Another disaster from Jigawa

Since the infamous presidential primaries of his political party which was massively and procedurally rigged in favor of the sitting president, Goodluck Jonathan, Sule Lamido has had cause to insult the sensibilities of not just the people he represents in Dutse Government House but all of us from this part of Nigeria who believe that […]

Since the infamous presidential primaries of his political party which was massively and procedurally rigged in favor of the sitting president, Goodluck Jonathan, Sule Lamido has had cause to insult the sensibilities of not just the people he represents in Dutse Government House but all of us from this part of Nigeria who believe that representation at every level means flying the flag of the aspirations and desires of the represented.

What several people including the PDP members from Jigawa, just as was the case with those from Katsina and other places, are saying is that some of these governors were insensitive to the yearnings of their people by the massive rigging of the votes of their delegates in favor of incumbency.

People are more so infuriated when the results of the primaries were made public and the pattern of voting from the south especially the south-south clearly manifested the high intolerance that a great deal of southerners have for the North and its people. I wasn’t worried that Atiku Abubakar could not score much votes in his native Adamwa State because we that are concerned have since been grappling with what is today referred to as the “Adamawa Phenomena”, a sad reality that any successful person is not supported by other successful people in the state.

What made the PDP primaries voting pattern ugly was the refusal by many states to even cast a vote for the Northerner in the race. It wasn’t a show of political solidarity but that of political foolishness and inherent weakness to tolerate or accommodate the person from the other part. At least that is what the vote from Akwa Ibom, Edo, Bayelsa and Cross River States meant.

There can be no better explanation than to define such as hatred that some of these people have for some of us. It was clear even during the PDP’s primaries that Atiku was more prepared and experienced to face the problems of this country than Goodkuck Jonathan. When the candidates spoke to the delegates at Eagle Square, all that listened knew that more fundamental issues and how to address them were raised by Atiku while Goodluck merely spoke on his good luck.

If Bayelsa’s delegates could not give an opponent of their son a vote, Katsina, the home of former president Yar’adua whom we all knew how he was treated on his sick bed by the current president and his cohorts unfortunately gave President Jonathan the highest number of votes in the election. What a shame!

That was not the issue. Soon after election and release of results, some parts of the PDP north especially in Jigawa and Katsina took to the streets to express their displeasure and anger over the dictatorship of their governors. Those who are intelligent among the governors kept quite as a sign of respect for the democratic rights of the people, to express dissent over certain behaviors of their political leaders.

On the contrary, the man from Jigawa began to return fire for fire. He called those who prayed against him and said he was wrong in the pattern that he directed Jigawa delegates to vote at the convention names. He replied every insult and even went ahead and ordered the sacking of a particular Imam in his locality who denounced the actions of the governor at the convention. Worst still, my friend who was an agent to one of the aspirants narrated to me how brutal and near violent Sule Lamido got against the agent of their opponent at the point of voting.

Mahmud Jega raised some issues in his Monday Column on the character of this otherwise successful politician whose antecedence didn’t any meaningfully prepare him for the responsibilities that he handled even before this. My views about the whole development and even before then are that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Position must always come with responsibility. To occupy high offices means a lot of things. When Ibrahim Shema refused to join issues with those who criticized his posturing on the Jonathan affair, it simply shows political maturity and decorum. Even if he wasn’t convinced of the public apprehension of his action which gave birth to those of his delegates, he kept his mouth shut and that is who you can call a governor.

Sule Lamido opened fire and it seems he is ready to keep on fighting all those who saw his political leprosy. Those who occupy positions of responsibility must themselves be responsible. Some of them easily miss the very line between radicalism and rascality, between position and responsibility and between their private views and those that are public.

Age is another issue; if the Jigawa State governor was known for insulting and abusing his political godfather, the legendary Mallam Aminu Kano some 31  or 32 years ago as a young man, he ought to have realized that at over sixty years of age, by every sense of imagination, he ought to be an elder and be choosy of the words to say at every point in time. Failure to do that puts such a person at the risk of severe disrespect from the younger ones, which in all African cultures and traditions is an undesirable scenario.

So what if Sule is a Jonathan boy! He was an Obasanjo boy. Everyone knows and remembers with apprehension how poor Obasanjo was as a leader. So what if Jigawa State voted for Jonathan during the PDP primaries? One thing that remains clear is that with all his grandstanding and claims to radicalism, the Jigawa State governor was cowed by the might of federal authorities. He is afraid of EFCC.

I recall a few months ago, soon after the Northern governors voted for zoning against Jonathan, a detachment of EFCC operatives was sent to some states among which was Jigawa. We commented against that and urged the President and the coercive apparatuses of state to stay away from politics in the name of democracy. The end result is what we saw on the 13th January at Eagle Square.

The lesson in this piece is not to castigate anybody but to caution those who claim to be our representatives to abide by the code of democratic representation. To understand the essence of power and responsibility and the concomitant effect on individuals and the society. Does the Jigawa governor think that erratic behaviors in responsible positions would always be a passport to successes and achievements?

The Late Abubakar Rimi was penciled for appointment as foreign minister, but the fact that Obasanjo wanted to occupy that portfolio himself, he needed a weaker personality with low profile, so Sule was appointed and in the four years that he held sway, he never signed any circular in the ministry and would always insist that cash-strapped embassies and commissions pay all his bills even when salaries were either hardly or never paid.

Those who claim to represent us must respect us otherwise they lose our respect. At over 60 years of age, one must know what time it is. I do not think it is wise and current for a highly placed public officer to make a priority vocation the art of insulting, castigating or even terrorizing others who feel and or behave differently. This man from Jigawa is so far a tragedy and I believe it is our collective responsibility to call him to order. May our leaders and elders be truly and correctly guided so that governance may mean something to our people.