Sometimes in December 2013, there was a news item in the newspapers to the effect that Danbaba Danfulani Suntai, the elected vegetating governor of Taraba State will be attending a Church service at the Dunamis International Church in Abuja. According to the reports, all security arrangements have been completed including the installation of body scanners at the entrance of the Church. Congregants were given thorough body search to forestall anyone with any unwholesome intention gaining entrance into the Church. Alas, all the arrangements came to nought as Danbaba failed to turn up. The explanation was that the service was very close to his flight schedule back to Jalingo, the Taraba state capital. The man was to later “appear” at a crossover service on new year’s eve that was fortuitously witnessed by columnists who only accompanied friends to Jalingo from other places. It was also reported that the governor went to his office and clearly remembered the things he wanted to do before his unfortunate accident. A miracle of no mean proportion, if you ask me. This is apart from the contrived “sightings” of this eighth wonder of the world. For God’s sake, Danbaba is not Harley’s Comet to be sighted by a chosen few.
From all that has been happening in Taraba State since the ‘return’ of Danbaba in late August from his treatment in New Jersey, it is becoming glaringly clear to all that those who appropriated the man to themselves don’t give a hoot to his health status so long as he remains alive to give life to their ambition. With a conniving and acquiescing wife, Danbaba is gradually being turned into a religious symbol rather than the politician that was voted as governor by all the people of Taraba State. He is now usurped by a few to the exclusion of the rest of the people of the state. He has being taken to everywhere bar the most important place of all – the State House of Assembly complex – lying next door to where he is imprisoned by those who love him and the state the most. We have seen pictures of the man at a fishing pond and at the church but we are yet to see him at either the state’s legislative House or the NUJ Secretariat in Jalingo.
Their recent junket (pilgrimage?) to Abuja to see T. Y. Danjuma and Goodluck Jonathan “preparatory to Danbaba’s resumption of office”. I wonder why go to all this trouble when they can simply walk the man into the legislative chamber to address the lawmakers and may be as an aside address the Correspondents’ Chapel in Jalingo instead of going to Abuja just to see T. Y. Danjuma, Goodluck Jonathan and then “address State House Correspondents”. What purpose could the trip to Abuja serve that won’t be served by convincing those who elected him as their governor or their representatives in the state House of Assembly? What is so important in visiting Taraba’s biggest masquerade and not the Speaker of the State’s House of Assembly? How can addressing State House Correspondents be more useful than the correspondents in Jalingo? Why are they scared in giving Danbaba unfettered access to his “people” – those that put him in the government house in the first place?
It may appear to objective minds that Danbaba is a hostage to religious bigots masquerading as politicians whose objective is to maintain the political strangle hold they have on the state. The issue of good governance, the Taraba people or Danbaba’s recovery is of no significance to these vultures that are not averse to amplifying our religious fissures as long as they maintain their grip on the state. Their attitude so far has shown that Danbaba symbolises religiousity not politics. I would have advised them, ex gratia, to go the whole religious hog by paying homage to Ayo Oritsejafor, our numero uno religious ideologue. They have succeeded in polarising the state along religious lines, which may not be of significance to them but it should and ought to be.
If power shift is all that matter to these clique, why are they fixated to taking Danbaba to churches only and not other places that matter like the legislature or even the occasional State Executive Council meetings? Are we to inteprete the actions of some few bigoted people as representative of the majority of the people of southern Taraba? Can the Muslims of Taraba be fair to their Christian brethren by thinking that the shenanigans of these conceited few is the mind-set of Christians in the state? Have these modern day “Turaiast” realise the implication of their actions on a state that is struggling with developmental problems?
Walking Danbaba Suntai to the State House Assembly will do all of them a whole more good than the merry go round of churches and visiting figures in Abuja, who cannot stand the heat at the national level and scampered to the comfort of their laagers to unnecessarily generate their own heat on a smaller platform. Those hired to write on witnessing “miracles” on the night of the crossovers are doing more harm to Danbaba than good. They are also doing more harm to the political and social cohesion of Taraba state. Danbaba Suntai is mortal – he is human for God’s sake – with all human frailties and fallibilities. Why are we trying to make him something else? One of the unintended consequences of the clique’s desperation is to show the world that Danbaba was only a governor for the Christians to the exclusion of Muslims. I don’t want to believe so.
Another unintended consequence of their actions is the unmasking of T. Y. Danjuma as a religious bigot and not Sardauna’s heir, as mistakenly believed by so many across the vast north (yours sincerely inclusive). History presented an opportunity for T. Y. to play a statesmanlike role in resolving the stalemate in his state, but he chose to be on the side of those whose motives are far from noble. The old general had gone down notches on the scale of respect people use to have for him across all divides.
Danbaba’s health status should be resolved post haste by all serious people irrespective of creed or ideology and should not be left in the hands of unscrupulous politicians looking for relevance or fading old men trying to play god.
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