Borno

Borno's Strange Politics

Hadiza G. Amin

With disbelief at the beginning and disappointment at the end, I laboured through Prof. Kyari Tijjani's tribal diatribe titled "Borno in Nigeria" ( Daily Trust, 8/8/05). The disbelief was prompted by the fact that, a man of the towering intellectual attainment of Kyari Tijjani can deem it fit to embark on a protest on the pages of newspapers over the appointment of a minister. More amazing was the fact the protest revolves around tribalistic arguments. The disappointment comes from the fact that, standard is so low and focus lost in our universities to the extent that a whole scholar would manipulate an M.Sc.. student in a whimsical derive to dubiously elevate Mrs. Maryam Ciroma to the strange status of an area of research. Kyari Tijjani was apparently angry that minister of Kanuri extraction was replaced by the President with a none Kanuri one. Above all, he voiced his anger as if he was mandated by all Borno people (or is it Kanuri people? )to tell the world that, Borno can only be represented by a Kanuri (no matter the defects of the person) What the elderly university teacher was trying to do is to elevate the false assumption that, Borno is all about the Kanuri's and their interests. Or more better he should have been saying that Borno is all about taking care of the indolent interests of Kanuri elites who have been running down the state all through history. Flawed as the basis of the assumption was, one only wonders what motivated the elderly lecturer to venture into this petty discourse that was based on pedestrian line of thinking.

One's engagement in discourse exposes his priorities and vision. You write only when you feel strongly about an issue or motivated by something precious. But one's line of discourse reveals his state of mind to some extent. Sometimes last year, a younger scholar at the University of Maiduguri, Abba Gana Shettima wrote on misdeeds and selfishness of leaders in Borno state. On the role of Intellectuals in Society he categorized intellectuals and described commercialized intellectuals as those "who often mouth all forms of radicalism to attract attention of those who are threatened by opposition, but once noticed and co-opted into the system, they twist round to offer the necessary 'intellectual' defence of stauts quo. " Another category of intellectuals he said are "perhaps dangerous category especially within \Nigerian context, consist of those who are garbed as intellectuals but actually wearing partisan turbans permanently dyed with ethnic, religious and regional biases. " It was almost at the same time that Prof. Kyari Tijjani utilized a sponsored advertorial in Daily Trust promoting and depending the Governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Bukar Abba Ibrahim. A governor who could not complete a housing estate in six years. Whether seriously or not , the scholar even enthused that , the governor has all it takes to contest for leadership at the national level. Knowing fully well that the people of Yobe state were not saying good things about their governor, I then have to conclude that the professor had found a new haven in the business of praise singing for patronage. . Knowing that Kyari Tijjani is not an indigene of Yobe state and never a spokesman of Governor Bukar Ibrahim, I have no option but to believe that, Kyari Tijjani has turned into a supplier of intellectual taste to dealers in tribal sentiments. In the same week that Borno in Nigeria was published, Abba Gana Shettima wrote Nigeria's silent famine in the same Daily Trust. While Kyari Tjjani was (is )much bothered with having a Kanuri minister, Abba Gana Shettima is worried by hunger which knows no tribe and never distinguish between a fat or thin man.

But this was not the first time that Prof. Kyari Tijjani lets the world knew that he is the intellectual explanation to the backwardness of Kanuri people and Borno State. When Maina Maaji Lawan was the governor of Borno state(1992-1993)a committee was put in place to consider closing down some tertiary institutions in Borno state. Even though it was later understood that the exercise was aimed at discouraging education in Biu emirate, the shocker was the fact that it was Kyari Tijjani that volunteered to turn the primitive plot into reality. A visit of his committee to Biu sparked riots that claimed lives. The people of Biu were angry and will never forget this state policy that was motivated by tribal sentiment. I can still recall that Kyari Tijjani and his retinue escaped lynching narrowly. Just imagine a professor leading a move to deprive a people of education just because of what they are and what they are not.

Borno and even Yobe state have been undergoing a process of decline in all aspects of human development because leadership in the two states has been hijacked through unspeakable means by a people who benefit from the ignorance of their people via tribal instigation. Both states have leaders whose only business in leadership is thieving. In Yobe state since 1999 no any meaningful development has been made despite huge resources made available by the federation. Damaturu is the only state capital in Nigeria with largely what the Hausa people call "gidan kara". Not long ago rats or is it neglect, lead to the closure of the state TV station. Top government officials who were known to be abjectly poor (before 1999)are now having dozens of jeeps and extravagant mansions in Maiduguri and Abuja. At the same time all the roads linking Yobe to states like Kano, Jigawa and Bauchi are no longer roads but death trap.

I doubt much if even the Kanuri's (not elites) bother who becomes a minister . After all, business is no longer as usual. Kyari Tijjani would have spoken the mind of Kanuri's if he writes about the shameful and endless water scarcity in Maiduguri. He should have been making sense if he caution his fellow Borno elites over the dangers of their 'indulgences' which have spread high level of immorality among youths. Borno, I think needs better schools and good hospitals rather than having somebody in position of influence whose only affinity with them is tribal marks.

Talking about state of origin, Kyari Tijjani was very insincere in his analogy and conclusions. The minister representing Yobe state, Lawan Gana Guba is a Kanuri or Manga and is not known in the state and will never fit into yardsticks of representing a people created by Kyari Tijjani. Infact Lawan Gana Guba is better known in Maiduguri than even Baymari or the village he claims Guba. Yet no one, not even once has launched attacks on his on that basis. The people of Yobe state never care that he sits in Federal Executive council on their behalf. Because Lawan Gana Guba likes being seen as a Borno man rather than an indigene of Yobe state does not mean that the people of Yobe state should sponsor their intellectuals to write tribal thesis on him with the aim of distorting his background.

Now some few questions, how had Bintu ibrahim Musa impacted on the well being of Kanuri people within the period she has been a minister? Has Kyari Tijjani's being a professor really impacted on the very low level of literacy among Kanuri people? By quoting profusely from Kanuri without supplying English equivalent Kyari Tijjani has revealed his motive. Since he now established a career in Kanuri tribal politics, one will only wish him well and wait to see how successful he might be at the end and in the end.

Hadiza G. Amin, Paradigm Media Ltd,

22A, Airport Road, Kano.