An assault on innocence of sorts

Laden with personal vitriol and ignorance, which feeds on prejudice, the article was brazenly discourteous and misleading. In fact, it is also insulting to the intelligence of those who are well familiar with Dr. Tafida’s personal integrity, competence, humility, affability and humane treatment of whoever works under him. His diplomatic skills are rare and enviable.Contrary […]

Laden with personal vitriol and ignorance, which feeds on prejudice, the article was brazenly discourteous and misleading. In fact, it is also insulting to the intelligence of those who are well familiar with Dr. Tafida’s personal integrity, competence, humility, affability and humane treatment of whoever works under him. His diplomatic skills are rare and enviable.
Contrary to the ignorant and biased attack on Dr. Tafida, President Jonathan could not have made a better choice by making the High Commissioner the Director General of his 2011 presidential campaign. The former physician to former President Shehu Shagari is one of the finest gentlemen you can ever encounter. In particular, one must praise the mature manner Dr. Tafida handles northern opponents of President Goodluck Jonathan such as Mallam Adamu Ciroma and Alhaji Lawal Kaita whose provocative public statements he tackled firmly but politely. If he were an abrasive politician, he would have engaged the two northern elders in a hot exchange of brickbats. However, out of respect for their status in society, he chose to appeal to their reasoning and why they should avoid incendiary comments that can make Nigerians afraid of the future.
Honestly, this is one of the brightest sides to Dr. Tafida’s character. Apart from his humility, personal integrity and sagacity, the Director General of the Goodluck presidential campaign handles his job with the highest sense of responsibility. He doesn’t engage in personal abuse against the northern opponents of the President; instead, he always tries to make people see reason and that we should not pray for the country to go down just because we cannot achieve our personal ambitions for power.
I was personally converted by Dr. Tafida’s style of leadership of the Goodluck presidential campaign. He does his job with such diplomatic and political finesse that he can disarm you even if you were once an opponent of President Goodluck Jonathan. Therefore, there is absolutely no reason any sensible writer should suggest the removal of a man who has been handling a top responsibility with great wisdom. If Tafida were an uncultured politician, you can imagine how many enemies he could have created for President Goodluck Jonathan. I have never met Ambassador Tafida in my entire life but I know enough about his activities in public life.
When the innocent are attacked maliciously, we have a duty to share our thoughts about the reality of the man’s life. In the opinion of Usman Garba Zaria, Tafida should be removed at once as the Director General of the Goodluck presidential campaign. This call clearly exposes the ulterior political motives of the writer. He and his sponsors are clearly determined to cause crisis and division in the campaign organization order to weaken it. In this regard, therefore, President Goodluck Jonathan should ignore the advice of political meddlers whose motive is to undermine his ambition.
Wisely, the Goodluck campaign made it publicly clear that only God can determine who becomes a President in 2011. Indeed, this is one of the most sensible responses of the campaign organization, ably led Dr. Tafida, made to those threatening to torpedo the ambition of President Jonathan, as if they are masters of their own fates! The writer’s primary motives were intended to spread the seeds of discord among members of the Jonathan campaign organization. He should be ignored because he was driven by dark motives.
Ambassador Sarki Tafida is a man with cosmopolitan outlook; he has grown beyond the provincialism and insular mentality of northerners like Usman Garba Zaria who had wanted the High Commissioner to have rejected his appointment as the team leader of Goodluck presidential campaign organization. Nigeria has grown beyond the parochialism of writers like Garba Zaria who are not happy that Dr. Tafida is leading the Goodluck campaign.  In his biased article, Garba Zaria also alleged that Dr. Sarki Tafida is unpopular and socially isolated. Such claim was absolute rubbish. Senator Tafida’s philosophy of giving is to help people secure jobs and advance their careers for sustainable incomes rather than perpetual dependence on palliatives that pushes the beneficiaries back to the same circle of dependency. His social charity is unostentatious and whatever he does in this regard, he is doing so for the sake of humanity. He doesn’t have to gather television cameras to share rice, money and sugar to the people. If Tafida is helping thousand privately, does he need publicity about it? Therefore, just because Sarki Tafida didn’t hire a town crier to tell the world how many ordinary people he had assisted in life, it doesn’t mean he is not doing so. God for whose sake he is helping humanity is taking notice; he does not need the praises of malicious writers like Usman Garba Zaria to touch the lives of his people. One would have ignored Garba Zaria but to do so, could have left many innocent readers misled by brazen falsehood borne out of malicious motives.
Kasim wrote in from 13, Bulama Close, Anguwar Rimi, Kaduna