Boni’s Biggest Blunders

By

Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo

razbell73@hotmail.com

 

 

The above is not a title I for my part would have preferred. But boldly printed on the cd that some nameless Adamawa voter sent to me from Yola to fill me in on how Adamawa State governor, Boni Haruna is taking charge in my state were the words Boni’s Blunders and since the governor is fond of using the triple B I cast the one in-between. Whoever this citizen is that secured my home address and sent me this cd, I am grateful for the copy.

 

The cd contains Boni Haruna’s chitchat with Tony Iredia of the NTA’s “Point Blank”. While watching that encounter, a light bulb went off in my head because the only time I came across such puerile misuse of words and neglect of logic was while watching reality TV. But again, this gives me the impression that Boni Haruna would walk into a lion’s hideout even if he was assured that he could end up in the lion’s belly but get little publicity. If Boni Haruna’s brain was intact, he would not sit down with Tony Iredia to discuss Adamawa State on national television unless he was flatteringly set-up. Boni was ill-prepared for any of the questions thrown at him which led me to think either that he expected a friendly interview, or that his middle-aged gumption was atrophying. Iredia took Boni to the cleaners on many issues. The yak was something of an exposé but too long to be reviewed here. However, we can dwell on its significant points.

 

For example, Boni could not put in plain words his 100 million Naira a month Adamawa Plaza in Abuja. He also failed to sway Iredia or the public on the grave allegations of sleaze surrounding his stupendous wealth, and how a tenant, in a two bedroom apartment shortly before 1999 has become the Donald Trump of Adamawa State. His impudence towards high-flying Adamawa citizens such as Professor Jubril Aminu, General Buba Marwa, which is just by the way, as Boni has become a bull in a china shop wrecking friendships with many outstanding Adamawa people like the State PDP chairman Joel Madaki, former Plateau governor Aliyu Karma, Boni’s former teacher and Michika political heavy weight, Musa Kamale, Bamanga Tukur, Senator Abubakar Girei, Col Stephens, former Adamawa Speaker Mohammed Turaki, also made the briefs.

 

Those who watched the interview will agree that Boni looked vulnerable and very insecure. The only time that Boni showed any self-belief or self-assurance throughout the encounter was from the beginning, when his résumé was read. After that he began to shrink, and shrink and shrink without stopping. In responding to the questions, Boni resorted to masking. Without doubt, the vicissitudes of our inexplicable conduct can overpower us at times, but there are ways of coming loose or simply taking responsibility for our actions. Our governor knew neither. His mien, like a worried man on audition, kept an undying contingent of wrinkles on his forehead that, at a point, one would think that Iredia was the governor and Boni, Alhaji Mamman Shata without the songs (no disrespects whatsoever to Shata).

 

Boni’s lack of character gave subterranean insight to why Adamawa people are incensed over the state’s letdown in the provision of adequate health care, educational facilities, training, jobs, housing, roads, water etc. He looked pitiable for a governor but it is difficult to exonerate ourselves as a people from the choices that we make, because even the Shinco Boys who helped the Atiku rigging machine to unleash him on the state have learnt one big political lesson at last.

 

Boni Haruna’s question on Buba Marwa where he asked if Marwa was a prominent son showed that Boni’s wisdom is locked in a match-box. Apparently, Boni seems to be the only one who does not know the magnitude of allure and respect associated with the name Marwa. For the avoidance of doubt, Marwa is not only a prominent son of Adamawa State he is an embodiment of Adamawa’s collective pride. In words and deed, Marwa has shown more love for Adamawa than Boni and Atiku ever could. Legend has it that Marwa, while in government, had even challenged other governors entrusted with running Adamawa state to explain why they were making hogwash of Adamawa while he was impacting good governance in the states he was posted to preside.

 

Boni and his Godfather Atiku Abubakar combined, do not measure up to half of the goodwill and pride that Marwa’s persona brings to Adamawa. Instead, they bring to Adamawa the contrary. Boni’s rhetorical question on whether Marwa has ever won an election was the most barefaced indication of Boni’s immodesty. For someone who has had his every contact with the ballot box queried by the courts and resolved through litigation, an election malpractices culprit of the worst order, to come up with such bravado was to many the epitome of impudence. Atiku himself has never won an election not to talk of his crumb-catchers. The ticket that Boni ties his justification for leadership on was itself judiciously contested by Dr Bala Takaya and, but for a shaky Supreme Court decision which was doctored by General Abdulsalam, Takaya would have reclaimed the mandate. It is still on record that Marwa, as a military governor, provided Borno and Lagos states with responsible governance and they still miss him while Boni, after a term of office could not even win his own party’s primaries without the help of Atiku’s rigging machine. Even so, the people echoed the party’s decision to discard Boni but Afe Babalola was called in to snatch an ANPP victory for Boni to return. Boni’s relationship with the ballot box is such that if he walked past a polling booth, that election, whatever it is about would be seen to have been rigged and must be resolved by the courts. From all accounts, Boni’s leadership has been an expensive misfortune for Adamawa state.

 

On the question of his current stupendous wealth from a mere tenant in 1998, Boni justifies it by saying that he was a Special Assistant to a governor and that meant he had access to lucre from another state. The Christians say that when Jesus closes the door he opens the window. But indications that Jesus closed the door and the window and even lost the key in the case of Boni abound. The greedy governor is saying that as Special Assistant to a governor, he earned enough to be able to own the sort of edifice that he is being asked about. By failing to reckon with the ever present argument in Nigeria that forty years of service, even as a governor does not give one enough money to raise a house Boni has also failed to adjust to the circumference of the basic intelligence expectations from a state’s chief executive.

 

What extra-puzzled me was the vertical sign that Boni has derogated from common intelligence. On the issue of the Adamawa Plaza, he admitted honestly that he did not construct it for Adamawa people and drifted into an economic claptrap on how revenue could accrue from the Plaza. Not having known this man before this interview, I now appreciate why his mismanagement has twisted the bitterness in my home-town of Numan to liken that between Israelis and Palestinians.

 

While in Numan youths were raised to always consider themselves as persons with a social conscience and sensitivity, which has led many to understand and believe that any people can live together in peace and harmony, the wave of destruction in Numan town lately has become confusing and forced the fabrics of that culturally heterogeneous and religiously open town to its knees. Many Numan boys who grew up with considerate understanding of sectarian concerns share this view. They played at the Youth Centre together and cannot even begin to count the number of Christians and Muslims that have inter-married. It was common to see young Muslim boys in catholic schools reciting the paternoster or joint teams of Muslim-Christian kids defending the sporting supremacy of Numan over the rest of the state but today all of that is conviviality has given way to guns and machetes. All that, thanks to Boni’s big blunders.
 

razaque