2019: MY VOTE IS…
MY VOTE IS…FOR: Work on the Modern Lagos-Kano Rail Line to Begin from the Kano End as well: Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi is running from pillar to post to see that the Lagos-Abeokuta section of the Lagos-Ibadan modern rail line is completed and test run before the February 16 Presidential Election. Which is good. […]
MY VOTE IS…FOR: Work on the Modern Lagos-Kano Rail Line to Begin from the Kano End as well: Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi is running from pillar to post to see that the Lagos-Abeokuta section of the Lagos-Ibadan modern rail line is completed and test run before the February 16 Presidential Election. Which is good. Very good in fact. Congratulations to Merger’s Tinubu-Land. But my own running from pillar to post is to see the commencement of work from the Other End – Kano to Kaduna, the other geography of the Merger, Buhari-Land. This Column has been strongly advocating that the Kano-Lagos rail modernisation project should, and must, begin from both ends – Kano and Lagos. Because of the jobs. Because of the economies. Because of the votes. And especially the votes. Alas! The APC Merger Federal Government seems to be only keen on one end; the Lagos-Ibadan. But this writer is one who believes in ‘Never-Say-Die’; So it’s not too late for the Kano-Kaduna end to begin BEFORE the election. Have you all noticed that the Government is no longer saying ANYTHING on this Kano-Kaduna end? What they are now mouthing is the vague Kano-Kazaure-Daura-Katsina-Jibia-Maradi Line. Which is also good. But could someone please tell Mr. President that for any goods and passengers to reach Daura by rail, there has to first be a Kaduna-Kano line. Where are our Governors, Emirs, Ministers, Senators, House of Reps Members, etc. from Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and Katsina? Have they been intimidated into silence by Amaechi and Co.? Can’t they lobby? Can’t they speak out? Can’t they do anything? Or am I the only ‘Shawaraki’ around? This Column will not keep quiet – the jobs and the economies created by the Lagos-Ibadan Axis (remember I once ‘defected’ there?) on this Rail Modernisation Project MUST also be created here on the Kano-Kaduna Axis. What is good for the goose…actually we are the goose and gander altogether when it comes to votes. My Vote, therefore, is “For the Modern Lagos-Kano Rail Line to Begin also from the Kano End.” Let me hear word! My PVC is ready!
Dr Shehi Ali Abubakar MBBS FWACS, Consultant/Senior Lecturer, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital/Bayero University Kano ([email protected]): “My vote is FOR anyone who will build the Second Niger Bridge, fight corruption to a halt and use agriculture to bring Nigerians out of poverty. My vote is FOR anyone who has enough integrity to bring respect to the office of the President. My vote is FOR anyone who can effectively secure this country. My vote is FOR anyone who can bring back the many comatose industries across Northern Nigeria. My vote is FOR anyone who can unite Nigerians. My vote is FOR Nigeria.”
John Simon, Platinum FM, Keffi, Nasarawa State ([email protected])“My vote is FOR anyone who will teach every single Nigerian that, like America, we can have a patriotic Nigerian identity and be respected anywhere in the world. And my vote is AGAINST anyone who comes in with a messianic order to lay claim on restoring the dignity of Nigeria.”
Ado Sunusi Sabongida, Faculty of Education, Bayero University, Kano ([email protected]): “As a voting citizen, I am going to look at some of the following qualities to determine who I will elect: What have you done to the community or people positively?; What is your quality in terms of handling the affairs of the people?; Do you have any positive moral value that could help you to lead the people successfully?; What is your plan for the community when you become a leader?; If you have an action plan let us see it; Do you involve the youths in your activities? These are some of the issues that can help me decide who to vote for.”
MY VOTE IS…AGAINST: RASPUTIN. There is a lot of angst against a certain Cabal within our corridors of power. But, truly, every such corridor had a Cabal, a Kitchen-Cabinet, etc., the members of which were more or less the movers and shakers of government. Positively and otherwise. But sometimes the stuff of legend becomes so concrete that a nation can’t help but notice, sometimes in awe, sometimes in consternation. Wife of the President, no less, has been incessantly complaining (Google that) that her husband, our President, is under the control of a certain two men. That there indeed is a Cabal. And the President has bravely responded (VOA Hausa) that “Has the so-called Cabal ever made me do anything that I didn’t want to do?” Well, very pointedly, Our Dear Leader did not say there is no Cabal. Which is scarier. It happens. I am sure readers have heard of Rasputin, the Russian monk who was the one-man Cabal that held in thrall the family of Tsar Nicholas II, Russia’s last monarch. Rasputin (full name Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin) was so powerful in the corridors of the Kremlin that historians, according to some sources, often suggest that his terrible reputation helped discredit the Russian Tsarist government and thus helped precipitate the Communist Bolshevik revolution which overthrew the Romanov Dynasty in 1917, the event which happened a few weeks after he (Rasputin) was assassinated. But couldn’t there be a benevolent version of Rasputin? Isn’t that the type we have here there somewhere? Now, Rasputin was the title of one of the songs sung by musical group Boney M in their album “Nightflight to Venus” released in 1978. Rasputin, they said he was an intriguing and mystical character. The third stanza of the song ran:
“He ruled the Russian land and never mind the Tsar
But the cassock he danced really wunderbar
In all affairs of state he was the man to please
But he was real great when he had a girl to squeeze
For the queen he was no wheeler dealer
Though she’d heard the things he’d done
She believed he was a holy healer
Who would heal her son…”
Dr. Muktar A. Gadanya, MFR, Associate Professor/Consultant Public Health Physician, Bayero University/Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano ([email protected]): “The confusing bit about yours was that many can understand opposition to a “real cabal”, but for an imagined one, it is way beyond a regular or plain comprehension. Perhaps as the Fulani I am, I should say it straight: I will vote for PMB; and it sounds ominous and a bit of deja vu hearing PDP saying once again (as they did in 2015) that they have no confidence in INEC.
FROM THE COLUMNIST: From this week and in sha Allah until the February Elections, this Column has commenced the series “MY VOTE IS…” where readers may email 100 words apiece and state FOR and AGAINST what issues will determine how they will vote. No issue is too big or too small. For example, this week the Columnist’s “FOR” is on the Kaduna-Kano end of the Lagos-Kano Modern Rail Line” and his “AGAINST” is Rasputin.
The discussion can continue on this Column’s mirror blog at https://saturdaycolumn.blogspot.com and also at <https://linkedin.com/in/bala-muhammad-0784384>.