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Jonathan’s Yea Sayers In The North: Same Old Crooks By Babayola M. Toungo
Last week, three people from the north were in the news for diametrically opposed reasons. While Mallam Nasiru El-Rufa’i was in the news for his fifteen hours detention for the offence of having the audacity to advise Goodluck Jonathan on the consequences of rigging next year’s elections, Tanko Yakassai was on the other hand inaugurating his latest moneymaking venture of ‘adopting’ Jonathan as the candidate of his part of the north. As a side attraction, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s appearance before the Senate added spice to a week that proved to be educative to all. Incidentally both Yakassai and Sanusi Lamido are from Kano. While the two younger men – El- Rufa’i and Sansusi are critical of the government’s handling of political and economic issues, Yakassai was trying to outdo Labaran (M)aku in praising the government of Jonathan as the best thing to ever happen to Nigeria and that Jonah should be allowed to contest next year. As a rider, the old man added for good measure that anybody from the north who has political ambition must shelve it now.
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the governor of the Central Bank and the Banker to the government, accused the government of systematically haemorrhaging the country’s finances through the methodical robbery in the oil sector superintended by Jonathan’s Minister, Deziani Madueke, overseen by another untouchable amazon of the cabinet, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, who is a master of obfuscation. Sanusi’s memo is an “ad memoire” to the letter he earlier wrote Jonathan alerting him of the theft at the NNPC (as if he doesn’t know). The new memo to the Senate alerted Nigerians on another disappearing act of $20billion dollars from the NNPC and how the scam is perpetrated through a non-existent kerosene subsidy. This is in addition to the $49.8billion said to have vanished into thin air last year.
Sanusi’s uncommon action was a very patriotic action alerting Nigerians and the world on the dangers Jonathan’s administration posed to the country and that nobody should do the mistake of trusting the man again with the destiny of the country. The underlying message in all of Sanusi’s communications is that Jonathan and the ‘gang’ have neither shame nor compunction when it comes to fleecing the country. Their understanding of fiscal federalism begins and ends with their pockets. Jonathan is not averse to stealing or behaving contrary to the laws of the land.
While Sanusi was waving the economic red flag for Nigerians to see how low we have sunk fiscally, Nasiru El-Rufa’i was a guest of the SSS, our modern day Gestapo. His offence? He advised the government to conduct a credible election in order to avoid crisis. The government has never been comfortable with anyone telling it the truth and it is becoming apparent that their reaction is becoming very predictable – unleash the security agents against such spoilsports. The definition of a subversive has now being changed from what we know it to whoever is against Jonathan’s recklessness and his ambition to rule us whether Nigerians like it or not. We have seen Asari Dokubo calling for war against the north in the event Jonathan is not returned as president next year and daring the security agencies to arrest him. After El-Rufa’I’s fifteen hours detention, and condemnations from within and without the country, Dokubo was invited for a 30-minute tea chat. This clearly shows that Dokubo is more important than El-Rufa’i to the government, Nasiru’s acknowledged brilliance notwithstanding. A thug has more relevance than an acknowledged accomplisher.
While Sanusi and El-Rufa’i are undergoing their separate mental and physical ordeals in the hands of Jonathan’s kinsmen, a senile old man was inaugurating what he called Northern Elders Council (NEC). Tanko Yakassai, a man who have been in the political field since the days of NEPU in the first republic, is embarrassing himself in public by denouncing all those having beef with Jonathan on how he is running the country. It matters little to Yakassai that the north where he claims to be an “elder” has been brought to its knees by the same Jonathan he is campaigning for. It matters little to him and his coterie of political contractors that the name Jonathan is akin to destruction of the same magnanimous north that made it possible for an unknown tailor to dance on the national political scene. It matters not to Tanko Yakassai, Yusuf Mamman, Hassan Adamu and the rest of the gang that Jonathan’s kinsmen threatened to ostracise Raymond Dokpesi and his media empire when he agreed to be Babangida’s campaign Director General in 2010 before he beat a hasty retreat to their laager. All that matters to them is how much they will make from their latest venture, no matter the terms and conditions attached in the MOU. To them the north is another commodity to be bought and sold for their personal pecuniary gains.
I believe they are envious of (M)aku and Gulak, which may be responsible for their floating of the NEC. My problem is that I did not see a single elder among them. May be in a circle where you have Asari Dokubo, Edwin Clark, Boyloaf and the rest of the creek rats, then they may call themselves elders. In my part of the north, none of them qualify to be known and addressed as elders, unless we have another definition of what an elder is. The difference between this group and the militants of the Niger Delta may not be much. While Asari & co. specialised in breaking of pipelines to steal oil, Yakassai and his group have been in the business of breaking peoples’ hopes and expectations. They are specialists in breaking their region to the applause of their enemies.
If the bunch is what should be called the “elders of the north”, then the north is doomed. May the good Lord safe us from this contraption that is more a Northern Elders Crooks than Northern Elders Council. Thank God we have the authentic Northern Elders Forum. |