FOR GOD’S SAKE, LET’S DISSOLVE THE UNION

 

With the advent of this political dispensation, which began in May 1999, the north sank deeper into a sea of poverty, illiteracy and joblessness amidst the greed of rapacious, conscienceless ruling class, whose only target is to be at the centre of power irrespective of how the region fared.  Ignorance and medeocratism have taken over at the expense of saner minds.  The north, steeped in history of unity, compromises and leadership sagacity, has turned its back on its past.  While the late Sir Ahmadu Bello shone light on the region during the pre and the immediate post-independence period, the region is now so fragmented along ethno-religious lines that the emergence of another Sir Ahmadu Bello may be near impossible.  Our matchless source of power has been our unity, but we have abandoned this in favour of “elite power”.  Is it any wonder therefore that the region was brought to its knees in all facets of human endeavour right before its competitors?

The massacre of northern political and military leaders on the night of January 15^th, 1966 left a region trying to play catch-up with the rest of the country rudderless.  The unification decree promulgated by the Ironsi government was specifically targeted at the “feudal north”, whatever it may mean.  It was meant to curb the perceived overbearing influence of the region on the affairs of the country.  But if ‘truth be told’, to paraphrase the name of one of the January 1966 coupists books, the decree was meant to strengthen the hands of the Igbos in all spheres of the country’s polity.

Much as those who want to rewrite the history of the immediate post-independence Nigeria would want the rest of the world to believe that the secession and the subsequent civil war was a consequence of the isolated killing of Igbos in Kano, the north must strive to bring to fore the real version of history and the chronology of historical events that led to the thirty month old needless civil war.  The Igbos, by their actions on January 15^th, 1966 and the subsequent triumphal attitude displayed in northern towns ignited the fire that nearly engulfed them.  The starvation theory and the 20 pounds payout by a benevolent federal government to every Igbo person after their surrender can all be traced to the actions of their leaders.  We are now reliving this same attitude, which pitted brother against brother.

When Nzegwu and his band of killers murdered northern and western political and military leaders to the total exclusion of those of eastern extraction, the Igbos applauded them and basked in the mistaken glory of dominating the rest of the country.  Not a single Igbo elite condemned this barbarism.  When the north woke from its slumber, the cries of “pogrom” rented the air.  Killing the political and military leaders of the north wasn’t a crime but “retaliatory” action by northern military officers was worth branding a whole region as barbaric.  The killing of Ironsi was a result of the failure of his government to prosecute those who carried out the massacre of January 15^th.  To northerners at the time, those massacred by Nzegwu and company were men of matchless virtue, faith and character.

With the emergence of Nnnamdi Kanu on the eastern horizon and criminal silence from the Igbo elite, it may appear history is about to repeat itself.  An upstart, barely literate wanabe has taken to the airwaves in the last two years hurling insults at the leadership and people of the north with no single condemnation from the Igbo elite.  He was rather egged-on by those who should know better.  He is received in government houses and palaces with pomp normally reserved for royalty.  Action as is known begets reaction.  Getting fed up with the insults from Kanu and the deafening silence from the Igbos, particularly those living in the north, some northern youths came together and issued what they called “quit notice” to Igbos living amidst them.  That they should leave the region on or before October 1^st, 2017.  Then all hell broke loose.  A hitherto pliant government got to action by inviting various groups to Aso Villa for only God knows what.  The Igbo elites found their voice and those living in the north began running to government houses and palaces to pledge their allegiance to a united Nigeria.  Suddenly Kanu doesn’t represent anybody; he is on his own; he is a lunatic.  But is that what we see? Come on; please let’s be real.

The Igbos only now realised how the hospitality of the northerners made it possible for them to have investments worth N44 trillion in the region.  They forgot to tell us the total investments of all northerners living in the east.  While the hospitality of the average northerner made it possible for the Igbos to have this quantum of investment in the north, the hostility of the average Igbo man made it impossible for anybody, from any part of the country to live and invest in Igboland.

The never-ending excuse is ‘marginalisation’.  Have the Igbos cared to know how the rest of the country fared under ‘their’ government of Goodluck Jonathan when Pius Anyim and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala held sway?  If my memory serves me right, the Yorubas were not worse than the Igbos now, yet they didn’t threaten the country; the north was turned into a battleground and was perpetually under siege from Yola to Sokoto with all its attendant consequences, yet they bided their time.  When the time came (2015 general elections), the north and the west, the two regions ‘marginalised’ by Jonathan and the Igbos, came together and kicked them out of Aso Villa.  The folly of those who supported Jonathan massively is now blamed on the rest of the country.  Every uncouth language hurled at the rest of the country by any lunatic fringe is fair game.

I do not choose to live under a union where the victim is always portrayed as the villain by an uncritical and biased press.  If the Biafra advocates, proponents of restructuring and purveyors of such other mundane clichés will have the courage of their convictions, let them come out to call for the dissolution of the union.  We can then sit at a round ( or even oblong) table to decide along which lines we will go our separate ways.  The marriage is not worth the insults.

Enough is enough

SAYONARA SALIHIJO AHMAD (SA)

“…Although we loved him dearly,

He could not make him stay.

A golden heart stopped beating,

Hard working hands to rest.

God broke our hearts to prove to us

He only takes ‘The Best’.”

Anonymous

Eighteen years ago today we lost one of our greatest teachers and mentors, the late Salihijo Ahmad.  The new political dispensation was barely a month into its takeoff when SA left us and since then many still find it difficult to believe he is gone for good.  He was larger than life and so most of us thought he will be there forever.  Alhamdulillah, he lived a fulfilled live and mentored a lot of us but unfortunately many amongst us failed him.  He taught me everything I know in life and made me a better Nigerian.

SA was an epitome of planning and meticulousness as can be attested by his last major assignment – Management Consultant to the defunct Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF) then headed by General Muhammadu Buhari, current president.  The PTF still remains the benchmark for project planning and execution despite the numerous efforts of many to discredit its unparalleled achievements in terms of timely and efficient project delivery.  The way the PTF operated earned General Buhari tremendous respect, which he is still reaping.  But where is the Afri-Projects Consortium (APC) alumnus?  General Buhari is today the president of Nigeria but we failed to see a replication of the PTF success story in the way the country is run now

with the former PTF Chairman is running the show.  Could the absence of SA among the team be responsible for the start – stop nature of this administration?  With SA on board, I know we would have had a different style of governance and the results would have started manifesting.

If SA were alive, I don’t believe the government will look this impotent in the face of assaults on its authority from ethnicists and religious bigots.  We are witnessing hypocritical leadership and we do not seem to care a hoot.  While the Igbo leadership are laying the red carpet for Nnamdi Kanu, those of the north are calling for the arrest of some youth who urged the Igbos to leave the north in a move that I think will only hasten the realisation of their dream Eldorado republic.  I failed to fathom the brouhaha that followed the ultimatum issued by the youth since it only affirmed what the Igbos wanted.  I would have loved to know how SA will have reacted to this but I don’t want to second-guess him in public.

SA was spared witnessing the various human carnage we experienced under this civilian dispensation unfortunately we lived through it beginning with the Kaduna riots to the Mambilla massacre.  Through it all, the narratives were as determined by the villains.  In his wisdom even at that time, he incorporated a media consortium – Blueprints Consortium – made up of a subscription-only Newsletter, a weekly, a daily, a magazine and a Radio station.  It was to have given another view and dimension to public discourse and broaden the minds and perceptions of many.  He went to the extent of bringing in Charles Sharp, the man credited with the establishment of the New Nigerian newspapers to do a technical report on the establishment of the media consortium.  SA only saw a preview edition of the Newsletter before his death.  We failed him and failed him woefully by not continuing this laudable endeavour of his.  At least Sam Nda-Isaiah took the concept and made it work.  Had Blueprints Consortium came to fruition, the narratives would have been different I am sure. We would have had an avenue of putting forth a counter narrative with facts and figures.

The level of decay in governance, the high level of corruption and impunity, the brazen robbery committed on Nigerians in the name of Privatisation and all other sundry issues are things SA didn’t see or experienced.  Today, with the Privatisation of the power sector, Nigeria has been taken back to the dark ages.  We hardly get electricity for three hours.  All this is happening when his hero is on the saddle.  I would have given anything to know how he would have reacted and his thoughts on the current situation.

He was a man who was the proverbial knight in a shining amour to many of us; he taught you how to fish and made sure you know how to fish.  He led many out of darkness into light.  His satisfaction was in knowing he served.  He had a diverse constituency – the retired schoolteacher who still lives in a rented house despite giving thirty-five of his prime years to those who confined him to his condition; the lady who had to go to the farm before her family could feed.  SA’s masters were the widows, the poor, the less privileged; the anonymous barber in Mayo-Belwa; the retired teacher in Bole; the forgotten classmate in Gorobi.  The unselected and uncelebrated.  In short, the wretched of the earth.

SA was one of those people the sane world will never forget.  Because of his kindness, his gentleness, his concern about others and his care.  That was who he was.  A workaholic to the core – he was happiest whenever he was busy in the service of others.  Always quick to lend a helping hand.

SA’s desire was to serve and serve he did.  His vision, his courage and his strength came from his spirit.  Living his vision and providing service to mankind was achievement and fulfillment.  He never rested for a day in his quest for perfection in his desire to serve.  I pray he is resting in peace

WE ARE ALL SICK

We are sick in this country – yes we are. Or how else how can we be debating about phrases in presidential communication to the Senate and not the failure of the Senate to pass a budget laid before it by our “sick” president almost six months ago?  In the interim we allowed the Senate to divert our attention from its failure to pass the Appropriation Bill by pretending to be angry that Col. Hameed Ali, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service refused to wear the Service’s uniform; we permitted the spoilt brats at the National Assembly to entertain us with clowns like Dino Melaye appearing in a ceremonial academic gown in the supposed hallowed Chamber of the Senate.  We spent quality time speechifying on the superiority of Section 171 of the Constitution over Section 2 of the EFCC act with regards to Magu’s continued headship of the Commission in an acting capacity.  We are sick if we believe the mundane is more important than the substance.

What is our take on the suspension of Babachir David (BD) Lawal?  He was suspended because he is a Kilba minority Christian from Adamawa who the Hausa and Fulani Muslims wouldn’t want to see appointed as the Secretary to the Federal Government if not for the benevolence of Tinubu and Akande, forgetting that the man who appointed him in the first place is a Fulani Muslim.  He was not suspended because he turned the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) into an initiation into pain by hundreds of thousands of those who lost their loved ones, their economic power and dignity, their households and all worldly material.  He forgot the essence of establishing the PINE in the first place.

The essence of establishing the Initiative, in my opinion, is to give an undemanding assistance to the victims of insurgency in the North East; to give them a strong arm and a crutch to stand-on and pick the pieces of their shattered lives.  It is also meant to be a vehicle for extending comfort and aid to our unfortunate brethren whose only desire is to get resettled to the monotony of their past lives.  The PINE is meant to jump-start economic activity and restore economic dignity in communities that has seen their economy ravaged by mindless insurgency and help reintegrate families who hitherto engaged in one form of business or the other but are now reduced to living in IDP Camps.  These are the people the SGF denied the opportunity to live again like him and other fellow human beings – live with dignity and the privacy they have been denied in the recent past.  They don’t belong to these camps but the failure of the past government to secure their lives and properties brought them to this sorry state.

The SGF believed that the PINE was specifically established for him to satisfy his yearn for money.  He cared less for the integrity of the one who appointed him to the office nor the dignity of the supposed beneficiaries, now living in Camps that has been adjudged to be not fit for human habitation, no thanks to BD, who turned the iniative into his chequebook.  We have seen the quantum of monies transferred to his company or personal accounts by contractors engaged to execute these palliative projects in the zone.  We have seen the crudity and the wickedness; we have witnessed the inhumanity and vulgarity in “chopping” the widow’s mite meant to provide succor to the needy in the SGF’s locality.  We are sick if we still believe the SGF’s religion has anything to do with his suspension.  We are doubly sick if we believe he should be walking around freely when Dasuki is rotting in jail for almost the same offence.  Dasuki is guilty of diverting monies meant for the purchase of arms to fight the insurgents who put these people in the IDP camps in the first place while the SGF is guilty of denying them their humanity by stealing monies meant for their reintegration.  Same difference in my opinion.

When big things happen to some people, they go gaga – and I believe nothing bigger has ever happened to our SGF in his entire life than being appointed into this office – occupied by the likes of Alison Ayida, Liman Ciroma, Gray Longe, Shehu Musa and even Yayale Ahmed.  He pictured himself as this “big man” in this “big office”, without a dime to his name.  And then he got to work to remedy the situation.  What then do we tell those among us who are in IDP camps until God-knows when?  Those who cannot afford smartphones and tablets to see the primitive defence we are putting up on behalf of their tormentors; or for those who still possess smartphones among them, the cost of data is contrasted with that of a hot meal; or to those whose daily survival is a trauma not knowing where their near and dear ones are; those whose present in hopeless and their future bleak.  Where is our humanity?

We have spent the better part of this year talking about Buhari’s health.  First he is dead, then he is suffering from dementia, then he is terminally ill and when he came back from his treatment in England and we all saw him walking from the plane to the helicopter we changed the tune.  After addressing the nation on how sick he was and even disclosing some of the treatment he underwent and alerting Nigerians on the possibility of going back for further tests and treatment, we still insist he conducts a media chat or should pack out of the Villa.  We are so filled with hate that we cannot empathize with a seventy five year old man in his hour of trials.  Who is sick – Nigerians or Buhari?  The recent case of former Taraba state governor James Danbaba readily come to mind.  Here was a pharmacist whose love for flying nearly ended his life.  His plane crash in late 2012 turned him into a vegetable to be wheeled around by those concerned with maintaining the political status quo in Taraba state, yet not a single voice was raised against the charade that we were treated to in the name of bigotry.  Nobody asked Danbaba to be shoved aside for a healthier person to take over.  We are truly sick if all we do is harangue an old man facing health challenges and needs our sympathy and prayers.

We have seen how first Andrew Yakubu, erstwhile Group Managing Director of the NNPC, stashed away $9.8million dollars in the ghettoes of Sabon Tasha, in Kaduna and then Ayo Oke, the suspended Director General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA) warehoused about $47million in an apartment in Ikoyi Lagos.  Monies that have been denied Nigerians because they have been removed from circulation but all we are thinking of is their religious affinity and not their criminality.  How did their thieving benefit their religion?  Is their any religion that encourages one to steal? Is there anywhere in our holy books that provided for the glorification and protection of thieves?  Can you in all honesty and good conscience kill an armed robber and a kidnapper while sparing these two?  Common folks, if this is the way you think, then you better consult the next psychiatrist you meet.

The life of the 2016 federal budget came to an end on May 5^th, 2017 while the 2017 federal budget is bogged down in the National Assembly.  The president presented the budget to the National Assembly towards the end of 2016.  So what was the National Assembly doing all this while?  Nobody is asking them questions because we are occupied with the president’s death or ill health.  Knowing our proclivity for the humdrum, they staged plays, which cannot be staged by NTA of years gone by.  They picked a fight with Hammed Ali over the issue of uniform because most of them are smugglers whose nefarious business have been affected by his tough guy stance; they refused to confirm Magu on two occasions because most of them live on corruption and are scared of the wooden-face Magu and their poster-boy, Dino Melaye’s academic status remain hazy.

What was our reaction when all this was going-on?  We clapped for them and egged them-on.  We forgot there is a budget to work-on and pass to the executive for assent and implementation.  In less than twenty days (June 5th), if the budget is not passed and assented to, we will have a government lockdown and then the blame game will start all over again with the vilest language reserved for the president.  That is when we will conveniently forget that the budget was presented to our representatives long before now.

You tell me we are not sick?  We are sick my friend.  Buhari may be the only healthy person among us.

BY ALL MEANS, LET’S RESTRUCTURE

We are yet again at the season of unreasoning – the season when hair-brained ideas are put forth in order to advance personal ambitions instead of moving the country forward.  These are times when after running out of ideas, our politicians resort to emotive issues to whip up sentiments and draw the undiscerning to their cause.  Nigeria has seen so many of such fly-by-night politicians in the past and I am sure will see the back of the current crop.  These politicians are not averse to pushing the country to the brink as long as their scheme gives them political mileage.  The vogue today is the call for the restructuring or renegotiating the structure and unity of Nigeria as it exist today.  These were the same currencies used by pseudo-democrats in the early and mid-90s to fight both Babangida and Abacha and also scuttle Abiola’s ambition of becoming the president of the country.  It achieved its purpose when two candidates were presented from one part of the country and Obasanjo emrged victorious

Most of the chorus men couldn’t talk thereafter because their mouths were stuffed with gravy.  Throughout Obasanjo’s eight year tenure, we were spared this particular demand.  When we called for restructuring of the country, we were shouted down by this same gang.  They chose to be mute and in many instances they were found to be complicit throughout the PDP locusts’ years because they were direct beneficiaries of the skewed federal structure.  Now with APC and Buhari in control of the country, and with no hope of getting back on the saddle strapped on the backs of the poor in the foreseeable future, they are not averse to bringing down the roof on all of us.

I am for restructuring or renegotiating the federal setup or even the unity of the country, if you may.  South Sudan was excised from Sudan and we can all testify to the progress the southerners are making after being weaned from the oppressive yoke of the retrogressive northerners.  So I am for whatever will bring an end to this oft-repeated cliché by failed politicians looking to reinvent their fledgling political careers.  We have been subjected to intimidation, blackmail and outright insults in the past by advocates of restructuring.  Unfortunately none of these advocates came out with a very clear agenda or framework of how this should be done.  Some believe Nigeria should be restructured along ethnic lines while others call for a nebulous fiscal federalism.  To most, it is just a cliché.

By all means let’s restructure but in doing so we must take into account how we got “structured” in the first place.  According to my records the northern and southern protectorates were what was cobbled together by the British to give birth to Nigeria so if we have to re-negotiate our continued existence as Nigeria we have to start from there.  The federating units as we know them today – states and local government councils – were creations of the military, therefore ‘unelected’ governments that were not representatives of the people.  These federating units were created either at the whim of elites to satisfy their lust for power which most will not acquire in bigger political units, therefore the need to fractionalise the country.  These same elites are the ones calling for restructuring of the country.  They prey on the gullible and the undiscerning.  They made their names and ill-gotten wealth under this same imperfect Nigeria, wealth which they now deploy in calling for the renegotiation of Nigeria.

We are also for the restructuring of the country but we will like to call for the implementation of certain conditions before we do that.  First among these conditions is that we should go to the negotiating table on the basis of our amalgamation and not on the basis of any other factor particularly as may be defined by those who brought the country to where we are.  Also anyone found to have been in public service and conducted private business while in the employ of the government must first return the proceeds of such business to public coffers.  It will not be fair on ordinary Nigerians to be saddled with those who want to have the best of both worlds – steal them blind while in government then turn around to pull down the same system they employed to the fullest to gain advantage over less fortunate Nigerians.

Fiscal federalism or ‘true’ federalism is good.  Let’s go back to whichever is acceptable to majority of Nigerians.  If my history serves me right it was Ironsi who moved Nigeria away from ‘true’ federalism to unitary system.  Most of those now crying for a return to regionalism were at the forefront of applauding Ironsi for bringing some arrogant regions under heel.  The conventional wisdom is that some regions may not survive once they are weaned from oil tits.  I remember clearly during the - Jonathan convoked, skewed national conference in 2014, it was the Lamido of Adamawa, a delegate to the conference, who advocated for 100% resource control.  I concurred with the royal father then and now.  This will have been a sure path to attaining the cure-all “fiscal federalism” that some people have turned into a bogey slogan to be trotted out anytime they don’t get their ways.  The Lamido’s proposal wasn’t allowed to see the light of the day despite the disproportionate presence of those from the region that believe the area where the Lamido come from will not survive without petro-dollars.  I just pray this government will have the courage to reintroduce this as a bill to the National Assembly who are perpetually amending the constitution without amending their ways.

For those who may not remember, the “zonal” structure upon which the country operates today was a baby of those same people who are scared of a ‘monolithic’ north.  The north is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious political unit very much unlike the rest of the other regions with, by and large monolithic religious and ethnic configuration.  This notwithstanding, the post-independence leaders of the region were able to bring the diverse people of the region together to live in peace and harmony despite the efforts of some people from outside the region to endanger hatred among the various peoples living in the area.  Realising that breaking the north into three zones hasn’t worked out well for them, and with dwindling national political fortunes by many among them, the call for restructuring and renegotiation has taken front seat once more.

Like I said earlier, let’s restructure by all means.  Or better more – let’s have the courage of our conviction by dissolving the union instead of pretending to live together while hating each other.  We shouldn’t allow those elites who gained tremendously from the system they now disparage set the agenda for us.  We are not responsible for anybody’s political failure and therefore will not be expected to carry their failed political cross.  Let the southern and northern protectorates go their separate ways and develop at their separate pace.  This way, the hating, the denigration, the insults and the uncouth language may abet.

ATIKU AND HIS REINVENTION CAMPAIGN

There seems to be no more shame in our land.  Or the level of impunity is far beyond what we are all thinking.  How do you explain the recent boast by erstwhile vice president that graduates of public universities cannot compare with those of his secondary school?  What gall!  Have we reached the stage where those who steal from our till, will rub it in our face by reminding us how unfortunate we are?  Have we so lost our humanity that we can berate the poor and the honest for being unable to send their kids to schools established by modern day pirates?

Atiku Abubakar was the vice president of Nigeria when he established his American University of Nigeria in Yola.  He and his supporters didn’t see anything wrong in establishing a private institution while superintending over the systematic destruction of all government social services, education inclusive, while serving as the vice president.  The unprecedented decline in the capacity of public schools to accommodate, train and graduate students reached its zenith during the period he was vice president.  The former vice president’s schools were established when Boni Haruna, his political son was holding sway in Yola as governor of Adamawa state, therefore conventional wisdom has it that the schools were established using public funds – the same funds meant to run these same institutions that the former vice president is running down its graduates.  As a matter of fact, the American University was established at a time the Adamawa state government was not able to pay WAEC/ NECO fees for students of public institutions.

I think it is the height of insult for this carpetbagger to come out bragging about the quality of his students, rubbing it in the face of the those less fortunate to occupy public offices thereby availing themselves of our common patrimony and sending their kids to such schools; established by pirates for the nouvea riche. Yes, the quality of graduates of public universities may not be at par with those who passed through his schools – but how about the satisfaction of knowing you don’t have to deprive the less unfortunate in order to send your kid to such schools like American University and Bells University?

I know that the likes of Atiku Abubakar feel the poor lacks understanding of their social importance to the society and to the politician.  This lack of understanding may not be unconnected to the deliberate policy of those in government to pauperise the people and destroy government social services and making sure those they established becomes unaffordable to us.  Thus the poor have been conditioned to think of themselves as only important to the politician either only as a voter or a political thug with no higher purpose than to be at the beck and call of the same people that turned him into a zombie.  Isn’t it time to pause and redefine our position and importance to the politician?

I do not have any problem with Atiku’s desire to be the president of Nigeria.  I equally do not have any problem with firing his first campaign shots this early in the life of an administration he was supposed to have midwifed (though anyone observant enough knew he never gave Buhari a chance of winning).  But for him to have the guts to come out and tell Nigerians what he was credited to have said is the height of insensitivity.  But this is Nigeria where criminalise are canonised – the more you steal the more you are revered.

Anyone with a modicum of compassion in his heart won’t be so callous as to denigrate the same system that he once benefited from and help in destroying.  Most of those from Atiku’s generation attended public schools because it was free.  Whatever position they attained in life was largely due to this free education they were given by a caring and result-oriented government of that time.  Most of them might not have been lucky to attend school for the same reason we now have school-age children hawking and begging on our streets.  The few that are lucky to attend public schools are now facing ridicule from the likes of Atiku, who helped in no so small way in destroying the very foundations of their successes.

Atiku Abubakar lined up activities to mark his 70^th birthday – doling out handouts to IDPs, visiting his various business interests in and around Yola and hosting political jobbers.  I don’t have any quarrel with that.  But to think he can use the serene environment of his University to denigrate us? Ah, ah!  Feeding IDPs who made IDPs in the first place by the (in)actions of the same man Atiku was wining and dining with on the eve of the 2015 elections is bad PR as far as I am concerned.  We still remember vividly the night Goodluck Jonathan visited him in his house in Abuja in the heat of the 2015 campaigns.  When all thought he was leading the campaigns in the north for Buhari, he was actually hosting Goodluck to a nocturnal visit.  Atiku should therefore be held vicariously liable for the plight of the IDPs since he played a passive role when Goodluck was fiddling while the villages of these IDPs were set ablaze.

We attended public schools from LEA primary schools to public universities and we are proud of these institutions.  For anyone to think he could put them down, good luck to him, but first he must tear his certificates.

ABDURRAHMAN ABBA: CHIEF OF STAFF OR THUG-IN-CHIEF?

Well, good people of Adamawa both at home and in the diaspora, here is a fairy tale with a moral.  Seems there was once upon a time a little boyman with a face resembling a mashed melon who thought he could always say what he wants and get away with it.  So to prove it, over a period of ten years or so, he usually put his mouth in motion before his brain (if he has any) is in gear.  He has perfected the art of verbal hemorrhage to the extent he believe he has become an untouchable; that he can insult anyone and any group of people and be applauded.  But his last outing may yet proof to be his Achilles heels.

The chief of staff to the Adamawa state governor is known for his belligerence towards anyone who disagrees with his brand of thuggish politics, or anyone with an independent mind to disagree with his bosses at any given time.  His attitude defies the age-old saying that “dress makes a man”.  Despite his being clothed by people far superior to him in character and comportment, he has failed to lift himself up from the gutters others have been trying their best to bring out from.  Rather true to his nature he has been doing his dandiest best to drag his benefactors in to his pigsty.

He has been severally reported in the past as daring (in insultive terms) anyone who may not like his brand of politics to do his worst  - he is the new kid on the block. May be he is yet to come to terms with his new elitist status and therefore failed to rid himself of his in-born thuggish insolence.  In the past ten years he was thrust into leadership positions by leaders who weren’t ready for leadership roles; leaders who were only willing to use him as a battering ram against their people knowing that he lacks scruples.  Honesty to him and his bosses is just another word and not a way of life and therefore makes dishonesty a way life.

An honest man had to be of one piece and one faith.  What constituted the life source, the idea in any man and why if any smallest part committed faux pas to that idea – in this case the mouth – the man is dead to al practical purposes.  The good, the high and the noble in society are only those who keep their integrity.  The chief of staff is not capable of reaching such heights because he is flawlessly inconsistent.  We will all be a heap sight better off if we will consign the likes of Abdurrahman Abba to the rubbish heap and continue with what our predecessors did – build a state.  Not ethnic alliances meant to bring down or exclude those regarded as not “qualified” to be of the unholy alliance.

The very idea the chief of staff is trying to promote was the precursor to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 which clamed the lives of no less than 1million people.  Garrulous and uncouth public officials who happen to find themselves in power like our chief of staff and using government propaganda machinery got their people in trouble in those days in Rwanda.  In emulating his precursors actions, the governor’s chief of staff is recklessly running his mouth without thinking the consequences or ramifications of his verbal diarrhea.  Even if he believe he is not touchable now, it will do him a world of good to pause for a moment, get his head out of his ethnic laager and beam his myopic eyes on the Hague.  He will find his soul mates behind bars waiting for their day of judgment.

Such alliances as he and his fellow travellers hasn’t worked in the past and will certainly not work now nor in the future - not in Adamawa and not anywhere.

The emptiness in the verbosity of our chief of staff is scary because the gullible, the undiscerning and the truly ethnicists may latch onto it thinking it is government policy and therefore unleash mayhem on the unsuspecting.  I had deliberately given him and his ilk a wide berth thinking they are not important enough for any verbal assassination.  But he is becoming a danger to the civilized society.

Nobody begrudges him his “Bataness” and he should therefore not hold anybody’s tribe or ethnicity against him.  If he believes strongly about who he is, so do others and where you have such a mix, there is bound to be combustion.  There has been pockets of ethnic related crisis in the state in the past where no one was held responsible.  Whenever there is any reoccurrence in the forseeable future, we know who to hold responsible.

As to those who were seated when the thug-in-chief was making his incendiary remarks and chose to keep mute, posterity will have no pity on them, to paraphrase Fanon.  This, in my book is either tacit approval or complicity in the tirade.  I strongly believe most of them are well beyond board but if they choose to associate themselves with such garbage in the future, we should find it difficult to spare when they are docked before the peoples’ court in the future.

Verbal thuggery is not a preserve of any individual – we can choose to be nasty when the time and occasion demands.  I am therefore belatedly asking my readers to forgive my language for this particular piece.  Much as I tried to be civil, I find this piece is as civil as I feel today.  This was my reason for trying to give the likes of Abdurrahman Abba I wide berth.  I fear I may pick up their bad habits – bad language inclusive.