There goes Senator Misau again

By Hassan Ahmad With his latest outing in the wake of the unfortunate, sordid mayhem in Benue State, the Nation’s number one law enforcement officer, Mr. Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, has once again proved his metle as a competent professional justifying his laurels and attendant confidence reposed in him by President Muhammadu Buhari.  As he had […]

By Hassan Ahmad

With his latest outing in the wake of the unfortunate, sordid mayhem in Benue State, the Nation’s number one law enforcement officer, Mr. Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, has once again proved his metle as a competent professional justifying his laurels and attendant confidence reposed in him by President Muhammadu Buhari.  As he had earlier done in the Hausa – Yoruba bloody face-off in Ife in March 2017, through the admixture and deft deployment of physical force and diplomacy, IGP Idris, succeeded in dousing a raging fire with a frightening threat of escalation.  As with the Ife scenario which had given rise to palpable fears of reprisals in other parts of the country, or, in Zamfara, Kaduna and Katsina States where encounters between farmers and pastoralists portended large-scale blood bath, the police handling of the situation in Benue happily, led to prevention of spillover to other parts of the state or even beyond as ethnic, religious warfare.  One cannot but also commend IGP Idris on the emerging turn-around in the Police performance in the fight against crimes and criminals. Talk of the curbing of the erstwhile pervading phenomena of armed robberies in the nation’s cities and highways; the monsters of kidnapping and cattle rustling; the virulent ethnic militia, cyber scammers and other forms of ruinous crimes.  In other words, in spite of obvious short-comings, we can see clear signs that things are looking up for the Nigeria Police Force in recent times. 

Of course, there are the likes of Senator Isa Hamman Misau who do not and cannot see anything good in the new rhythms of the Police Force.  Not as long as Mr. Idris is the Inspector-General or, anyone else appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari.  How else does one explain the vendetta and umbrage, the vile and puerile volleys of assaults the Senator hauled at the person and office of the IGP in the preceding year? How else does one understand the Senator’s latest trademark sweeping condemnation of the entire cabinet members of the President?

In the cast of Senator Shehu Sani of Kaduna State, Senator Dino Melaye from Kogi, Senator Hamman Misau, at best, comes across as one who regales in controversy and the attendant limelight in the mass media. Like his two other colleagues, the representative of the Bauchi Central Senatorial District, dons the garb of an anti-corruption crusader merely altruistically committed to whipping the executive into line.  However, not a few interpret his actions and tendencies in a light less grandiose.  There are those who think that Misau is engaged in a desperate effort to shore up a faltering political profile back in his constituency.  There are yet, people that analyse actions of Misau as those of a youngster overwhelmed by sudden fortunes.  There are those who yet see his antics as theatrical being played out as part of a hidden political game plan for 2019.  In which case, Senator Misau is no more than a kite being flown by the powerful forces behind the scene.  Put in another way, a pawn in the hands of the grand masters.  

Senator Isa Hamman Masau was his vintage self, last week, while contributing to the debate on the floor of the senate on the appointment of Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar as the new Director General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency, NIA. Various senators who spoke on the subject took on the president for his insensitivity to the demands of the principle of federal character.  Coming from Katsina State, same as Mr. Lawal Daura, the Director General of the Department State Security, DSS, the senators believe that Abubakar’s appointment smacks of nepotism.  It is noteworthy that none of them castigated the new NIA boss as lacking in requisite educational qualification, career experience or character.  Not unexpectedly, our senator from Bauchi Central leveraged on the tone of the debate and went way further to disparage the entire cabinet members of the President.  In his remarks, not even one of the federal cabinet members “can be described as competent”.  He singled out particularly, the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and the Minister of Defence, Brigadier General Mansur Dan Ali (Rtd) as epitomes of incompetence and misfits who should have had no business in high profile political positions. 

It has since come to light that the new man at the helm of affairs in the NIA, is an exceptionally brilliant diplomat who speaks and writes three international languages and one whose screening was given A-grading by all the panels and agencies that scrutinized him before his appointment.  However, as far as Senator Misau is concerned, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar is, “incompetent and unfit” for the job.  

By no means begrudging Senator Isa Hamma on the exercise of his right as a citizen and senator, the point is that in so doing, he may have thrown caution, decorum and logic to the elements.  

His condemnation of the Buhari’s cabinet as a bunch of incompetent persons has only succeeded in portraying him either as a hater of the President or, at best, cantankerous busy body that craves for attention at every turn, even when nothing rewarding and spectacular to show or tell.  While at it, Senator Misau on all parameters of assessing lawmakers cannot be said to have made a success of his representation of his constituents at the Upper Legislative Chambers.  That is in view of the fact that, unlike a good member of his colleagues who are in the news over construction of schools, boreholes and access rural roads, or, their advancement of grants and scholarships and initiation of economic empowerment programmes, all that the people back in Misau hear from their senator are his frequent outburst against people in appointive positions.  “Physician” the scriptural saying goes, “heal thyself.”

Ahmad wrote this piece from Sokoto.