SSG, Minister or Senator?
As his two companions and himself rose to leave my house that night the Governor-elect stopped at the door, grinned broadly and said, “As a former director in the civil service you know best how to write appointment letters. You should bring a draft of your appointment letter as SSG to Shamuwa Square on May […]
As his two companions and himself rose to leave my house that night the Governor-elect stopped at the door, grinned broadly and said, “As a former director in the civil service you know best how to write appointment letters. You should bring a draft of your appointment letter as SSG to Shamuwa Square on May 29. As soon as I finish taking the oath of office you should hand it to me and I will sign it. I have already told Protocol to make sure the SSG’s car is right behind my own in the convoy. You should tell me by tomorrow whether you want to be the one sitting in that car or not.”
I insisted that I must first consult with my top political associates. When you come this far in politics you realise that you no longer own yourself. Many people have invested their time, energy, resources as well as their hopes and aspirations to follow you so whatever you do you must take them into consideration. Especially because you don’t know what will happen in the future; if you allow them to scatter and you are looking for them to pursue another aspiration in the future you will not find them.
I came down to my living room at 9am to await the arrival of my top campaign aides for the crucial meeting where we will decide whether to accept Barmu’s offer. As I sat down, I heard commotion outside. A convoy of cars pulled up in front of my gate, the gates swung open and I saw a heavily dressed woman alighting from a Mercedes Benz. Several women jumped out of buses and were running after her as she walked towards the door. One woman preceded her into my living room and announced, “Alhaji, Her Excellency the incoming First Lady.” I did not know when I sprang to my feet, only to see that it was Barmu’s third wife Hajia Ummu, the one he married when we were in Abuja. The marriage almost failed that time because Barmu fixed the wedding date in anticipation of a contract payment. When his voucher was queried by Audit, Barmu was running helter skelter looking for a loan. I was the one who gave him a loan to pay the dowry. This woman didn’t know what; look at her puffing that she is the incoming First Lady.
She is however still respectful and she knelt slightly to greet me saying “Alhaji, I came to see the SSG’s wives and to give them a sample of the ashobi that we are going to wear to the inauguration at Shamuwa Square and also the one we shall wear for the owambe later that afternoon.” Barmu is a clever brat. He is already tying knots around me because by the time she left my third wife Goggon Abuja came to me and said, “Can I have some money to give advance to my tailor? He is going to be very busy sewing different styles for the wives of incoming Commissioners and Members so as the SSG’s wife I don’t want him to play with my own style.”
My mind was already confused by the time my associates arrived. Maikahon Karo was still in an uncompromising mood. He said, “What Alhaji deserves is the governorship and nothing else. How can we allow Tafki State which is full of educated people, full of senior civil servants and judges to be led by a man who got F9 in most of his WAEC papers? The diploma that Barmu wrote on his INEC form that he has, where did he get it? Those people that registered with him for the diploma at Federal University, Birnin Tafki’s Continuing Education Centre said he never attended any classes, that he was pursuing contracts here and there but at the end of the year they saw him with a certificate.”
My campaign team’s Chairman Alhaji Gohe then took over. He waxed philosophical and said, “You see, when you enter politics you have in mind the post you are looking for but you will never say that is the only post you will take. In politics things change and change again and you could end up with something far from the one that you had set your mind on. Your prayer to God always is to give you that which will be good for you and for your community and country. Allah knows that we did our best to make Alhaji to realise his dream of becoming the Governor of Tafki State. But since things have turned out this way and many people are urging that we should concede in order to ensure peace in Tafki State and with this offer by Alhaji Barmu, my advice is that Alhaji should take it. At least he will be able to take care of the people who worked hard for him and he will also maintain his good friendship with Alhaji Barmu that has spanned several decades.” After much tug and pull by the other associates it was agreed that we should go by Alhaji Gohe’s advice and accept the offer made by the Governor-elect.
Tsinin Kusa had tried hard to discourage this consensus but when it was agreed he then said, “Okay, since we have agreed that Alhaji should accept Barmu’s offer to serve in his government. My only question is, must it be the SSG? Barmu offered Alhaji this post because he himself is a virtual illiterate. In the whole Tafki State GSL they don’t have any real boko man like Alhaji who can be SSG. I think we should demand for something else. Why not offer Alhaji the ministerial position instead? Alternatively, GSL can ask their man who won the Tafki Central senatorial seat to resign and take the ministerial seat while Alhaji will contest in the bye election.” Others agreed that this is a good idea but they said it will be difficult to demand any of those posts.
Finally Haruna Anbuga Anbarka stood up to speak. He said, “Sirs, I am not trying to spoil the consensus already achieved but I must remind you that in politics, you never throw away your joker until the game is over. The closing date for the submission of election petitions to the tribunal is tomorrow. I am saying that the two SANs we hired should go ahead and file the case before the deadline. That is our best guarantee that Barmu will not again betray us at the last minute and renege on the agreement made.” Everyone agreed that we should hedge our bets and file a case at the tribunal while negotiations with the Governor-elect are going on.