When the immediate former governor of Zamfara, Abdulaziz Yari, accepted an invitation to a meeting at the national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, he knew that the outcome of the meeting would determine the fate of the ruling party in the banditry-ravaged state.
If he had gone ahead with his plan to defect from the party to the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the situation within the two parties would have been different.
Mr Yari and another faction leader, Kabiru Marafa, a former senator, reached an agreement with Governor Bello Matawalle that may allow the APC to go into the next general elections as a united party.
Ironically, a do or die dispute between Messrs Yari and Marafa was the undoing of the APC in the 2019 elections. Both politicians could not agree on the modalities for party primaries, resulting in Mr Marafa going to court to challenge the list of candidates produced by the then governor,…
