Re-jigging posterity in Jigawa
He is an artful dodger that has so far left his people confused about where he exactly stands on zoning. He enjoys creating a captive audience in his theater of duplicity. But how far can he fool all the people, all the times? It seems his antics are reaching the end of their tether where […]
He is an artful dodger that has so far left his people confused about where he exactly stands on zoning. He enjoys creating a captive audience in his theater of duplicity. But how far can he fool all the people, all the times? It seems his antics are reaching the end of their tether where even a moron may begin to ask critical questions.
The latest art of deception by Governor Lamido was the invitation he extended to Vice President Namadi Sambo to come and commission some “development projects” in Jigawa State. Curiously, and unknown to the Vice President, these were the same projects for which Lamido had previously invited former President Obasanjo and Babangida to come and commission as part of his “achievements”. Recycling the same projects over and over appears to be Lamido’s latest political trick to divert attention from the crisis of credibility facing him as a result of his ambiguous stand on the zoning controversy and the EFFC searchlight on his government. In fact, the people of Jigawa State were paralysed by paroxysms of laughter when they saw Vice President Namadi Sambo commissioning the same projects Obasanjo and Babangida were once invited to commission. In fact, a sense of déjà vu is the most fitting term to describe the political comic drama the people of Jigawa State are witnessing in the name of projects commissioning by the Lamido administration.
It is sad that Vice President Namadi Sambo could fall for this political manipulation. Unknown to him, these projects were initiated by the former Saminu Turaki administration and now Lamido is taking credit for projects he once discredited as wasteful and irrelevant. With the current happenings in Jigawa State, I now believe the opinion of the late President Ronald Reagan of the United States who said “if prostitution is the oldest profession, politics bears a close resemblance as the second”. All the so-called road projects for which the Vice President was invited to commission were executed by the former Saminu Turaki administration. Sadly, the same projects are being recycled at staggering costs to fool the Vice President and dignify deception!
If Vice President Namadi Sambo had carried out a secret independent investigation about these projects, he couldn’t have abandoned important national assignments at his desk in Abuja to come to Jigawa and be used by Lamido to fool the people. Truth is the ligament that holds the integrity of any government together and, once that is gone, a government loses its credibility. The fact that our Vice President could unwittingly lend his hands to this political deception is unfortunate. Integrity is one of the shining virtues of the late Malam Aminu Kano and any political disciple of his who doesn’t follow this example is a fraud.
How can any fair-minded leader hijack projects initiated by his predecessor and then claim credit for them later? The street lights which Lamido commissioned where started by his predecessor from the financial contributions made by the local government councils during the previous administration. The hurried recycling of someone else’s projects and taking credit for them is the height of political deception. Surely, if Vice President Namadi Sambo knew the background to these projects, he couldn’t have accepted the invitation or associated himself with this fraud, called projects commissioning. In his desperation for second term, Lamido can go for any trick in the book to pull the wool over the eyes of gullible Nigerians.
It is very obvious that the Lamido administration invited Namadi Sambo to commission the so-called projects to divert attention from a bigger moral question facing his government. At the moment, the most embarrassing moral issue facing the Lamido administration is the construction and completion of the Bamaina Aluminium Company in Kano, which is allegedly solely owned by Lamido’s son. This was the same son under investigation by the EFCC for allegedly building a house worth more than one billion naira. This boy is a politically exposed person and, before his father became the Governor of Jigawa state, he wasn’t rich. What happened now to make him become super-rich overnight? Was it a Midas touch or exploitation of political connection? Let the Lamido administration confront this moral challenge rather than inviting the Vice President to commission projects started by another administration.
Kazaure wrote from 81, Sir Kashim Ibrahim Road, Anguwar Rimi, Kaduna