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Marwa’s Non Declaration: The Show Of Shame In Yola By Babayola Muhammadu Toungo
There is a curios political drama taking place in Adamawa State PDP right now. The episode would have been laughable were it not serious; for the first time in my adult live I have seen party officials doing everything fair and foul to stop an individual from joining their party – an individual that has no criminal record, in full control of his senses and who otherwise could be considered an asset by any other party. I had all along erroneously believed political parties are meant to be vehicles for mobilizing people with a view to capturing state power. I was proved wrong by the attitude of the Adamawa State government towards General Marwa’s declaration for the party in Yola, his state capital.
General Buba Marwa has worked more than any other presidential aspirant in the PDP to mobilize and contact as many people as possible to actualize his dream of becoming the President of Nigeria. He has toured all the nooks and crannies of this country in his effort to feel the pulse of the populace without making any pronouncement as to his aspirations, which are crystal clear to all by now – the Presidency of Nigeria. All is now set, it appears, for Marwa to publicly declare his ambition in his state. But Atiku’s farm hands in Yola believed the retired infantry General is about to throw a spanner in the works of the lord of the manor, which to them is unacceptable. It is the believe of these farm hands that nobody, just nobody could muster the courage to challenge their godfather.
It is foolhardy, to say the least, for a political party to deny anyone interested in joining the party for the sake of the ambition of one man. Makes one wonder if Atiku Abubakar, the Vice President is bigger than the totality of the people of Adamawa State. If Atiku and his “boy” in Yola have done anything worth talking about, I don’t believe they could be so easily scared by a political upstart like Marwa. Afterall it has been repeated ad infinitum that Atiku is a “master strategist” when it comes to political manoeuvring. Was it all sound and fury without substance? Atiku and Boni Haruna, the Adamawa State governor, are haunted by their records and not by Marwa’s entry into the PDP. Their records could best be described as non-existent and it is graphically there for everyone to go check.
Speaking about records, are Atiku and Boni afraid of Marwa’s much vaunted records as the military governor of the old Borno and Lagos States? Lagosians still talk about Marwa’s tenure with nostalgia and the man is widely accepted in the south-west unlike Atiku who is despised even in his backyard. Despite Marwa’s national acceptance across the board, the Adamawa State government and some elements in the state PDP executive are running from pillar to post in their vain attempt to stop the inevitable. Though I disagree with Marwa’s politics, he is an asset to any political party, so could not fathom the hysteria his declaration has generated in Adamawa State government circles.
Are Atiku and Boni scared that Marwa’s organisation will showcase his achievements both as a military officer/ governor side by side with theirs as Vice President and State governor respectively? We all know that Marwa has been celebrated on the pages of newspapers all over the place; what we are not sure is whether he actually performed or he is just another creative imagination of Lagos Editors. But one thing we are sure is that Atiku and Boni will come out of office richer than the Adamawa State government, the EFCC/ ICPC allowing. Today, Atiku’s schools in Yola are the toast of the nation. No one, I repeat, no one can account for how he manage to build such fantastic edifices, while it is open secret that he came to office on the brink of bankruptcy, and our public institutions have been turned into abodes of reptiles.
Marwa can also manipulate the media more than Atiku and his ‘dogs of war’, who are constantly barking at any perceived “enemy” of Atiku and Boni. If I were Atiku I would simply invite the media to Adamawa State and show them what Boni Haruna, my ‘boy’ has achieved in the six years that he has been on the saddle of governance.
Atiku’s ascension to the seat of the Vice President turned out to be more of a curse than a blessing to the people of Adamawa State. Same goes for Boni. The whole state has stagnated in the past six years. Infrastructures have rather atrophied. Personal aggrandisement and personal greed has replaced any ounce of political will that might have been in the minds of these people, whom God in his wisdom chose to foster on the poor long suffering people of Adamawa State. They have turned the people into ‘conquered people’ as one concerned citizen once put it.
The interview granted the Daily Trust of 9th April, 2005 by Boni Haruna revealed how the man’s mind works. The pettiness displayed in the interview says it all. He kept referring to himself as the ‘leader’ of the party as if he is god himself. His stated grouse with Marwa was that he doesn’t visit him often. I wonder how odes Boni look at himself. Respect, it is said, is reciprocal and Boni doesn’t seem to know the meaning of respect. If he does, he shouldn’t have found it easy to ignore the directive of the national secretariat of the party to allow Marwa do his public declaration at the Ribadu Square rather than seal the place up with armoured tanks. Well, Marwa’s opinion about the cancellation of the public declaration is that of blessing. Boni and his ‘boys’ in the state PDP went to the extent of trying to deny Marwa registering for the party. If this is not anti-party activity, what is?
The kind of crowd that were in Marwa’ house to show solidarity was enough to scare the living bejuses out of the duo of Atiku and Boni. If the man is destined to be President of the country, a million of Atikus, Bonis and their foot soldiers cannot stop him. Afterall, nobody ever gave Atiku a chance in hell of becoming the Vice President of the country or Boni the governor of Adamawa State.
61, Dogon Dawa Close Unguwan Sarki - Kaduna
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