Our attention has been drawn to an opinion in the Blueprint newspaper of October 18, 2023, where the immediate-past Secretary to the Sokoto State Government of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Alhaji Muhammad Mainasara Ahmad, thought he could play with the intelligence of millions of Sakkwatawa and Nigerians on the issue of yet-to-be-done in a proper manner hand over and take over of government in Sokoto state.
This piece is to expose the many lies of Mainasara Ahmad and to put the record straight. To start with, we would address all the issues raised by the former SSG in order to expose his lies and claims. Although, our initial position was to ignore the publication but on a second thought we felt justice would not be done if we allow only one side of the story to be heard.
We decided to respond because those who know him are aware of his love for power and money. He was among those Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko groomed to where he is today but because of his greed for power he betrayed Wamakko just as his immediate-past principal (Tambuwal) did. He and Tambuwal are birds of a feather, that is why they are flocking together.
Since he betrayed Wamakko in 2018 by joining forces with Tambuwal just for the position of the SSG which he was denied until 2022 when his predecessor resigned and contested for the governorship in the last election, Ahmad has formed the habit of attacking Governor Ahmed Aliyu, unnecessarily. So, we want the world to know who he truly is.
He has written series of articles full lies against the person of Governor Aliyu, which we let go but this time he cannot go scot-free. The former SSG is a pathological liar and a serial betrayer. He can do anything to get power and money. In 2018, when he lost out in the Wamakko camp where he thought he was alpha and omega, he jumped to the Tambuwal camp in the PDP, hoping to become the SSG but he got the shock of his life; he lost.
Before the 2023 elections, he almost returned to the APC but when he was offered the position of the SSG, he stayed behind. Now that the party is over and the goodies of the office are also not available, you have resorted to your stock-in-trade. In your piece,, you said your boss, former Governor Tambuwal, and you invited Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto as governor-elect for discussions on issues of state and handover notes but was turned down. That is not true, because you did not do the right thing so he had to absent himself from that charade.
Knowing your boss, Tambuwal, and you cannot be trusted, Governor Aliyu could not have honoured that invitation in the face of your insistence that, the then governor-elect should come to the meeting alone unaccompanied. Thus, the apprehension that, you had ulterior motives. Again, it is note worthy that, while Tambuwal and you were extending the so-called invitation, Tambuwal’s PDP gubernatorial candidate Sa’idu Umar Ubandoma and you were at the same time, busy preparing your series of court cases against Governor Aliyu which to date, you are still pursuing at various courts.
You also should remember that your honesty in that invitation was questionable given your earlier responses to efforts to ensure smooth transition between Tambuwal’s government and the incoming one. Severally, the Transition Committee sought audience with Tambuwal but he refused to see them. It also became clear that he had instructed his government officials not to cooperate with members of the committee on critical issues. That invitation was never in good faith!
1. Did Tambuwal actually set up any transition committee under the immediate-past Deputy Governor, Manir Muhammad Daniya to prepare a comprehensive and complete report on its ongoing projects, programmes, assets and liabilities? We thought the committee was set up to hide and cover up some of the government’s abnormalities which made the former deputy governor not to participate in any of the committee’s meeting. We challenge Ahmad to prove us wrong on this allegation.
2. The committee wasn’t tasked with the responsibility of deriving from such report, detailed notes to be handed over to the incoming administration, instead the committee was mandated to sabotage all efforts of the incoming administration’s transition committee in order not to expose the outgoing government’s weaknesses and shoddy deals.
3. Another lie the former SSG sold to the public was where he alleged that he made several efforts to contact the then governor-elect but couldn’t reach him. There wasn’t a time since August 1, 2018, to date when he called or made any attempt to communicate with the then governor-elect, Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto or even informed him about the formation of the state government committee or sought collaboration with his own committee. What he sent was a letter requesting the then governor-elect Ahmed Aliyu to meet him privately for discussion whereas he was not the governor or deputy governor of the state.
4. Furthermore, the offer of request to see Governor-elect Ahmed Aliyu by the then SSG was turned down because Mainasara Ahmad had no right to communicate such request to him, insisting that such invitation should directly be extended to him by the outgoing Governor Tambuwal as previously done in Sokoto anytime the issue of transition of power from one administration to other comes up.
5. It was the outgoing government’s committee that denied the governor-elect’s committee drafts of the handing over notes after serving the outgoing administration with a letter, dated May 2, 2023, signed by the secretary of the transition committee Ibrahim Adare.
6. It was when the outgoing administration failed to recognise the need of the governor-elect committee that the committee had no option than to commence visits to MDAs to demand information to facilitate the formation of its blueprint for the actualisation of its mandate.
7. Although, the former SSG affirmed that there was a joint meeting between the two transition committees, we challenge him to tell the whole world with full evidence that the handover note was ready before the inauguration day and why didn’t he submit the drafts to the committee? He claimed that the notes were ready by May 27 and was it supposed to be so late to that date? With what was he expecting the then incoming administration to form its blueprint?
9. It was when several efforts were made to reach the outgoing administration by the incoming Governor Aliyu in order to collect the handover notes to no avail that the incoming governor asked Mainasara to accompany him to the venue of the swearing-in, where he was scheduled to present the handover notes. Still, Mainasara failed to present the handover notes to the governor on the swearing-in day. What a shame from Tambuwal’s administration?
This is the pattern Tambuwal and his political boy Muhammad Mainasara Ahmad adopted to deceive the public on the issue of handover notes and it indicates openly that they have already arranged not to present any document to Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto as handover notes. The question is, where is the handover note, still with the former SSG or former governor?
Muhammad writes from Sokoto.
