Where is Machina?
Politics, like life generally, is full of ups and downs. It is not only the party that is supreme, the law, and indeed, the court, are also supreme. Yet, it
Politics, like life generally, is full of ups and downs. It is not only the party that is supreme, the law, and indeed, the court, are also supreme.
Yet, it is not only life that matters, but also the courage put into it. When fate fails a politician, or there is a downfall, it may be transcient, if the individual musters the strength to rise again.
Recovery may not be swift. For many, the path to adjustment may be laced with thorns. It is profitable that a politician should strive to rise after a fall. A defeat, plain or inexplicable, is not the end of life.
Since 2023, Bashir Machina, prominent politician from Yobe State, seems to be off the radar after losing the Yobe North senatorial ticket to former Senate President Dr. Ahmad Lawan.
Machina was hopeful when Lawan opted to vie for president. But after losing his deposit at the presidential convention, he remembered that he had simultaneously obtained the senatorial form, like former Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) upheld Lawan’s claim to the senatorial form. He was declared winner of the senatorial ticket. The party is supreme. If that supremacy is contested, it may be described as indiscipline or anti-party activity.
Advertisement
300x250
Machina felt injured. He remembered that the law existed as the regulator of human and political relationships. The eminent politician pursued his case up to the apex court. But it was futile.
The Supreme Court declared Senate Lawan as the authentic candidate of the APC for Yobe North for the February 25, 2023 election.
The court made the declaration in a three-against-two split judgement of its five-member panel. The panel was led by Centus Nweze.
Read Also: Nigeria is ripe for state police– FG
According to the majority judgement, the decisions of the Federal High Court in Yobe and the Court of Appeal in Abuja “were perverse and must be set aside.”
The ticket belongs to the party. Thus, APC challenged the judgements of the lower courts which affirmed Machina as the candidate, urging the Supreme Court to nullify the two previous verdicts and legitimise APC’s National Working Committee’s forwarding of Lawan’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as flagbearer for the poll.
In the majority decision, Justice Nweze said Machina ought to have commenced his suit by a writ of summons going by the allegations of fraud levelled against the APC in transmitting Lawan’s name to the electoral commission.
However, two other members of the Supreme Court panel, Adamu Jauro and Emmanuel Agim, disagreed with the majority judgement.
Advertisement
300x250
In the lead dissenting judgement, Justice Jauro held that the APC “appeal is devoid of merit.” He slammed N3 million fine against the APC in favour of Mr Machina.
Justice Agim, in his dissenting view, said APC’s primary held on June 9, 2022, which produced Lawan, was an “illegal contraption”.
He noted that Lawan’s withdrawal from the Yobe North race on May 12, to vie for the APC presidential ticket, automatically disqualified the former Senate President from the National Assembly election.
Justice Agim also said the purported primary held on June 9, 2022, was a “ruse,” adding that it was not monitored by INEC.
Lawan was the incumbent occupier of the Yobe North Senatorial seat, who sought to clinch APC’s ticket for re-election to the Senate after his failed attempt at the presidential ticket.
Advertisement
300x250
The Court of Appeal in Abuja in November 2022 affirmed Machina as the party’s valid candidate for the senatorial district.
But while Lawan decided not to pursue the case further at the Supreme Court, the APC took on the mantle of appealing against the Court of Appeal’s judgement challenging the nomination of Machina as the party’s candidate for the senatorial district.
The APC insisted that Lawan was the authentic senatorial candidate.
Lawan won totally. Machina lost. Since then, nothing has been heard about him.
How has he been faring? Has he been compensated for the huge loss? Has he participating in party activities? Would be recontest in 2027? What are his plans?
Where is Machina?
