RIDING THE TIGER BY THE TAIL

The macho in our security men only come to the fore when they are confronting ‘bloody civilians’ and only when they are on an errand for Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP.  Those who are unfortunate to pass through the various checkpoints and roadblocks that are ubiquitous in the north can attest to the humiliation and harassment they go through in the course of undertaking their daily chores.  While terrorists are running amok in the northeast killing and maiming without let or hindrance, our security men are content in molesting law abiding simple folks instead of confronting the killers marauding the northeast.  They are more noted for running away when faced by the terrorists than for their display of gallantry.  A government that many believed are complicit in the mayhem tearing apart the country inch by bloody inch condones the behaviour of the security men.  Our military men appear to be untouchable when “dealing” with us civilians – they behave as if they are not governed by any code of conduct or any rule of engagement.

This display of impunity has now being taken to the hallowed precinct of the National Assembly, the citadel of democracy, where the government deployed massive force in order to deny the Speaker of the House of Representatives entering his office and reconvening the House to debate the president’s request for an unending state of emergency imposed on three states of the northeast for the past eighteen months.  In an effort to stop an unyielding Speaker and his supporters (those who stood for democracy) from entering the National Assembly, the security operatives tear gassed the members of the House.  These are the representatives of the people, for God’s sake!  And this is supposed to be a democracy with all the so-called doctrine of separation of powers – where the National Assembly is not supposed to be an appendage of the executive arm of government.

With such behaviour, Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP are pushing Nigeria on to the path of anarchy just to make sure that good governance does not derail their inordinate ambition.  Or may be they are rushing to see who will fulfil the prediction by the Americans that the country will breakup into pieces by the 2015.  If that is not the case, how do you explain the continuous loss of Nigerian territory to terrorists while our security men watch from a safe distance?  The same security operatives who lack the liver to confront Boko Haram killers are the ones tear-gassing hapless legislators.  Is Goodluck Jonathan becoming so desperate that he is ready to plunge the country into chaos if he is denied the chance to continue as the president of Nigeria?  Is he ready to be the last president of Nigeria, as we know it today?  Are the advocates of a “Greater South” getting the upper hand over moderates?  And what are other Nigerians, particularly those from “Shariyaland” doing about it?  Are they going to fold their arms and wait for Armageddon to reach their doorsteps before they recognise it?

Most people, the legislators at the receiving end of the government’s high-handedness inclusive, stood aloof while these same security men were tormenting Nigerians.  Now that the imperiousness of the government has reached their doorsteps, will they act or remain indifferent like goats waiting to be slaughtered?  This time it is just bullets, we pray there won’t be ‘accidental discharge’ later.

The members of the national assembly have been cuddling Jonathan for long to the detriment of the nation and its citizens.  They weren’t overly concerned when insurgents overran their constituencies and killed, maimed and sent away others into lives of uncertainty; they were willing to accede to all of his demands as long as they are not personally affected; they were willing to forgo the safety and peace of those they claim to represent as long as that makes Jonathan happy; they were always eager to overlook all the impeachable offences committed by Jonathan as long as he keeps greasing their slimy hands; they are agreeable to play ostrich to all the misdemeanours and constitutional breaches done by the president as long as they are assured of an “automatic” ticket by the PDP.  Today, the tiger has bared its fangs on them.

Though one may find it difficult to sympathise with the members of the House of Representatives for what happened to them today, one might not be seen to be condoning brigandage and unconstitutionality.  Much as the members might have gotten their just desserts, we are aghast at how our country is being pushed over a cliff by a clique that has no interest of the country at heart.  Nigerians have to wake up to the reality that a group of militants are at the helm of our affairs – a group that has a horizon limited by their provinciality. 

Our security agencies lack the manpower and equipment to confront terrorists wrecking havoc on our brethren in the northeast, but have the manpower and bravery to tackle lawmakers in Abuja.  They also have enough manpower and firepower to spare 200 soldiers, led by a full Colonel, to provide security cover to Ali Madu Sherriff, an alleged Boko Haram Sponsor.  While all these imperiousness is going on, our lawmakers, who have been saddled with the responsibility of checking the excesses of the executive and a president that has gone out of control, were rushing to be identified with him.

The people of Nigeria are fed up with the divisive tactics of Jonathan and his group of provincial politicians whose only objective is to lord it over others while claiming to be the victims.  While majority of Nigerians are bidding their time for February 2015, our lawmakers are struggling to get in bed with our tormentor-in-chief.  It is a good sign to us that the two are now quarrelling in the open.  It may be a sign of good things to come.  Next may be the governors.

Tambuwal and all those opposed t0o Jonathan’s style of government may be well advised to seek out our local hunters for their personal safety and security.

NORTHERN LEADERS? GRRRRR

So our soldiers finally found the guts to “provide security” for Madu Ali Sherriff to enable him visit home and consult with his “people” – a commodity they couldn’t provide for millions of hapless citizens resident in the northeast?  It is the same army that has to be escorted by local hunters into trouble spots in the northern part of Adamawa.  Despite the accusation hanging on the neck of Ali Sherriff as a sponsor of Boko Haram, the army has clearly sent a signal to all who care to know that Ali Sheriff is more important than all the people of the northeast combined together.  What insult!  This insult on our collective sensibilities came right after the show of shame at the Eagle Square on November 11^th, 2014 by those pretending to be the leaders of the north.  A region that has been under siege since the day Jonathan took over power from the late Umaru Musa ‘Yar Adu’a.

I do not particularly like writing and I do not like commenting on the behaviour of my elders but writing is a catharsis to me.  The unfolding political drama in the country is increasingly frustrating where one is left with a feeling of hopelessness and abandonment.  Abandoned by those we believe should take our cause and make it their life’s vacation.  We have every cause to believe the responsibility of our welfare lies on their shoulders for the fact that they came to us cap in hand begging for our votes; begging us to be our representatives in one way or the other.  We also pay through our noses to make them comfortable - a degree of comfort we deny ourselves to pamper them.

But what have we got?  A group of over-pampered, over-paid and over-protected leaders who think nothing of sacrificing your life once they get their vote.  And on our parts, we have cuddled their sentiments and lies for long – we have to be through with that.  We have given them intelligent advice, backed with statistics; we also have to be through with that.  What we didn’t give them in the past is a kick in the butt – permit the language – but if that may bring them back to their senses, then we may have to give them a kick in the butt.  We shouldn’t care if Goodluck Jonathan is going to send a posse of the EFCC, plus all the militants in the Niger Delta after them; after all they called for it.  For when they were wining and dining with Jonathan, they forgot it was a broth stewed in the blood of the thousands killed in the northeast.

They have degraded us and our humanity in their bid to please Jonathan and curry his favour.  Their new constituencies do not go beyond Patience Jonathan, Edwin Clark, Tompolo and Asari Dokubo.  We are only but a footnote in their pursuit of the world – to be tolerated once every four years when the rituals of “renewing” their tenancy in Abuja and other state capitals comes up.  They have been derelict to our needs and basic survival or the future of our children.  By their selfish actions they have reduced everybody this side of the Niger to being afraid to live and act like human beings and like other Nigerians on the other side of the divide.  You are scared because you don’t know when and where the next bomb will explode.  You are terrified because you don’t know if your child will come back alive and in one piece from the school you sent him in the hope that his future will be better than your own.  You are petrified because the man you see in uniform may either be terrorists or a trigger happy security personnel who will kill you without blinking his eyes and claim ‘accidental discharge’ knowing his colleagues will cover him.

Own their part, they are horrified of losing their right to be invited to dinner or breakfast with Patience Jonathan; the opportunity of sending their kids abroad to be educated without the hassles associated with our educational system; the chance for their wives to travel to Dubai, Spain and other esoteric destinations for tummy tuck, face lift-up or even an analgesic. 

For a while I thought some of the young Turks among the leadership cadre in the north have the guts to yank the reins from those who sold their souls and our peace for a pot of porridge.  I thought they will stand up for equity and justice for all Nigerians as it was in the past; and be leaders who wanted the best deal possible for their people.  With what has been happening in the recent past, now I think I know better.  I was just bamboozled by isolated acts of braggadocio, which I misconstrued for bravery and gumption.  Most of them are so afraid of being in Jonathan’s bad books that they are ready to go down on all fours and crawl for his pleasure while the ground they crawl on is continually watered with the blood of innocent Nigerians of all creed and tribe.

What baffles me is what mask did Jonathan wore on the bribe he offered our leadership to make them sacrifice our lives, our children, our homes, our businesses and our peace, all on the altar of his political ambition?  How was he able to convince or coerce them into buying his agenda?  It is baffling to me that while the people they claim to represent are groaning under the kind of hardship unseen before in this country, they are competing to outdo one another in singing the praise of Jonathan.  Was the bribe disguised as an oil bloc, oil bunkering, elective or appointive office or even a private jet, which happens to be the toy of choice for our nouvea riche?  Or was it the freedom of not being prosecuted for past misdeeds and the opportunity to sin again.  While ‘confiscating’ our votes with one hand, our leaders are punching us in the nose with the other.  Yet they expect us to queue up behind them and applaud Jonathan while he is systematically exterminating us.

While we look up to our leaders as our guardians of our liberty, happiness, peace, equity and justice, they have turned out to be the squashers of all of the above and are ever willing and ready to collaborate with our traducer for him to achieve his aim.

Actually I don’t know why I am writing all this – will it make any difference?  I doubt much.  But if anybody has any objection to what is written above, I hasten to sustain the objection.  I respectfully withdraw whatever I wrote above that is uncomplimentary to our leaders.

It is telling that these leaders had to be escorted by a Battalion of the army led by a full Colonel for them to visit their “people”.   Leaders, my foot!

THE DECLARATION AMIDSTS BLOODLETTING

I woke up this morning feeling very angry for a reason I cannot grasp.  I looked around my room and went through my mind trying to locate the reason for my anger but couldn’t.  Then it hit me – Jonathan Goodluck is going to declare to Nigerians what they all know since – that he will contest for a “second” term.  The sheer cruelness of the declaration less than twenty four hours after more than forty nine students were bombed to smithereens and at a time millions of people have been chased away by terrorists from their homes and almost a whole geographical zone has been surrendered by the Nigerian Army to the terrorists with its attendant consequences.  I then thought is Jonathan Goodluck human at all?  Is there an atom of humanism in him?  I then said to myself he won’t dare declare while most of the soil in my part of the world is soaked in blood – the blood of innocent young kids which is yet to dry.  No, common sense will prevail.  In the event Goodluck decides to go ahead with his declaration, I tried to convince myself that all the northerners with him would withdraw their support or at least abstain from attending this celebration of death and destruction.

Alas, Jonathan declared and northerners were falling head over heels to be recognised as attending.  This got me really angry to the extent I began questioning my sanity.  Are these bunches of unfeeling, politically disconnected, grovelling politicians, genuflecting before Patience Jonathan, truly my representatives?  Do we really think for a moment that the people I saw around Jonathan care what happens to us – whether we live or we die?  Have our senses being so dulled to pain by docility and timidity that we are ready to accept these people as our leaders and condone their behaviour to the detriment of the whole northern region in particular and the country at large?  Have we been so mentally defeated that we acquiescent our fate with fatalism?  What kind of leadership will sit back and dine with those who doesn’t care whether their people are annihilated or not?

In the aftermath of the Kano pogroms of 1966, which itself was caused by the brutal murder of northern political and military leaders by a largely Igbo officer corps, Odumegwu Ojukwu as governor of the Eastern Region ask all Igbos then living in the north to go back to the east and declared the Biafra Republic.  Ojukwu did that ostensibly to protect the Igbos from being annihilated.  Whatever the demerits of his actions then, Ojukwu displayed leadership qualities by trying to protect his people from being massacred, as they saw it.  While half of the northeast is taken over by terrorists, politicians from the zone are lining up behind Jonathan in Abuja, back –patting with plastic smiles on their patsy faces.

My Adamawa state has been reduced to two Senatorial zones from three because Adamawa north Senatorial zone is now effectively under the control of the terrorists.  This zone is home to two minsters – Boni Haruna and Zainab Maina, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, the governor and Speaker of Adamawa State House of Assembly, a senator and two members of the National Assembly.  All of them have remained mute on the happenings in their area.  While their people have ran to the bush, they are ensconced in the comforts of Abuja and most of them are with Jonathan at the Eagle Square today, mocking the memory of the dead and those whose lives have been permanently dislocated.

The coterie of northern politicians queuing up behind Jonathan is guiltier of the murders taking place in the region and they should know their hands are dripping with the blood of the innocent.  I hope to God that their consciences (if they have any) should continue to disturb them and the ghosts of the dead should deny them peace for the rest of their miserable lives.  The people of Adamawa state are now living in perpetual fear of being overrun by the terrorists, yet some people from the state are blaspheming on the good things Jonathan did to the north and the northeast.  How did these people ever get to where they are? Riding on the back of corpses, of course.  It is terrible.  Poor northerners.  What the politicians at the Eagle Square forgot to mention is the introduction of violence to a region hitherto known for its tolerance.  And fittingly enough it all started at the Eagle Square, the very place they gathered today to pay homage to Satan and Satanism, on October 1^st, 2010 the first time Jonathan celebrated independence day as President.

Northerners in Jonathan’s corner are not conscious of their responsibilities to their constituents and whatever God they worship or their traditions of being their brothers’ keepers.  It is for them a very lucrative undertaking.  It is left for the ordinary man on the street to have the courage to face those crooks whenever they feel safe to come home from their abodes in Abuja.  The ordinary poor must accept the shocking fact they “he is on his own” and elevate his survival instinct to a level he could be able to outlive the carnage going on around him.  The ordinary Nigerian should endeavour not to let his intelligence be hamstrung by any sentimental concern promoted by propagandists, but to permit cool reason guide his choices in 2015.

Though Jonathan can be described both as mendacious and malignant, he had a collaborative host in the leadership of the north.  This accidental president has destroyed the region and the north should therefore unite and vote him out of office.  The Quislings among us should be left to the vagaries of time.  Goodluck Jonathan has degraded the office of the president of Nigeria by reducing it to a clannish enclave and debauched our democracy through reptilian cunning and divisive policies.  Most Nigerians are aware of this apart from the crowd from the north – the region that bore Jonathan’s destructive brunt.

Our politicians should know that allowing themselves the vain corruption of safety is not theirs and must therefore be bold enough to tell themselves that neither Jonathan nor them can give them that.  Them and we are all human beings on this earth and in Nigeria, with minds, heart and limbs that could be easily hurt or broken like the poor souls in our troubled areas.  The politicians may believe their own position to be high, but no higher than the man in Limankara whose family were wiped out and he was unlucky to survive and bear the pain for the rest of his live; or the woman in Pakka who had to bear the pain of labour in the bushes of Maiha without a midwife or medical attention; or the child in the wilderness of Kuburshosho, wandering the mountain sides, living on legumes and roots for sustenance while grieving the loss of a mother and father.

They should feel no more secure than the school child in Potiskum or Buni Yadi, who while hiding in terror, saw how his schoolmate was brutally murdered while the government and its operatives watch.  If the ordinary man in Hildi or Abadam could be killed or maimed, so could they.

THE FALL OF MUBI: APRIL 1990 REVISITED

Three months back, Mr. Boni Haruna, the Minister of Youth Development (Sarkin Matasa) looked Nigerians in the eye and told them that Goodlick Jonathan has brought peace to the country and therefore need four more years to build on what he started.  A week later Boko Haram overran his Michika local government and since then he has remained mute.  In saner climes, he would have apologised for his faux pas.  When he made his statement, the terrorists were at his doorsteps – Gwoza.  Haruna was so fixated on retaining his plum ministerial office that he was willing to tell lies and cover up Jonathan’s incompetence as a leader.  He wasn’t bothered one bit that his people are killed, maimed and their businesses destroyed.

While Boni Haruna was praising the president’s peace making (building?) efforts, the killers were going through Madagali, Michika, parts of Hong, Mubi North and Mubi South local governments like hot knife in butter.  The humanitarian catastrophe this engenders is of no consequence to Mr. Haruna.  The people of the area have now been reduced to living a primitive lifestyle in the mountains.  Their lives have been shattered and may never be the same again.  A whole Senatorial district is now under threat and all our Sarkin Matasa can think of is how Jonathan can retain his office.

Looking at the local governments under the control of the terrorists, one is left to wonder whether those from the area and currently serving in various levels of government are Nigerians or not.  This may be a topic for another day.  The fact is that both ministers from Adamawa state in the federal executive council, the state governor and the Chief of Defence Staff are from that same Senatorial Zone, now effectively cut off and carved out from Nigeria.  With the government’s silence on the status of these local governments in the hands of the terrorists, what is the legal status of Boni Haruna and company?  Are they Nigerians or…?

I have always been a sceptic on the issue of Boko Haram – its operators and operations.  A rag-tag army that has suddenly transformed into a fearsome fighting force – fearsome enough to make our ‘civilian terrorising’ military run for dear life whenever they are sighted, raises a lot of questions in my mind.  The founders of Boko Haram –their spiritual leader and alleged financier were killed in 2009, which led to the movement becoming hydra headed.  The movement back then was made up of street urchins, university dropouts and those generally dissatisfied with the way life is treating them.  How were they able to transform in to this formidable elite strike force at the same time our soldiers are scampering for checkpoint and kitchen duties?  When and where were they trained? 

I have this eerie feeling that the escalation of violence in the north (particularly the north east) and subsequent declaration of separate administrative entity by the terrorists in the areas they now occupy has historical connection to the abortive coup of April 1990.  The principal officers of the failed putsch are now very visible in Aso Villa – Col. Tony Nyiam, Major Saliba Mukoro, etc.  During their failed attempt to grab power, their spokesman Gideon Orkar announced the excision of some parts of Nigeria in their attempt to remake Nigeria in their image.  We have seen this sinister plan resurface again during the just concluded ill-advised National Conference.  Interestingly, Tony Nyiam was one of those selected by Jonathan to midwife the conference.  And again interestingly, the portion of the country under the control of the terrorists was among the parts of the country excised by the putschists.

I also came across correspondences between Chinwezu and G. G. Dara in the Diaspora Dialogue Series on how to go about creating a “greater south” and a “Shariyaland”.  According to the duo, if the people of “Shariyaland” cannot be made to leave Nigeria peacefully, they should be shoved aside by force of arms.   In my opinion, the escalation of violence in northeast became prominent immediately after the conclusion of the national conference and the failure of our modern day anarchist to push their plans down our throats.  We have seen the roles played by the Dara group and their northern accomplices like Professor Jerry Gana, who it was alleged several times bailed Mohammed Yusuf from the police.

When you begin to connect those seemingly unrelated happenstances  - the 1990 Gideon Orkar radio broadcast, the Jerry Gana bail allegations, the hurried nature of convocating a national conference, the failed attempt to railroad a pre-planned agenda, the alignment between the southern minorities and the Jerry Gana group, the missing billions of dollars, the escalation of violence in the north east and subsequent occupation of same by a supposedly rag-tag army, who hitherto have been confined to a non-existent impregnable forest and the government’s silence over the lost of Nigerian territory, one is left to come to the unpalatable conclusion that what is happening has a government imprimatur.

Why has the north suddenly become known for strives?  The northeast is bedevilled with Boko Haram; north central of Nigeria is the epicentre of farmers/ herders clash while bandits and cattle rustlers are having a field day in the northwestern part of the north.  The most vicious of these groups of terrorists, the Boko Haram has by far being the most vicious and organised.  I cannot understand how they are able to capture towns and villages, hoist their flags and maintain their grip on their conquest before moving to the next unfortunate town.  Take the case of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls who has been in their captivity for more than six months now.  No one apart from the Bring Back Our Girls campaigners is saying anything about the girls.

Where do they get their supplies – arms food supply?  How do they feed the over 200 girls in their captivity?  How do they replenish their ammunition?  The phantom cease-fire deal entered between the federal government and the insurgents coincided with the detention of Nigerian owned aircraft and money in South Africa.  The money was said to have been meant for the purchase of arms and ammunition by the Nigerian government, but for which unit and why go through the back channel?  The conspiracy theory-weaving part of my brain saw a linkage between the forfeiture of the money and the cease-fire announcement.  Some few weeks after this episode, the terrorists came out bolder and march through Uba and took over Mubi, the second biggest town in Adamawa while our soldiers ran with their tails tucked between their legs.

There have been allegations that villagers have been sighting helicopters dropping fighters, arms and ammunition or food supplies but the authorities have consistently denied these allegations.  The embarrassment in South Africa raised a lot of questions than answers.  Some of the questions borders on the propriety or otherwise of the federal government using Oritsejafor’s plane to carry out such business when there are more than twelve planes in the presidential fleet; how could a government that has diplomatic relations with another government go to the underground market to buy arms? I have tried to expunge the treasonable thought that some people in government or the government itself has a hand in what is going in the north east, but this dangerous feeling refused to go away.

The sooner the people of the north realise that the agenda by the Tony Nyiam group that was aborted in 1990, is unfolding before our very eyes the safer for all of us.   The northern leadership cadre – political, traditional and military – has been found remiss in its leadership responsibilities.  I hope they won’t be called to pay one day – that is, if they are not already paying.

For the poor, all I can say is that der is God wo!

THE FINTIRI PHENOMENON

On July 15^th, 2014 a revolution took place in Yola, the Adamawa state capital courtesy of the state’s legislators.  Sadly, the revolution was truncated eighty-six days later by forces who felt threatened by the success recorded within this short period of time.  This period can be likened to an era of enlightenment for a people and a state long held hostage by a few self-serving individuals whose concept of governance is not beyond the subjugation of the people, self-aggrandisement and self-glorification through recourse to ethno-religious divide and the pillage of state resources.  These people have no sense of rights or responsibilities – their responsibilities begin and end with their immediate families and cronies.  While a whole state suffers and stutters, they rejoice and swim amidst ill-gotten wealth; the tears of the poor are the oil for their seamy lives.

On this day, a relatively unknown quantity (unknown by their weird standards) ascended the seat of the governor of the state by providence and thereby “distorted” a succession plan laid before the impeachment.  Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, the Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly was never in the loop as far as the powers that be are concerned and was considered an interloper by the mandarins holding the jugular of Adamawa State.  On taking the oath of office, he hit the ground literally running.  He tinkered with the administration of the civil service, lighted up a fourteen kilometre stretch of road which was earlier awarded at a cost that was 200% the cost at which Fintiri awarded, completed, equipped and commissioned hospitals in Numan and Jada and paid the civil servants their salaries withheld since 2011 for sadistic reasons.

In the short time that he spent holding the reins of governance in the state, he succeeded in restoring hope to a people who has given up on government and politics.  He has shown that government can work when there is the will and the commitment.  After taking over from a government that has all but killed the civil service, he revitalised the civil service and made it the fulcrum of administration and the arrowhead of his rescue mission.  He embarks on projects that are people-oriented.  The sum of it all is that Fintiri demystified the myth that government cannot work or be sensitive to the needs of the people.  That governance is no rocket science.  All it takes to run a successful government is the commitment, sincerity of purpose and the fear of God.  These actions, small as they may appear, scared those whose stock in trade has always been deception.

The campaigns of calumny began on all fronts with a single aim – bring down Fintiri before he disrobes us.  With a gullible audience, a malleable judiciary and a conniving presidency, they succeeded in bringing his government to an end.  But did they succeed in bringing him down?  I don’t think so.

The campaign was so childish, insensitive and beggars believe with the calibre of those involved in the whole mess.  Unsavoury comments were attributed to him in an effort to demonise him and make him a hated figure.  Comments like “I have broken the calabash of the Fulani’s”, “my mother is a Christian and therefore I will convert to Christianity once I am elected to the office of the governor of Adamawa State”, and many more crazy things.  After the court terminated his acting tenure, allegations of stealing N18billion was bandied around the cyber world by people I thought were too “educated” to believe, let alone circulate such crap.

After sifting the multitude of allegations, those I mentioned above appear to me the most mundane among them.  They also diminished our status, in my opinion.  Assuming Fintiri’s mother is a Christian (which she is not) how does that disqualify him from being the governor of the state.  Am I to infer from this mindless allegation that Christians are precluded from ascending the governorship position in Adamawa State?  When has it been criminalised to practice one’s choice of religion and practice it free from any discrimination?  Was the constitution of the federal republic amended to expunge the section guaranteeing the freedom of worship?  The allegation of stealing N18billion in eighty-six days is the most idiotic of all.  Before making assholes (excuse the language), why don’t we use our common sense (I agree it is not common) to make some informed comments?  Did we care to find out how much accrued to the state within the period Fintiri was holding fort?  I believe with the Freedom of Information Act (FOA) one can easily get the details of all financial in-flows to any state government in the country.  To go ahead and make such wild allegations is the height of irresponsibility in my book.

The investigations conducted by the Fintiri led administration, with the assistance of consultants, on the state of the government’s finances and its relationship with its bankers, opened a can of worms and provided a bird’s eye view on how the impeached government in collaboration with its bankers have been milking the state dry.  While the state was wilting and dying inch by inch, they were living fat off its skeleton.  The financial recklessness unearthed by the consultants has no reference in the history of financial administration in the state’s chequered history.  A whopping sum of N72billion has been systematically stolen while an overdraft of another N12billion was serviced every month to the tune of over N1billion.  Instead of explaining how N72billion was frittered away, they resorted to painting Fintiri with the same brush they painted themselves in the hope of obfuscating their crimes.

I feel ashamed that people that I know and count among my associates could descent to this level just to remain “relevant” or attempt to destroy someone else’s career simply because he refused to be identified with any “godfather” and choose to hold on to his God as his “Godfather”.  Have we so lost our sense of propriety to the extent that we are willing to tell lies against others and invite the wrath of God on us for a pot of porridge?  I have mixed emotions for this crowd at the moment – are they to be shunned or pitied? 

Fintiri’s tenure as acting governor was brought down – yes; his ambition to contest for the residual tenure of Nyako was shot down by the enemies of the state – yes; but was he brought down?  No.  it is our collective lost.  I pitied the people of Adamawa, who were the primary beneficiaries of the policies and programmes designed to be implemented by Fintiri.  The beginnings of a template on good governance was about to manifest, when the forces of darkness struck but I believe it may not be easy for anyone to deviate substantially from the path charted by Fintiri without inviting the wrath of the poor.  Kan mage ya waye.

KOBIS TO BE HONOURED? COME ON!

In years gone by, it was a mark of recognition for one to be considered for the award of the national honour in any category but the list in the recent past is becoming more and more controversial and fast losing its lustre.  The current nominees for the conferment of the various categories of the national honours is a case in point.  Those saddled with the selection process are either negligent in their duties or are becoming outright careless. There are names of people in the list who I would think twice before having my name appear alongside theirs in a thousand years. 

I take strong exception to the inclusion of such people like Mr. Aris Kobis Thinmu, the immediate past Secretary to the Adamawa State Government; a man whose name has become a byword for corruption, incompetence and a poster boy for bad governance.  Though I do not know the criteria for one to be qualified for consideration and inclusion in the list, at least the fact that it is supposed to be a “honours” list is enough to disqualify the likes of Kobis from being considered if we still give the word its proper meaning and definition.  This is a man who had to be threatened with arrest by a Judicial Panel of Inquiry in his state before he put in an appearance.  A man whose office is supposed to be the engine room of government but chose to turn that office into a conduit pipe for siphoning public funds and institutionalising sleaze as government policy, being honoured instead of being hounded.  I never knew our values have been so desecrated by state institutions to this level.

If those with the responsibility of choosing persons to be honoured are vigilant, they will have known that Kobis has ceased to be the Secretary to the Adamawa State Government since July 15^th, this year.  They ought to have also known that he is wanted in his state to come and answer questions bordering on criminal activities while he held sway as the SSG.  The Selection Committee ought to have known even from the newspapers that Kobis has been a guest of the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for about three months now.  So though it may be an honest mistake or oversight on the part of the Committee, to me it is crass dereliction of duty.

For the benefit of those who do not know the man, he was the SSG to the Nyako administration for six of its seven years in office.  It was during his tenure as SSG that governance stagnated to pre-historic levels and corruption took a live of its own.  Absenteeism became the norm rather than aberration. The office of the SSG became the epicentre of sleaze and not the engine room of governance it is supposed to be.  An office listed in the constitution and even assumed to be part of the succession line in the event that the line will go down that far.  An office held in the past by the likes of the late Hamidu Alkali, Zakka Nagga, Sa’idu Ahmed, John Manassah was violated by the presence of Kobis.

The level of administrative decadence can be seen right from the State Secretariat where the office of the SSG is located.  The unmotorable road network within the complex is the first eye sore one is confronted with the moment you drive into the complex.   The once well-paved roads look like the practice field of those who enjoy using IEDs and bombs as toys.  The complex itself looks like a ghoulish castle – dark, dank and smelly.  There was no electricity or pipe-borne water throughout the complex.  What you have for electricity are small generators in all the ministries polluting both the air and the noise, including the office of the SSG.  This is a man who found nothing wrong in providing electricity and potable water to his home but couldn’t do that for his office but chose to steal the money and buy properties in Abuja and other cities – ventures that are of no benefit to the people of the state.

Is this the man the national honours Selection Committee chose to honour with the fourth highest medal that Nigeria can bestow on its finest?  What have we done to deserve such gratuitous insult from the Jonathan government?  The mere thought of someone of Kobis’s pedigree once occupied the exalted office of the SSG is enough punishment for the people of the state without us having being affronted in this manner.  If the spate of allegations coming out of the Justice Bobbo Umar Judicial Panel is a yardstick of Kobis’s administrative prowess, then not only that he shouldn’t be honoured, but he should be prevented from mingling with civilised human beings.  In societies that are already in the twenty first century the man will have been locked up long since and the keys to the gaol thrown into the Atlantic.  In China he would have been dead times over.

With the inclusion of the likes of Kobis in the list, I can now understand the reasons behind the late Achebe’s rejection to be honoured by his country twice.  Guyuk Local Government is home to Senator Silas Zwingina, two Michaulums – Paul and Harold – while one is a Professor of Geography, the other is a retired bureaucrat.  Any of the three could well have qualified to be honoured and will be more deserving.  And if the nominee must come from the state secretariat complex, then I nominate Sadiq, an ubiquitous beggar at the secretariat who has seen his share of SSGs.  All of them are better than Kobis.

THE PETITIONERS ARE HERE AGAIN!

While thinking that I am done with lamentations about Adamawa politics I came across a petition by one of those fly-by-night organisations floated specifically for their mischief values.  Not forgetting their mercenary origins. The organisation, which goes by the name “Concerned Youths for Good Governance in Adamawa State” called for the disqualification of the Adamawa State acting governor from participating in the September 6^th, 2014 PDP primaries for the nomination of the party’s flag bearer in the October 11^th, 2014 gubernatorial by-election.  I couldn’t believe that at this late hour somebody, somewhere will resort to such underhanded tactics in order to gain undue advantage in a wrestling contest where most of the contestants have their hands tied to their backs by the powers that be.  From where I am sitting, it appears to me the PDP primaries is meant to achieve a particular outcome, though I must confess not being a member of the PDP, I may not know how the party’s system works.

Though the group claimed to be a youth vanguard for good governance in Adamawa state, it unwittingly revealed its hand of being a vehicle for causing confusion.  Are we to assume that it is only the PDP that is synonymous with “good governance”?  Because as one reads the petition, the group asserted that “we as loyal members of the party would have to act quickly to abort subversion of the cherished democratic credentials of the party”.  Fat chance!  You can clearly see that it is a put-up job, paid by certain interest in an attempt either to gain advantage or send a message subliminally to the credulous on the acting governor’s eligibility or otherwise to contest in the elections.

The opening paragraph sounded very impressive – “…good governance in Adamawa State”.  They began their letter with “The fulcrum of democracy is observance of law and order and laid down rules and regulations”.  That is just the issue.  When was the PDP ever known to adhere strictly to its laid down rules and regulations?  If the PDP had adhered to these rules and regulations, would it have allowed relatively new comers participated in its primaries?  It is my humble believe that democracy is all about universal adult suffrage by all.  This includes the right to vote and be voted for anyone above the age of eighteen and of sound mind.  And this right is guaranteed by the constitution of the land.  If this is the case, then I wonder why the PDP will insist on “defectors” from other parties serving for a certain period of time before being eligible to contest for any elective office.  But all this is by the way and no concern of mine.  I am just concerned by the fact of the exclusion tone of the petition.

I saw this petition just few hours after the PDP in its “wisdom” granted waivers to Ribadu, Marwa and Gundiri all them aspirants on the platform of the PDP.  Though I promised to myself not to comment on the by-election anymore, I was forced to reconsider my stand after reading the petition.  Assuming Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri was a member of the APC at a point in time, what rights has the trio got that he hasn’t.  I used the word assuming because I remember in the heat of the impeachment that brought Fintiri to the executive from the legislature, I had cause to argue with someone on whether the members of the state House of Assembly had ever decamped to the APC from the PDP.  I cannot ever remember reading anywhere that the state legislators had joined Nyako in either the nPDP or the APC, so the issue of “decamping” to the PDP from the APC cannot arise.  I remember telling him that I can smell trouble for Nyako when I read the announcement.  The rest as they say is history.

The fact that a certain “Umoru Ahmadu” registered for the APC at a particular ward doesn’t mean it is “Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri” who registered.  Beside the names Umaru and Ahmadu are common names in this part of the country but ‘Umoru’ sounds strange in this part of the world.  It is very miserable that youths can be used in a way not different from paid praise singers – and most often than not against their own interests – for peanuts.  If truly a youth group pens the ‘petition’, then they should be well advised to realise that whatever variant of democracy they are watering may come to haunt them when the stage is left for them.  If they know their politics or current affairs, they should know that Fintiri preceded the entire waiver “grantees” in the race for September 6^th.  I read with amusement the “permission” granted by the PDP to serial “defectors” and flip-floppers to contest but here are some “youths” praying to the aristocrats of the party to deny their “party leader” in the state the opportunity to exercise his inalienable right.

Should the PDP harken to this infantile call, I will advise the APC to roll out its celebratory drums to celebrate the fact that the sitting governor of Adamawa state is their member.  But this “petition” could also mean Fintiri is making an impact by whatever he has done different from the time he took over from Nyako.  If it is for the good of the state, the “youths”, he should continue.  My advise ex gratia to this particular desperado is to go to Adamawa and “connect” with the people instead of this infantile exercise.

CRY, MY BELOVED ADAMAWA

Oh, Adamawa, my Adamawa.  Adamawa is on the verge of being raped again, no thanks to the lowering of the leadership bar.  All manner of gangsters are now free to go for the highest executive office in the state.  It may appear the state has been diminished by the ousted administration to the extent that any would-be bandit has thrown his hat into the ring of the forthcoming gubernatorial by-election for the residue of Nyako’s tenure.  I am at pains to comprehend how we came to this sorry past.  Adamawa, home to academic giants, military heroes, business moguls and first class civil and public servants since independence.  The same Adamawa that produced the likes of Mallam Ahmed Joda and Musa Bello, Professors Samuel Aleyeidino, Iya Abubakar and Jibril Aminu, the Adamawa of General Jalo and Air Marshal Idi Bello.  My Adamawa is lying naked before some good and some not so good aspirants vying to be the next governor or looter, depending on who emerges or is imposed as the next governor.

I just finished going through an advertorial in Daily Trust by one of the aspirants, Dr. Ahmed Modibbo, listing his programmes.  On paper, they all appear laudable and achievable if handled by the right person.  Right person in morality, temperament and perpendicularity.  All the objectives listed by the candidate are critically required for the state to at least pretend to join the list of modern states.  From insecurity bedevilling the state in the extended war in the northern part of the state to the near total collapse of education; to the unprecedented decay in healthcare delivery.  All these sectors must be tackled for Adamawa people to begin to “live”.  But my caveat is that, the right person must be voted before all these are realised. 

Dr. Ahmed Modibbo spent the better part of his life in the education sector – I deliberately refused to say he is an educationist.  I hope the reader will understand the difference.  As far as I know, a person who spends his life selling books, or making furniture for educational institutions only or even selling chalk and dusters can claim to spent his life in education but that doesn’t qualify one as an educationist.  And I shouldn’t be misunderstood to be referring to Dr. Modibbo in the above group.  He spent his entire career between Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (ABU), National Teachers Institute (NTI) Kaduna and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).  He also headed the last two institutions.  These are no mean achievements and may therefore be termed as preparatory ground for any higher executive office.  It ought to be, but is it?

Almost four years back, spates of allegations that are yet to be denied flew around on the man’s moral corruption when he supervised the above organisations ranging from unsavoury revelations regarding admissions in ABU, to award of contracts to particular companies in which he had pecuniary interests.  These contract award scandals dogged his last years in UBEC, thereby denying him a second term and they were subjects of various litigations where he admitted in a direct testimony in court to have awarded a N2billion contract to a yet to be registered company and collecting and clearing their payments on their behalf since they don’t have a bank account.  There was also the question of ethical and moral uprightness hanging on his head, which refused to go over time.  May be he is banking on the fact that time erases such things from our memories.

Among the key areas he listed that he will tackle head-on once elected, is education and this sector needs a lot of attention.  But if Dr. Modibbo’s track record the NTI and UBEC are to be the yardstick by which to judge him and gauge the seriousness of his intent, then as far as my vote goes, he should forget his gubernatorial ambition.  And Adamawa state should be prepared for more of what obtained in the recent past.  Contract awards galore.  Nepotism.  Cronyism.  Can the state survive this mode of leadership again so soon after coming out of the misadventure perpetrated by the carpetbaggers recently kicked-out?  Adamawa state reminds me of one of the classic movies, the Good, The Bad and The Ugly, where bandits will invade a town, raze it to the ground after stealing its valuables and disappear into the sunset.  I hope we are not on the road to perdition.

The people of the state should be careful in choosing their next governor.  Yes, the state needs to be rescued – but from who? Definitely from those with questionable moral standards who may not be averse to dipping their hands in the till to satisfy the cravings of spouses and their relations.  The state needs to be rescued from those who cannot differentiate between the personal and the official.  We just got out of one mess, let’s be careful not to rush into another.

NUHU RIBADU: GENUINE ARTICLE OR PHOTO TRICK

I am at a lost.  Am terribly, completely totally at a loss and I believe I have reached the hopeless junction as far as Nigeria is concerned.  The lust for power exhibited by the defection of Nuhu Ribadu from the All Peoples Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic (PDP) is unfathomable, not withstanding his right to freely associate with whomsoever he chooses to associate.  But I believe with the kind of public image he cultivated in the past, it is a cruel deception on the teeming poor Nigerians who erroneously believed he was the genuine article.  May be I am taking the whole thing personal. 

Can Ribadu truly sleep with both eyes open on the same bed with Goodluck Jonathan, whom he classified as “one of the most corrupt Nigerians I ever investigated while at EFCC and his level of corruption even as deputy governor is just disturbing.  PDP is just a disaster and a total failure.  Change is the only panacea”.  This was as recent as 2011.  Or even DSP Alamasiyegh, Jonathan’s boss, who Ribadu humiliated by handcuffing him and dragging him from the comforts of government house, Yenagoa to the imperial feet of Obasanjo?  Or Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu, the PDP national Chairman, who was forced into self-exile by Ribadu for about two years before returning to be made the national Chairman of a party Ribadu called “a disaster and a total failure? Or the likes of Bode George who was forced to sharpen his kleptocratic tendencies in the Kirikiri Prison finishing school?

This particular political move is incomprehensible and unexplainable, no matter which way you analyse it.  Yes, Ribadu have the right to associate with the good, the bad and the ugly.  That is his prerogative.  But it is also our privilege to reject impostors and frauds.  It is also our right to choose the company we are identified with.  While trying to absorb the fact that Ribadu is now a PDP member, I was scandalised, to say the least, to see him on television at the PDP Adamawa State Secretariat in company of the likes of the former Adamawa State PDP Chairman and Secretary plus some other characters who played leading roles in the financial rape of the state. The same people who were leading actors in the promotion of nepotism, bad governance and architects of the stunted political and structural growth bedevilling the state.

Was Ribadu all this while playing up a role he knew that wasn’t him? Was he just exploiting the crave by Nigerians for good governance and accountability?  We believed him.  His constant invocation of God’s name at whatever occasion he is allowed to talk; his contrived zeal and passion to give the country a better society – a society where every leader will be called to account for his deeds and misdeeds.  We believed him and believed in him.  We didn’t know it was all photo trick.  We were gullible and trusting and look what we got.  At least even if he succeeds in his quest for power, we know we are not getting the genuine article but a counterfeit – forged in the same workshop as the likes of Bode George, Alamaseiyegh, Andy Uba and the rest of the gang.  We should be thankful to God that Ribadu showed his true colours before he got into power.

Ribadu’s new associates are the same people he castigated in the media, dragged to court in publicised cases with some shedding tears like Saminu Turaki, including his former boss in the Police, Tafa Balogun.  His famed reputation was solely built on these high profile prosecutions and media visibility.  If today Ribadu choose to wine and dine with these same people, how could I be convinced that all that happened in the past was not a put up?  Who do you trust in the trench now?  How can we move the country in to the 21^st century when our selfish agenda takes precedence over national interest?  Femi Fani-Kayode was unmasked for what he is and not what he has been claiming to be, are we witnessing the beginning of the demystification of Nuhu Ribadu?

Or may be we are at fault and looking out for supermen among us who should be above board in a society noted for its decadent life style.  Why did we trust and believe that Ribadu was different?  Was it because of the passion and zeal (sad to say, faked) he exhibited while he was at the EFCC or was it our unquenchable yearning for good governance which we only hear on the radio in other countries like Niger?

What ever was Ribadu’s selling power, I believe many are now the wiser of the decade-long deception.  It has been laid bare by the man himself.  Only thing is that he is expecting the Adamawa people to still see him as a knight in shiny armour who is out to rescue a damsel (Adamawa state) in distress.  He has chosen his friends like the former Chairman of the Adamawa State chapter of the PDP and his secretary, it is therefore left to the people of the state to either choose to empower them with their votes to continue the primitive style of leadership that they were rescued from or tell them to go jump in River Benue for all they care.

Let’s tell those who are backing Nuhu Ribadu to come and contest elections that they are backing the wrong horse.  If we wanted Ribadu’s new friends to continue lording it over us, no one would have celebrated Nyako’s ouster.  There wouldn’t have been any need for any by-election with all its attendant stresses, rancour and logistical nightmares.  With the new Nuhu Ribadu, I would rather go Nyako. QED