairman, myself and my executives have extended olive branch to all aggrieved members and as we speak all NDC members and non-NDC members are just waiting patiently for November 7 to kick out the NPP MP.”
The NDC chairman stated that even though the NPP MP capitalized on the division in the NDC ahead of the 2012 election to make several promises to hoodwink the constituents into voting for him, he has not been able to fulfill his promises.
“Tijani has lost the ground. He has lost the trust of the people. One of the things that also helped him to win the seat is the chieftaincy problem we have here between the Andanis and the Abudus. Fortunately for us, the youths are now discerning; they are no longer going to fall for lies; now what they are thinking of is how to develop themselves and we as a party have offered them opportunities to enhance their skills. Tijani can no longer go to them. He knows it himself,” the confident NDC chairman noted.
Outlining some of the projects he has personally led in the constituency for which reason he is optimistic of victory for the NDC candidate, Alhaji Hamza Yahaya Alikali, the NDC constituency Chairman noted that “from 2012 when we lost the seat, we did not abandon the people. We know the seat is for us so we have been attending to their needs. One of the major problems in Yendi is roads. There are roads to some communities that are just footpaths but as we speak we have open them up that vehicles can drive to those villages.”
Citing examples of open ups and some road construction works the NDC has embarked on, he mentioned, “ 4km road from Yashagu to Bago; 11km from Adiboo to Tibibayili; 11km from Tibibayili to Kpaligbeni; 6 km from Gbugbaligu to Kpalisogni; 10 km from Nakpachei to Chingugu; 6 km from Nakpachei to Chopondo and several others.”
He said most of the villages that these roads have been constructed are NPP strongholds, “but because of what we have done for them, they have assured us that come November 7; they will reward us with the seat. Because of the road we constructed from Yasahgu to Bago, a sympathizer of the NDC won that electoral area for the first time in the history of Yendi.”
Admitting the District Assembly election is non-partisan; Chairman Mohammed Ibrahim said “we all know in Yendi that the district assembly elections are contested by sympathizers of the NDC and NPP. NPP members until the last district assembly election have been bragging that they have 20 of their members elected to the assembly, but at the last election we won 16 out of the 30 electoral areas. We use to have 10 but in the last election we have increased it to 16 and with the government appointees, we now have majority at the assembly.”
“We have extended water and electricity to several communities, and one of the important things in Yendi is to be attending to social gatherings such as naming and marriage ceremonies. I can tell you that with the support of my executives, we have attended all the naming and marriage ceremonies that we have been invited, including funerals. The people appreciate what we are doing, and with the chieftaincy issue gradually dying down, the Yendi seat will fall to NDC in November 2016,” he added.
He said what has even boosted their confidence that the NDC will reclaim the seat is the division in the NPP in the constituency, saying “NDC suffered a similar thing and we lost to them and now they are facing similar problem. All we need now is support to build pavilions for the various youth groups.”
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