In one of his inspirational quotes, the late Indian activist and leader of the country’s independence movement against British rule, Mahatma Ghandi, did say: “It is always a mystery for me, how people can respect themselves when they humiliate other humans.”
Of course, respect is reciprocal and anyone who wants to be respected within a clime, must equally respect others – their rights, feelings, and, in fact, their opinions. This mutually respectful relationship often stays until one party does something awful to lose respect in the eyes of the other.
It is indeed a wonder when some supposed elder statesmen look away from this morally binding responsibility of respecting others yet, insist that people respect or recognize them.
In Bauchi state and indeed the entire North, one name that sounds familiar within the ranks of our elders is Mohammed Bello Kirfi, the suspended Wazirin Bauchi. Yes, as a former minister of special duties under President Olusegun Obasanjo, Bello Kirfi was a man who should have been accorded a great deal of respect and recognition. However, owing to what many consider inordinate motives and closed fistedness in the Bauchi politics, public respect for him is at a very low level. He is considered an individual whose actions are at variance with his status.
In justifying this viewpoint, yours truly would wish to consider this proposition; if the Bauchi Emirate Council could find the embattled and suspended Wazirin Bauchi not worthy and unfit to hold the traditional title conferred on him as a result of an alleged disloyalty and unsatisfactory conduct as stated in the letter of his suspension, the ordinary citizens of Bauchi state should be wary of him. Bauchi people should and indeed would never be bamboozled by his foxy campaigns and schemings against the Muhammed Abdullahi Abubakar administration. The people are a lot more aware and as such do recognize that his is a mean and an individualistic agenda.
Indeed, the politics and power play in Bauchi state is out of the ordinary, and, very regrettably, characterized by a highly disturbing trend of those egocentrically whose expectation is to get the state’s treasury surrendered to them for merciless devour as usual, and to have their sons appointed into juicy positions. But, never again! Governor Abubakar won’t cede the fortunes of the state to wolves. The “bob’s your uncle syndrome” no longer has a place under the transparent stewardship of Governor Abubakar.
Perhaps we should remind those whose have soiled our garments of honor as a state that it is still fresh in our memories how Bello Kirfi who is fighting Governor Abubakar because he refuses to “kowtow in their poohoo” and allow them to dictate the fiscal tunes of Bauchi state led a delegation to President Muhammadu Buhari claiming that, they are on a mission to show support to their son, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, who as later revealed was all along working against the interest of Mr. President and the APC at both his state and the green chamber where he is presiding as speaker.
Why the unsheathed frenzy and fury by Bello Kirfi and his sidekicks?
His son, Yakubu Bello Kirfi, was a commissioner in the state during Malam Isa Yuguda’s tenure and a lot of eggs were put in his juice and at a certain time under the Adamu Mu’azu administration, he was said to have nominated two commissioners, Altine Tongo and Sale Toro. One could clearly see the boiling point and the only unforgivable offence Governor Abubakar has committed.
In a democracy, Bello Kirfi reserves his full rights to be subjective in supporting anyone he wishes in a governorship contest. However, he must recognize that the teeming voting population of Bauchi reserve theirs too. Therefore, no reactionary and selfish reasons will ever strip us from our rights to use our objective and rational sense of judgment to choose between right and wrong, good and bad, reality and imaginary.
And today, by stonewalling people like Bello Kirfi from interfering with the workings of government, Bauchi state is now working. In fact, it requires right thinking and reasoning to imagine how the very many challenges Gov. Abubakar inherited are being handled.
Recall that Alhaji Abubakar emerged governor when the federal allocation to the state was at its lowest as a result of a sharp fall in crude oil prices in the international oil market. The state internally generated revenue also was nothing to write home about let alone. So it was futile to rely on same for financial adjustment.
But with an unwavering determination to liberate the state from a virtual economic economy, Governor Abubakar devised workable means of cutting the cost of governance by weeding out ghost workers at both the state and local government services. With this administrative genius, the people’s governor was able to immediately commence payment of salary backlogs at all levels and subsequently carry on with payment of salaries promptly.
This is beyond the realm of possibility in many states of the federation. It is indeed a wonder how, in the face of these achievements, some so-called elders were not happy when President Buhari applauded Mr Abubakar’s efforts for judiciously utilizing the bailout and Paris Club refunds. As a worthy son who has done us proud, many would expect elders – so called – to beam with joy and shower prayers. Well, this is what we see.
Therefore, come 2019, we will vote for continuity and consolidation as we cannot afford to allow those with deficient image and corruption allegations to ever again have access to our treasury or even come close to the seat of power to ravage our dear state.
Umar writes from Bauchi
Oshiomhole: Beaters of dead donkey
By Al-Hassan Ahmed
In Nigeria, it is axiomatic for even the cleanest politician to be embroiled in the allegation of corruption, for his wings to be clipped.
This started not today but even in the days of colonialism. Today, the late Ahmadu Bello, Sardaunan Sokoto, is being cast in gold as a political revolutionary and emancipator of the people, whereas he was incarcerated on the basis of wrongful, falsified and calculated accusation of fraud. He had to fight tooth and nail to exculpate himself. After colonialism and from independence till now, with variants, such stories abound.
Truly, corruption remains the bane of rapid socioeconomic development of any nation. In fact, one could be correct to say that it is one of the most challenging social and economic burdens of national development; that is why I believe that the ruling APC is poised at tackling it headlong. But the rate with which people, especially the development savvies and progressives, are accused of corruption, in order to have them demystified, is annoying and loudly calls for concern.
It has entered our national lingo, as well as streets, that corruption has a way of fighting back. Indeed, people who are serially corrupt see progressives as threats, hence are wont to sponsor phony cronies to sue their nemesis in the name of corruption or whip up media sentiment by corruptly influencing the content.
This brings us to the story of Adams Oshiomhole, APC National Chairman.
Coming from a humble background, the former governor of Edo state became a full time trade union organiser in 1975. Until Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999, when he was voted as the Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, he was the General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, where he was fighting for rights of union with over 75 thousand garments workers.
As NLC Chairman, he fought against the increment of oil prices, negotiated 25 percent increment in wage for public sector workers. These are certainly why his name is readily on the lips of every Nigerian even before he went into politics. As a two-term governor of Edo, he rescued the state from the cliff where his predecessors drove her to. Before he left and till today, thanks to him, Edo is a case study of development and a working state in the country.
These, apparently, led to his unanimous adoption as APC chairman earlier in the year, as the party heads to 2019 election. Some analysts believe he has the acumen of cruising her to victory at the polls.
To ensure success next year, he needed to put his house together; this owes to his reform of making sure that every member of the party has a say on who flies its flag at the general polls. Reformers don’t live without acerbic naysayers and saboteurs.
At the moment many forces have unsheathed their swords for him: the APC members embittered by their defeat at the primaries (some of them are in the party as Judases went to carryout hatchet jobs) and members of opposition who want to make sure that he is distracted from delivering victory for his certified pro-people party in the general polls.
The two groups have no olive branches to hold besides flying the clichéd kite of corruption, although in forked tongue.
Embittered members of his party, according to media reports, Oshiomhole are being accused of selling the party’s tickets to the highest bidders. The most popular of the reports says he and other members of the NWC were given $5 million to give tickets to a senatorial aspirant. At another instant, reports have it, he was ‘dashed’ N50 million for same ticket. Other allegations abound and coming from every part of the country.
One doesn’t even require a deep-fitted thinking cap to unravel that the proponents of this very narrative are very dumb in logics. First, Oshiomhole, who had the till of a state under his control for eight years and was not found corrupt, would not choose to be corrupt now as a party chairman.
Secondly, in some of the allegations, he was accused of collecting bribes from some aspirants, who aren’t on the same page with their governors, to be given the tickets. Once again, everybody prefers eating the day’s meat, logically. If he wanted money to give tickets to aspirants he would have simply allied with the aspirants on the same page with their governors or the governors themselves, in view of the facts that they would have more to offer. These allegations are not more than a charade or the hollow sound of losers.
As aforementioned, the footprints he left in Edo state when he held sway and the level of transparency with which he governed the affairs of the state will remain ingrained in the annals of history.
This is apparently why the obviously accusers and their sponsors are finding no legal gravity for their accusation. They are just being used to distract the chairman from his task of keeping APC in power for another term, so that they would be back and make the impunity they are known with reign.
But the institutions that enforce laws in our land know what is best. If he was found wanting, EFCC, ICPC, would have investigated him and taken the necessary action, given the viability of the fight against corruption under the present administration.
And to those accusing the anti-corruption agency of inactivity and partisanship; they need to again go through their fact sheets. Since these agencies were set up, it has arraigned and saw to the conviction of culprits more under the current administration than the previous administrations. They say Nigerians get easily infected by amnesia, but I am sure not on this, given the number of high-profile cases handled by this administration without the consideration of party affiliation.
Ahmed writes from Abuja
