The road to Aso Rock does not go through Minna (II)

It’s true that I am no IBB fan. However, I harbour no malice towards him and, as a student of leadership, particularly beginning from his 1985 to 1993 circus show, I have the right to scrutinise his “statecraft” and public actions. So Zubair Abdurrauf’s charge of malice is mendacious. I’m well known to people extremely […]

It’s true that I am no IBB fan. However, I harbour no malice towards him and, as a student of leadership, particularly beginning from his 1985 to 1993 circus show, I have the right to scrutinise his “statecraft” and public actions. So Zubair Abdurrauf’s charge of malice is mendacious. I’m well known to people extremely close to IBB and so my “code name” has actually been unveiled to him and I fear no “retaliation.” I’ve overcome fears and so care less about threat to my wellbeing as there is really no one on earth that can circumscribe my inalienable right to free speech. I’m aware though that some columnists and commentators on public affairs like Dele Giwa and Godwin Agboroko and many others have lost their lives in circumstances that have been linked to the exercise of expressing their opinions. If IBB thinks he’s such a great hero of our people, he and Buhari can take a walk anywhere in the country from Maiduguri to Moniya, Minna or Degema.
Let me recap the unassailable facts I discussed in my previous article, which Abdurrauf pitifully sidetracked, I guess for want of quality argument. Fact number one: the IBB “what I will say is simple…the president means well….and he is working well for this country” amounts to an open endorsement of a clearly partisan president who himself said his objective was to visit his “father” and wish him good health. Jonathan didn’t even say publicly whether he had sought endorsement, but our ex-dictator offered him exactly that. To that extent, fact number two is they’ve a common enemy in GMB.  Thirdly, and this is where I quarrel the most with IBB, his transition programme was clearly a failure and it needed not to. Thank God, the Maradona facade has faded. Fact number four, and we’re all agreed with Abdurrauf himself, that IBB “tried to stage a comeback into politics but his efforts were truncated (Lord have mercy)! Fifthly, IBB lost his quest to become the North’s consensus candidate for the 2011 presidential election. Fact number six, Buhari won the votes in Niger in 2011 and will do so again alive and well. Seventhly, Muhammed Babangida dropped out of the race to be Governor of Niger State this year for whatever reason. Eighth, it’s not true that President Jonathan “means well….and he is working well for this country.” Kidnapping, mind boggling oil theft, uncompleted projects, ostentatious lifestyle, empty promises, denials and sky-high corruption have become defining features of this administration and thanks be to God, Buhari is not the architect. Fact number nine, IBB cannot say that he doesn’t operate (multiple) foreign bank accounts. Finally, Abdurrauf’s insinuation that I’m motivated by money to write what I write is asinine. If Abu Najakku’s writings were inspired by the love of money, I’d queue up at the Hilltop mansion and nowhere else. I’m not looking for an oil well or what it spews; I’m contented with a water well.
It is just as well that Abdurrauf mentioned his support for Sule Lamido. Here is a governor whose school certificate is doubted and is regularly damned by Chief Edwin Clark, the President’s God father, and Lamido still went to Minna to be reconciled with God knows who.  On top of the unfulfilled promises of 2011, the Jigawa governor accepts fresh new ones, among them that he will be supported for presidency in 2019! Ever naive, Lamido is waiting for Abuja to reimburse him with N17 billion for projects earmarked by the federal government since 2011. No wonder Lamido returned from Minna smoking an open condemnation of Kwankwaso, Wamakko, El-Rufa’i and others as dirty politicians “hiding behind Buhari.” What can be dirtier than having your children being set up by the top guns in your party and roping you in as a corrupt governor! Or being harassed out of a presidential challenge by someone four years after you spoke Fulfulde to your people to accept him!
Sule Lamido doesn’t want the guys who left PDP to treat the party like a leprous, smelly mother. People can decide to stick with that, but that doesn’t make her less so, whether it’s said by her son or someone else. A party that has failed to supply just 5,000MW of electricity despite having sunk incalculable amount of money, and after 16 years in power, cannot realistically hope to be re-elected. A government that cannot protect its citizens, slaughtered daily by a murderous band, lacks raison d’être. An administration whose head is said to be “surrounded” by corrupt people has lost the moral right to lead. A regime that inspires rebellion by minority groups against the majority is dangerous to our democracy. A government that looks the other was in the daily theft of 400,000 barrels of crude oil is inimical to our country’s economic interest. Lamido is free to get into the same political bracket with Clark, Dokubo, Patience and Tompolo, dying for continuity; but he shouldn’t begrudge Kwankwaso, El-Rufa’i, Wamakko and others for their choice of another platform to work for the people. After all the consultations with Gowon, Shagari, Obasanjo, Danjuma, etc, and being pelted with stones in Port Harcourt, he remains in cahoots with those who’ve pushed him to the periphery of PDP. He has failed to realise that a political party is like a club and that one can quit when it doesn’t serve his purpose. Beware Lamido; the multitude that prayed for the overthrow of Buhari’s previous military regime are now first and last in the mosque praying for his return. Certainly, the road to Aso Rock cannot pass through Minna!