Kebbi 2003: Between Aleiro and Sambawa

By

Tanimu Jibrin Isah

Forwarded by S.B. Samaila

SBSAMAILA@aol.com

Mr. Lanre Adebayo is blind. He is also a journalist. His beat is the arts and culture of the Guardian newspapers. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. In fact he has executed his office well that no day passes without a piece adorning a section of that page of the Guardian.  That, despite his handicap.

I met Mr. Adebayo in my sitting room in Birnin Kebbi; that is if meeting someone for the first time from a television screen is a physical act. What led me to acknowledge Mr. Adebayo’s existence at all, and particularly in this write-up, was a statement he made to the affect that he has, despite his visual defect, been successful as a journalist.

Reason for this success of his, which has afforded him to keep his job at the Guardian he said, was his “institutive mind” and the ability to “perceive” and translate the dark world outside. This meeting was at the instance of the 40th anniversary of the Pacelli School for the Blind, his former alma mater relayed on the NTA network.

What Mr. Lanre was saying was that despite his blindness he could still apply the power of intuition to perceive the outside world; by interpreting accurately, the message an artwork conveys to a discerning mind. I was marveled at the ingenuity of this sightless fellow determined to prove that blind men and women are not necessarily helpless and hopeless. He was saying, and loudly so, that those with eyes, and can see, are often more helpless and hopeless than those with defects.

Wondering where I am heading? The obvious, if you chose to look at the political landscape today. The murky world of politics has since taken its toll, and the actors in the game are careless of the resultant effect. They are as defective as Mr. Adebayo except for the fact that they lack his perceptive mind.

Take Governor Adamu Aleiro of Kebbi State as an example. Within the last one year of the three on the saddle, his deficiency as a leader of the people has shone like the Northern star. He has alienated so many hitherto known to back his every action in the governance of the state.

I was one of such people, though I operated from afar, and away from the corridors of power. In fact I am no contractor or a card-carrying member of the ruling ANPP or any other party for that matter. I was just a stakeholder in Kebbi State, and one who believed at the initial first year that the Governor needed the benefit of the doubt – a chance to learn the ropes. But he proved me wrong.

We can recall how Aleiro was selected and later elected under the banner of the then APP. Of course we know he was able to do this through the weight of his moneybag, which was filled to the brim with crisp Naira notes. And, as late entrant to the race for Kebbi Government House, he also had the backing of the traditional institutions. They have since regretted that, never mind the “limo” gift to each and every one of them.

In fact Mohammed Adamu Aleiro capitalized on the rejection of old timers and the relatively unknowns in the Kebbi landscape, to clinch the race to Kebbi Government House. Another was the internal wrangling that have bedeviled the PDP ever since.

Whether these got into his head, one can only say he has been less perceptive. Of the 50 or so percent that voted him into office, less than 15% now remain. The Generals, among who is a traditional ruler, have either deserted his camp or have been muscle out by upstarts. This is where his strategists, whoever they are, have failed. They should have told him that popularity is gained by courting your foes and friends alike.  

He has quarreled with his deputy for every week of the last three years to make the Tinubu-Bucknor Akerele power play seem a child play. In fact the deputy governor, who hails from one of the ANPP’s stronghold of Argungu, have had enough a long time ago, and was contemplating throwing in the towel, if not for elders within the party.  Now that he has gone, the fortunes of the ANPP in Argungu Emirate seem to hang in the balance, all thanks to Aleiro’s dull mind.

His admirers could still claim that Governor Aleiro still holds the ace viewed against the background of the efforts he made in transforming the state, as well as the incumbency factor. But equally, contending voices would claim that the Kebbi Governor had derailed along the way. They would say he selected projects based on the number of sycophants who would sing his praises rather than the genuiness of the request for project allocation to a particular ward or local government area. They would also

Perhaps Governor Adamu Aleiro has exhausted all his bright ideas, we or I thought he had. Perhaps, also, I must have misinterpreted the ability to make success of a private life to mean an ability to manage people. How wrong many of us were. say he chased away perceived enemies rather than tap from their mistakes.

The civil service has not faired well either. In fact the state chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress had been up in arms against the Aleiro administration for a quarter of the last three years. If it is not on account of a wrong move to buy an aircraft, or such other misplaced idea; it is on the issue of minimum wage or harassment of one or two of its members for daring to voice the anger within the civil service over the ineptitude of the Aleiro administration.

Perhaps, this is the time for us the people of Kebbi State to shop for a replacement. And I think we have the potentials. One of them, I dare say, is young, articulate and full of zeal to serve. Like Aleiro in the early days of 1998, I have come close to him only once. That was during the turbaning of the current Waziri of Gwandu.  Saidu Samaila Sambawa strikes me as the better option. Years have taken toll on most of us in Kebbi State, which is why we need the likes of him in the saddle.

He has a lot of promise like all young people. They want to develop along with their immediate environment. Which to me is a better assuarance.

In conclusion, let me however assure that this is not a campaign for Sambawa against Aleiro but one for a better tomorrow for our children, who by implication we have shortchanged through our selfish pursuits. If Sambawa could do better for Kebbi State from 2003 upwards, so be it. The fact remains that Kebbi needs a change.

Isah,is  a retired civil servant.