Re: My fear for Borno State

My two pieces on Borno in the past two weeks generated quite some responses, all of them supportive of the concern I expressed for Borno. I would have allowed all the respondents to have their say today, but the one by a Maiduguri-based public affairs analyst published below, just about summarises what everyone else had […]

My two pieces on Borno in the past two weeks generated quite some responses, all of them supportive of the concern I expressed for Borno. I would have allowed all the respondents to have their say today, but the one by a Maiduguri-based public affairs analyst published below, just about summarises what everyone else had to say. Idang Alibi.

By Ali Shuaib

I refer to Mr Idang Alibi’s two-part serial in the Daily Trust of August 7 and 14 in which he brilliantly analysed the implication of former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff’s defection from APC to the ruling PDP and his advertised agenda of taking ‘’Borno to the mainstream of Nigerian politics’’. I agree entirely with the usually perceptive Mr. Alibi that Sheriff’s move bears ominous signs for the people and state of Borno and that he should be warned and persuaded to spare Borno further traumas. Sheriff’s political agenda and the motivation he has to accomplish it will surely not bear well for the people of Borno. The only people who will gain from what promises to be a titanic confrontation are political thugs unconscionable people and those who stand to benefit from the money he is likely to throw about in order to achieve his aim.
Why am I joining Mr Alibi in making this sort of dire prognostication for Borno if Ali Modu Sheriff throws his hat into the ring for the crown of 2015? It is because if the two elephants engage each other, it is the ‘’grass’’ of Borno that will surely suffer. However, if Ali Modu Sheriff defies pleas and good counsel and decides to go ahead, there is one counsel I want to humbly give him. And it will be a parable: In ancient times, the emperor of a mighty empire once went to the Oracle of Delphi, who was as famous for his prediction as he was for equivocation, for consultation as to whether he will win a war he intended to levy against a rival emperor of another mighty empire.
The Oracle simply told him that a mighty empire shall fall. The emperor left filled with self-satisfaction, believing that it will be his rival, and not himself, who will fall. When eventually he lost, he repaired to the Oracle to complain aloud why the Oracle did not warn him that it was his empire that was going to fall. The Oracle reminded him that he had predicted that a mighty empire shall fall and his was a mighty empire! The lesson in this is that no man, no matter how powerful he thinks he is, should enter into an uncertain fight certain in his heart that it will be him who will emerge victorious. He may be engaged in a war of blame with his rival. And as is usually true of all wars of blame, the spiritual forces may align with the victim against the victimizer or the agent provocateur, who in this case, is none other than Ali Modu Sheriff.
It is true, as Mr. Alibi pointed out in his first piece, that it was Ali Modu Sheriff who assisted current governor, Kashim Shettima to power. But Shettima has done everything to show his loyalty and gratitude to the former governor and senator. At many public fora, Shettima has paid tribute to Sheriff as his mentor and leader, at one point declaring that whatever negative thing anybody had against Sheriff, he remained his leader, friend and boss. This was the state of the relationship until Sheriff returned from his self-exile in Dubai last year and decided to ‘’reclaim his lost throne’’ forgetting that there was someone sitting on the throne that, in the first place, is not really his.
In order to do so, he has been doing so many uncharitable things to undermine Shettima forgetting that Shettima is the sitting governor and deserves respect. Everyone following the goings-on in the troubled Borno State can testify to the heat Sheriff has generated in Borno since his return, quite unmindful of the volatile situation in that state, a large part of which many attribute to him. We must deploy the situation in this country whereby political godfathers do everything to undermine their godsons. They try to arrogate to themselves the glory that belongs to Allah alone.
As an indigene of Borno and one who is on ground, I score Shettima very high on his efforts at developing Borno. It is unfortunate that circumstances have robbed us of a man who would have been another Fashola and other acknowledged performing governors of this dispensation. It is lamentable that Governor Shettima has not found the atmosphere for peace and tranquillity that is vital to progress to display his enormous ability. And as Mr. Alibi asserted, he deserves to be pitied and sympathized with rather than harassed and blackmailed. I truly feel sorry for him.
Apart from his real efforts at development, Kashim has so far conducted himself well never ever joining in useless politicking. He cried publicly one time that the Nigerian army seemed ill equipped to confront the Boko Haram insurgents. Although the Presidency was greatly offended by this remark of his, later confession by the Minister of State for Defence has vindicated Kashim Shettima, showing him as a man who does not talk frivolously. Shettima is focused, compassionate and committed to governance.
Another reason some of us will support Shettima in the impending war with Sheriff is that he is an unbelievably humble man. Shettima will win hands down because Allah says that he helps the humble and fights against the arrogant. Shettima is so humble and his humility so touching. A friend who is close to both Shettima and Sheriff told me that even as the two have a strained relationship, Shettima still visits the father, mother and wife of Sheriff, and as is the custom of the North, he sits on the floor as a mark of respect and honour for them any time he calls at their homes!
What much more do you expect any one in Shettima’s shoes to do to show respect, love and humility? A man who does this to acknowledge his ‘inferiority’ compared to another deserves a reward of friendship and not a declaration to war against him. If Sheriff loves himself, he should hesitate to fight a man like Shettima who is that humble for that attribute of seeming weakness always fights for the one who possesses it. I again agree with Mr. Alibi that what has made the Nigerian condition particularly lamentable is that we do not seem to have any elders anywhere who seem to enjoy the confidence of any gladiators. Which is why when a war is foretold, as is the case under discussion, such a war often comes to pass almost intact with the devastation foretold. One would like to call on our politicians like Ali Modu Sheriff to learn to behave responsibly. If they continue to heat up the polity unnecessarily, something will give one day to their hurt and to the hurt of the realm.