Nasarawa: The odds against members

Last week the latter impeached Governor Murtala Nyako amidst cheers from the people. They drew up 21 charges against the former naval chief out of which none can convict the officer faster than public opprobrium. Nyako fell like a pack of cards.But the Nasarawa legislators are faced with a different and tougher cookie. Alhaji Tanko […]

Last week the latter impeached Governor Murtala Nyako amidst cheers from the people. They drew up 21 charges against the former naval chief out of which none can convict the officer faster than public opprobrium. Nyako fell like a pack of cards.
But the Nasarawa legislators are faced with a different and tougher cookie. Alhaji Tanko Umar Al Makura (alias Ta’al) is sitting pretty in his Shendam Road office today because he served his people. The public protests that followed the impeachment move by the legislators, which also troubled the navel of traditional institutions in Nasarawa State, was not a mere storm in a tea cup. It was the people talking. It forced the assemblymen, out of fear of the mob, to resort to nocturnal meetings before achieving a quorum for their impeachment proceedings. Most of the members, following conventional wisdom, would rather stay away from Lafiya, the state’s capital.
Their situation had raised the debate as to who the assemblymen represent, between the people of Nasarawa State and some shady, yet mercurial, force from elsewhere. If it is true that the voice of the people is the voice of God why are they still going ahead to work against the voice of God? This article does not contemplate to exculpate or dabble into the charges against Ta’al in anyway. But the propriety of the assembly’s action, going by the reaction of the people of the state casts a pall on their move. They stand on slippery sand.
The only thing going for the assemblymen, so far, is that they are PDP. However, that their numerical strength as members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Nasarawa State does not allow them the comfort of public support says a lot about their performance themselves. PDP controls the Nasarawa House of Assembly. Of the 24 members in it, only four are of the All Progressives Congress, yet they needed the cover of night to sit in order to commence impeachment proceedings against the governor. All of these puncture their argument that their motives are altruistic. And most of the obstacles which put the assembly at odds with the public cannot be said to have been initiated by Al Makura.
Nigerians are wondering why Al Makura did not swiftly pocket all the members of the assembly or at least the majority that he needs to keep his head above troubled waters as other governors do, but Ta’al is a fair-minded workaholic, who would rather do without interference. He had thought that service delivery would check the imbalances in the House but some people argue that these assumptions present the embattled governor as naive.
This group argues, and rightly so, that the murky waters of Nigerian politics spares no hostages. Each politician comes with a finger on the trigger, ready to shoot the other down at the slightest given opportunity. They also argue that since Al Makura had been taunted several times with the impeachment threat he should have prepared himself for the worse.
It is neither impossible nor difficult to situate the action of the assembly as induced from outside the state. There are top politicians from Nasarawa State who are thirsting to occupy the office, who include serving ministers, serving senators, former governors and retired civil servants. There are also the dark forces of 2015 thirsting to aggregate their political fortunes with the parboiled sentiments steaming Nasarawa State. The service records of most of these people, however, are far from enviable. Some of them are known to have records that are less than impressive while others have shown traits that are incapable of alleviating any people’s suffering. To all these, Umar Tanko Al Makura is a hard nut to crack and that is why they have resorted to backroom tactics to get him out of office before the next election.
But unlike Murtala Nyako who ran out of Adamawa State with his tail between his legs, Al Makura is coming to equity with a clean mind and challenging the legislators to do the same. As at last night, sources in Lafiya hinted that the governor’s team of highly erudite judicial officers and legal team are compiling answers to the query on the alleged infractions labeled against the governor. This, according to sources, has discouraged the legislators who are uncomfortable with the proposition because some of them are known to have been deeply involved in the running of the government having been consulted in a purely democratic fashion before many of the state’s decisions were taken. So it is the case of the bloody dog fighting the bloody monkey ala Buhari.
It is important for the legislators to know that to spoil for a fight that one is sure to lose is a waste of precious time. Al Makura rode to power on a healthy horse. He was derided by the state’s politicians, cautioned by the traditional institutions but very popular with his people. To pull him down on parochial grounds will bring a lot of people, especially those who will later present themselves to the people requesting for votes in future, in very bad light. This is because Nasarawa voters are among the most discerning in Nigeria. They knew before 2011 that Al-Makura would deliver and they stuck by him despite the clandestine and sometimes open resistance to his candidacy by the state’s selfish upper class.
The people stood by Al-Makura to the last minute. It is doubtful if after all he has done for the state, the enlightened people of Nasarawa who are still yearning for more to be done will want to change their horse mid-sea.

Bello-Barkindo can be reached at: [email protected]