One of the most-devastating facts about partisan politics and democratic governance is that they offer every citizen of the governed entity the opportunity to vomit every stenchy trash about the personality elected to offer the desired good governance according to the needs and aspirations of the given entity.
Yes! Stenchy trash because, first, it unjustifiably and, therefore, wickedly, oozes out of a partisan mindset that is determined to see nothing good and positively possible in the efforts of the elected leader to offer good governance because he or she hails from a rival political party.
Second, the stenchy trash, a rollout of disparagements against the elected leader’s capacity, method of leadership and approach to dealing with sociopolitical and economic development issues, are too glaringly infantile and laughable that they often warrant little or no attention from anyone seriously concerned with affairs of the entity.
Third, stenchy trash because they are a disastrously irreverent polemics that lack any relevant context with regard to the sociopolitical and economic realities, needs and aspirations of the entity.
Such is the fate of a recent publication in the Blueprint writing off the 65 days of Governor Uba Sani’s stewardship as the governor of Kaduna state, authored by Edward John Auta, the special adviser, media/public affairs to the Kaduna state PDP chairman.
First, Auta posited that Governor Sani has been too engrossed in the fright of the ‘overbearing influence’ of his predecessor, Nasir el-Rufai, and the lack of support he suffers from the Kaduna electorate that he is still too confused to properly plan how to go about governing the age-old political seat of Northern Nigeria.
What the rather shallow mind of Auta fails to see is that the governance of such state having the enviable status of Kaduna in the Nigerian federation, a state floundering in epochal security and political challenges requires more purposeful and proper planning than what obtains in many other states of the federation. It is laughable that Auta thought Governor Uba Sani can reverse Kaduna’s multiple problems in just 65 days. How sensible is such an assumption?
Governor Uba Sani is, right from the day he took over the reins of power, determined, not to rush to plunge the state into political and security hopelessness, but to be very careful, purposeful and steady in his planning to pull it out of its political and insecurity morass.
It is heartwarming that the governor has indulged in the widest possible range of consultations with the broad range of stakeholders and every other relevant groups. And that explains why it is too infantile and laughable to think that a leader, genuinely committed and determined to govern his entity well, will rush over such vital stages of governance in just 65 days.
It would be quite unwise for anyone endowed with the normal portions of commitment to good governance to join issues with Auta over what he described as the surreptitious sacking of the local council chairmen of Chikun, Kaura and Kagarko. Auta should have known that by such action, Governor Sani glaringly and promisingly portrays that he will maintain zero tolerance for any council chairman doing poorly in administering his area.
Isn’t it a plus for the governor that he will have no stomach for any misdemeanor and maladministration from any council chairman?
Auta tried, albeit unwisely, to say something about the absence of some elders and critical stakeholders from the governor’s meetings with elders and stakeholders. Apart from the fact that Auta completely misunderstood everything about the purpose and process of the meeting, which he fumbled in describing as “Townhall’ meeting, his raising of the issue portrays the utter frustration and unjustifiable mischief of his party, the PDP, which the Kaduna electorate now seem determined never to return it to power due to its devastating performance in the past.
Governor Sani’s meetings with the Kaduna elders and critical stakeholders, Auta should have known, is to enable him collect and collate the wise inputs of these critical groups for integration into his successful governance. If, therefore, Auta thinks the meetings, which he mistook for “Townhall” are to appease these groups and dissuade them from facilitating any ouster of Governor Sani at any tribunal, he, Auta will certainly wake up from his dream because there are no signs of any such ouster at any tribunal.
Did I hear Auta talking about the exclusion of such personalities and critical stakeholders as Ango Abdullahi, Mannir Jafaru and Hakeem Baba-Ahmed from the organisation of the stakeholders’ meeting and their absence from the meetings? Did I hear him talking about what he described as the disappointment of revered personalities like Zamani Lekwot at the meetings? Did he blame the happenings on poor planning of the meetings?
This portrays him as ignorant of not only the process of the meetings but even the entire purpose and process of governance. Why couldn’t he think towards the possibility of the inputs of such personalities as too weighty, critical and sensitive that they could have been made, not by their presence, but in strict confidentiality? Why couldn’t he think towards the possibility of Zamani Lekwot misinformed and, therefore, misguided by the enemies of such meetings that portray promising potentials for charting the right course for Kaduna state?
It is so unfortunate that Auta was not intelligent and wise enough to think towards these possibilities.
Auta, again, exhibited crass lack of intelligence and wisdom by describing the governing APC and the Uba Sani administration as ‘wicked,’ saying that there is no peace for the ‘wicked’ until, according to him the PDP’s Ashiru Kudan snatches power from him. I laugh! Auta only ended up insulting and lampooning, not Uba Sani and the APC, but the entire Kaduna electorate for electing him their governor.
How can the people of Kaduna who have earned the tourism line: Center of Learning, because of its enviable utility of intelligence, be so unintelligently ‘wicked’ to themselves? Have they not, instead, been intelligent enough to have achieved what is good for them and their dear state by electing Uba Sani as their governor? Is Auta saying that Kaduna people would knowingly be so ‘wicked’ to themselves that they would elect not to have peace?
Why couldn’t Auta and his bosses in the PDP think well? Kaduna peoples’ worst fears about the danger of voting for PDP would have by now been further enforced by the ego trip of Auta and his sponsors.
Chikaji writes from Sabon Gari local government area, Kaduna state
