Re: “The Mamman Daura I know”: Simon Sango’s timely and courageous journalistic rebuttal!
Even before Simon Sango’s belated, but courageously apt, bold and illuminating rejoinder, as published in the Daily Trust, with the above heading, I was already getting professionally agitated, miffed, worried and disturbingly uncomfortable with the way and manner the Nigerian media have degenerated, having lost touch with the most basic ethical equation of fair doctrine. […]
Mamman Daura
Even before Simon Sango’s belated, but courageously apt, bold and illuminating rejoinder, as published in the Daily Trust, with the above heading, I was already getting professionally agitated, miffed, worried and disturbingly uncomfortable with the way and manner the Nigerian media have degenerated, having lost touch with the most basic ethical equation of fair doctrine.
It is a pity that it took a long time before somebody was able to come out to correct all the personalised, vendetta-saturated diets of mischievously indecorous gossips who have become, Nigeria’s staple.
Alas, the Nigerian press has fatally succumbed to the lowest level of moral coefficients and has lost its heritage of objectivity, especially since former President Obasanjo invaded the Nigerian media.
Now, let’s get to our main topic of focus, “The Mamman Daura Trial by the Media” which has become like a very long and fraudulently romantic, but torturous martial arts display, dating back to the period of President Muhammadu Buhari’s pioneering leadership as the military president and Commander In-chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces back in1983. During that time, many fifth columnists, who felt morally demoralised, aggrieved and dwarfed, started to make the integrity-driven General their enemy and people like Mamman Daura, who were perceived to be his closest think tank associates, were not spared. They were despised and targeted, having been singled out and marked to be contemptuously marketed as the frontline enemies for propaganda attacks and serial persecution.
If Nigerians have any virtue to protect by telling the truth, President Muhammadu Buhari has been the most brutalised victim of the Nigerian press for his impeccable principles of integrity, which seem to torment the conscience of those who have, unfortunately, compromised their professional honour and subverted its legacy with money.
Invariably, I have had cause to highlight the disastrous menace of “media mugging” and discussed its negative implications and impact, especially against the background of trendy umbrage, which the Nigerian major political players have, for long, frustratingly imposed as impediments that negatively sabotage our ability to solve some of our critical national issues.
Also, I have in the recent past vehemently voiced out my disapproval of how our journalism has been downgraded and arbitrarily entrapped its focus.
I am aware of some of the heroic and radicalized advocacy efforts people like the late Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Manman Daura, Alhaji Turi Muhammad and a host of other notable patriotic northerners. Also, Alhaji Abdu Abubakar, the late Walin Keffi aka Keffi One, who competently helped General Hassan Usman Katsina to design a purposefully harmonised template and visionary target, for the attainment of the collective aspiration of the north. It helped towards activating the distressed, sleeping and giant north to wake up and close the wide educational gap between it and its southern Nigerian rivals, a struggle which was full of sectional and religious anti-climax, during and after the 1966 military coup. Its aftermath still lingers in our memory today.
I am very happy that Mr. Simon Sango, a full-blooded and proud Tiv son and a good Christian, had courageously sketched out some positive profiles about his relationships and exciting experiences under Mamman Daura’s guidance. This is in harmony with the pleasant narrative which the Sardaunan Gombe, Alhaji Jamilu Gwamna, the initiator and the founding father of ‘The Gamji Clubs’ in the north and nationwide, excitedly thrilled and intimated me with some few months ago. He religiously confirmed and testified to some of the empowerment crusades Mallam Mamman Daura and his contemporary associates had conceived for the benefit of the younger generation of northern Nigerians, for which he had confessed to me he was a beneficiary and a living testimony of that empowerment scheme.
After all, is said and done, I feel vindicated by Simon Sango’s honest revelations and forthright intervention, which has buttressed my strong and well-entrenched opinion, about the sincerity of many of our Tivs, Idomas, Igalas, and numerous other ethnic minorities in the north, who always stand by the truth. This is an unwritten gospel of the entire people in this heterogeneous geographical entity called northern Nigeria, regardless of, and irrespective of tribal diversities and religious differences or biased sentiments that some other self-conceited detractors capitalise on.
I have no doubt whatsoever that some of the subjective animosities, harboured vendetta and blackmail campaigns of columns against Mallam Mamman Daura may not be unrelated, or unconnected with past intrigues.
For me, the superlative achievements of the New Nigerian Newspaper at the dawn of Independence and self-rule struggles, remains indelible and stands as a valid testimonial in favour of the group of talented breed of radical northerners, whose courage made the New Nigerian Newspapers to be a shining example of a government-owned Press that spoke with professional authority and ethical audacity to the government officials who established it.
This made even their arch-rivals voluntarily honour and compare the paper with the prestigious appellation “Al-Ahram,” the Egyptian official tabloid of that troubled post-colonial period, which fought and assertively defended the interests of the subdued Arab countries in the Middle East against British colonial imperialism and its hegemonic Western allies.
I was happy to go through this article by Simon Sango, which stands up as a moral beacon that has demystified and debunked the false cocktails of media instigated propaganda and fabricated conspiracies meant to embarrass, taint, or tarnish the reputation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s morally historic and undisputed administration Nigeria has ever had.
In conclusion, it is a thing of joy to have people like Simon Sango and General Paul Tarfa, who uphold the truth in our country.
I rest my case.
Mallam Abdulkarim Muhammad Abdullahi, founder and National Patron, APC BIG LEAGUE, alias Buhari Integrity Group Advocates and Nationwide Grassroots Fellowships;