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Boni Haruna and Uche Ezechukwu In Bed? By Babayola Toungo
It is amazing how insignificant events can shake the Adamawa State government to its very foundations and by extension Atiku Abubakar. Since May 7th, 2005 the State has not been the same again. The whole machinery of the state is deployed towards making Marwa look stupid, but Boni is only succeeding in doing the opposite. The Adamawa State government has pulled all the stops in order to scare Marwa away from contesting the primaries of the presidency under the platform of the PDP, simply because it is taboo to challenge Atiku Abubakar who it is presumed should only be the kid on the block. I fail to fathom why Atiku and his cohorts believed they cannot be challenged inspite of their dismal performance both at the state and federal levels.
The most recent attempt by Boni and his government was the invitation extended to the Leadership newspaper by the Adamawa State House of Assembly to appear before the House and explain why sanctions cannot be taken against the newspaper for conducting an interview with Marwa. The same newspaper granted Boni interview to state his case on the brouhaha that erupted in the aftermath of Marwa’s failed declaration (a declaration that was aborted using state machinery). No one took exception to Boni’s demagogy and innuendos in the interview, so it baffled me why a State House of Assembly that has been comatose for six years past, could suddenly wake-up for an innocuous comment made by an aspiring politician in more than two pages of interview by inviting him to the House and making same a media event. For those who don’t really think Marwa was a serious contender, the Adamawa State government and its organs are proving them wrong.
Of all the moves and noise making by Atiku and his foot soldiers to stop Marwa from enjoying home support in Adamawa, the most pitiable is the invitation by the legislature of Marwa and the media organisation that granted both Marwa and Boni interviews to state their versions of the botched declaration. Members of the House of Assembly are derisively known as “divide by twenty five” in Yola for their penchant of dividing whatever largesse comes their way from the State government (they are twenty five in number). There has never been any legislative activity in the state in the past six years of civilian rule. To all intents and purposes, there exist no legislative house in the state to check the excesses of the executive, then they suddenly woke up from their slumber because a certain General Marwa insinuated in an interview with a national weekly that they hastily passed a sanitation law to coincide with his declaration for a party that majority of them belong to.
We have shouted ourselves hoarse to no avail on the state of infrastructural decay in the State to no avail. We have written on the misgovernance and the unmitigated disaster known as Atiku/ Boni leadership that descended on the State in the past six years. Our rewards are simply derision, insults and to some extent pariah status among our friends who chose to wine and dine with the powers that be rather than go ‘hungry’ as one of them put it. But the crown for complicity goes to the House of Assembly for turning a blind eye to its constitutional function of ensuring good governance.
What I cannot fathom is the level of desperation that the Atiku/ Boni camp has reached and that has blinded them to act rationally. Else how can one explain the appearance of Messrs. Uche Ezechukwu and Demola, erstwhile employees of the Leadership newspaper at the state House of Assembly to defend what they have not been accused of doing in the first place, and in their individual capacity not as employees of the newspaper so accused. With incumbency on the side of both Atiku and Boni, why are they scared of Marwa that they have to come to Abuja and hire disgruntled ex employee of an organisation all in effort to discredit Marwa not minding whether the newspaper house in tarnished in the process? Why would the hallowed Chamber of the State House of Assembly be turned into Boni’s abattoir for the slaughter of peoples’ hard earned reputation simply because his puppeteer is not happy with Marwa’s political noise making?
Neither the staff nor the management of Free Press publishers of Leadership newspaper came out in public or otherwise to say that they have retracted their story or that part of the story that is the subject of contention between Marwa and the House, so why the aggro? As a matter of fact, in numerous discussions with the Publisher/ Editor-in Chief, he has always reiterated that the paper stands by its story. So why the sponsored trip to Yola for a couple of ‘employables’ at the expense of the Adamawa State tax-payer just to massage the ego of an over-pampered state executive? If Marwa claimed to have recanted what he said or outrightly denied saying so, couldn’t it have been easier for the legislature to invite the Publisher as “a friend of the House” to come with his tapes and clarify matters rather than resorting to cheap blackmail?
Boni and his government need not have embarrassed us by sponsoring a twenty five year journalism veteran, with fluency in so many languages that cannot be used to either publish a paper or establish a broadcasting house in Nigeria, who has been unemployed for long and was living off the generosity of a trained pharmacist turned columnist/publisher, to come all the way from Abuja to Yola just to rehash his resume for our idle legislators. The only members that had the state of mind to ask Uche pertinent questions were the members representing Yola North and Lamurde Constituencies. The member representing Yola North had to caution Uche to go and settle his differences with Sam elsewhere – away from the hallowed Chambers of the House.
Uche informed the world that he is a veteran of twenty five years journalism practice, yet was ready to play second fiddle to a pharmacist for reasons he failed to tell us. I know many practitioners in the industry with much less experience that are today among the most successful publishers. I learnt from a very dependable source that Boni Haruna is ready to finance Uche and Demola to start their own publication very soon to be based in Abuja. But if I may give an unsolicited advice to Boni, I would say be wary of Uche. I have no problem with their new found love, afterall the much maligned 1999 Constitution guarantees freedom of association, but Boni shouldn’t use our money to finance a publication meant to massage his pea-sized ego. He should ask around about Uche before going to bed with him. A year ago, a truly veteran Igbo journalist refused to join the Leadership because of the presence of Uche.
As to the members of the Assembly, they should have done well by insisting to know what becomes of the over 100 billion Naira received by the state from the Federation Account alone in the past six years rather than being used by those scared by competition because of their non-performance. It is an irony of sorts that the road leading into the House, right at the entrance to the premises is host to the worst craters in Yola. You may mistake the craters as those made by bombs since the House of Assembly lies on the Army Barracks Road. As a measure of disdain the state government held the members, it is the only state legislature nationwide that I know without an alternative power supply, that has one telephone line and cannot boast of water. Yet they are willing to be cannon fodders in a war that isn’t theirs. They are contented to be “dashed” KIA vehicles to roam around turn on roads that are barely motorable – no wonder Uche called them illiterates to their faces, only that he claimed it was Sam.
The Adamawa State House of Assembly should not allow itself to be the altar boys in an unholy matrimony between two desperate and disparate people who must relevant in society at all cost.
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