Is vilification the only path to Sir Kashim Ibrahim House?
It’s 2017, and the race for available electoral posts have practically begun. Governor Fayose of Ekiti State already has posters littering cyberspace in the name of vying for The Presidency in 2019. Former Vice President Atiku Abukabar is exploiting, well within his rights, every possible avenue to sell his ideas for a better Nigeria while […]
It’s 2017, and the race for available electoral posts have practically begun. Governor Fayose of Ekiti State already has posters littering cyberspace in the name of vying for The Presidency in 2019. Former Vice President Atiku Abukabar is exploiting, well within his rights, every possible avenue to sell his ideas for a better Nigeria while the newly Supreme Court bailed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is zoning out positions instead of reflecting on its past mistakes and making logical amends.
However, the race for Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, the official home of the Governor of Kaduna State, currently occupied at least till 2019 by Malam Nasir El-Rufai, began since 2015. Leading the pack is Senator Shehu Sani representing Kaduna Central Senatorial Zone. One would assume that someone who rode in on human rights activism and the ‘Buhari wave’ to have concrete plans for vying for the Governorship of Kaduna State instead of his current approach of vilifying and slandering the personality of the current governor. There is little need to examine what benefits he has brought to the zone from the Senate. The electorate would surely express their pleasure, or otherwise in 2019 when he decides to re-run for Senate because his gubernatorial aspirations lack any indication of genuineness.
Apart from aligning with like-minded political urchins in the Senate to stifle the Federal Government, he has shown little concern for the progress of Kaduna State simply because of someone much shorter in height and size, but of course, greater in heart and mind occupies the seat. He was reported to have avoided attending the commissioning of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Kaduna office for the reason of the governor’s presence. The Senator should know that supporting the EFCC in ridding Kaduna and Nigeria of corruption would reduce waste and improve governance and social justice. However, he chose to personalise matters. He should also know that the public already knows where he stands with regards to current Acting Chairman of the EFCC.
More importantly, we expect the Senator to explain to the electorate on his plans for Kaduna State not minding the current occupant. A Senator representing a zone that comprises of about seven local governments should be more concerned about what dividends are brought to his constituency either from the Federal Government or through his contacts by his membership of some Senate committees. However, two years down the line, he has not documented and presented any tangible or intangible benefit his accession to the Senate has brought to the people of Kaduna State. If he can’t afford to build a website for updating his constituency, Facebook is free, and some telecommunication companies offer free data.
Our politicians often think that making the other look bad through deliberate instigation and misrepresenting of facts is a winning formula. That is simply a lack of concrete ideas. Yes, it worked in Ekiti, but should responsible aspirants be adopting rascality and mischief as a means to an end? Maybe I’m wrong because both Senators have ‘won’ elections before using the same strategy of purposelessness. We ought to move from the past for it has not helped the masses or the elite. The masses want solutions to perennial problems. The elite are simply exploiting their poverty, mostly the mind, to attain power and access to resources.
One of the problems with our political leaders is that everyone after leaving office wants to be an ‘adviser’ or has services to offer. Some get too used to being in government and hardly realize that they are retired, or someone else is at the helm. That is why some countries and communities have councils of advisers or elders, devoid of political leaning or prejudice. Sadly for us, once politicians lose out, the first, second and third option is opposition! Empty, pointless opposition with no depth whatsover.
Without any attempt to defend Governor El Rufai, he has laid out his programmes, better than most governors, with measurable specifics. I think he has made the task very simple for his opponents for all they need to do is to assess the promised and programmes and justifiably or maliciously pluck holes and point out infractions. There is a publicly available roadmap for the virtually every sector of Kaduna State. Those documents should be used as measurement tools for performance or otherwise. But sticking to one’s personality, his personal views and how he became this and achieved that is surely unhelpful and injudicious. Opponents don’t quote figures, statistics or present any form of empirical evidence to win arguments but want to rely on the incitement through malicious misrepresentation of facts or even attempt to provide ‘alternative facts’.
What we lack from aspiring political office holders is to proffer solutions that are bedevilling the state. Kaduna State has more than enough brains to solve its problems. What needs to be strengthened is the focus on delivering of dividends of democracy. Aspirants, apart from glamorous political and academic credentials, must have the capacity to deliver not only on promises but exceed expectations. Matters such as payments of salaries and pensions or purchase of fertilizer should not be yardsticks of performance. We have seen governors displaying purchase of cars for commissioners as achievements. For the next elections, I doubt if there would be any ‘Buhari wave’. So those seeking political offices have to proffer solutions that would improve the fortunes of their people. If some think they have and can amass enough to live comfortably after losing in the next elections, remembering Tuco Juan Ramirez: He who steals and remains alive, knows nothing about Magu!
Yakubu wrote in from Abuja ([email protected])