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.
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