Sokoto Debate

Sokoto Debate; Wrongful Accusations and Octopus 'Writers'

Umar Bello, Jubail , K S A

Since my article on the Bafarawa administration came out, the government house in Sokoto has never had any respite. You know unease lies in the head with not only a crown but one full of lies. I have lost count of the number of articles singing the same tunes and whipping and even weeping the same sentiments. But as 7UP would say, the difference is clear, between the ones who speak with a passionate desire to capture reality and cent-per-word writers employed by the state and supplied with cockeyed facts to splash for all to read. When one Mbekwe writes a rejoinder to my article, I resolve not to glorify him with a public reply for certain write-ups such as his are self-rebutting and suicidal. No any discerning mind would be hoodwinked into believing that Mbekwe all the way from Lagos shot himself into this discussion involving stake-holders of the state simply to defend whom, under different circumstance, he could have called 'a kolanut eating Mallam' in good faith. More so when he seems to have some inside information regarding certain bodies like the 'SPORA' and even those cooked up figures. In short, Mbekwe, in plain and unambiguous term, is a 'journalistic' mercenary drafted into this debate from the mammoth crowd of journalists crowding the corridors of power in Sokoto ready to barter ethics for bucks knowing that the Chief-- if not cheap--Executive there has no head for priorities and is hell-bent on buying public image.

Anyway, the basic aim of this write-up is to immediately exonerate Dr. Omar Bello, my namesake, from the deluge of attacks from the octopus hands of a mercenary of the Bafarawa administration who has named his fingers: Garba Tanimu, Saadatu Abdulkarim, Aminu Bello Sokoto, MG ad infinitum. They have glutted my e-mail with sponsored hate mail simply because I dare told off the extremely corrupt and inept administration of their Political Santa Claus. I wish to state, most unequivocally, that I have no any relationship what so ever with Dr. Omar Bello of the Dan Fodio University other than we are from the same creed, state and tribe. I have no any political ambition. I am an ordinary and dyed-in-the-wool teacher whose basic concern with politics is how to emancipate the millions of the voiceless majority in the North who are oppressed, suppressed and exploited by the Bafarawas aided by their shameless and irresponsible media men who beak on the fallen crumbs of our frittered resources. Our basic aim for writing is a passionate desire to see that the living condition of our people who live in abject and excruciating poverty is raised and nothing other than that. We can never compare as such with those who choose to trade off their conscience and whitewash unsightly situation with the sole aim of deceiving the toiling lot who are denied the education and knowledge to understand such social intricacies. It is not the stitching of words together that matter, Mbekwe I hope you're listening, but the passion that goes with it. When we write we do it with our heart but when you do, you do it with your stomach, that's our difference.

Moreover, I, in a far away Saudi Arabia, do not have any relationship with any group called G23 OR G24. I need not be a member of any disgruntled group to be able to see the gross travesty of leadership that goes on in Sokoto. Our views—myself, Dahiru Maishanu and Aminu Aminu who are all from different continents—have a semblance out of sympathy and empathy with the condition of the toiling 4million people of Sokoto minus Bafarawa and his gang. G24 may have its political grouse with Bafarawa, but our grouse has to do with his inability to carry out the deluge of covenants he has had with the Sokoto electorates. If I can remember, Mbekwe has mentioned that Bafarawa has recently sent 40 or 60 students abroad to learn but I wonder if he has ever bothered to think, not even find out, how many of that number are from his extended family or Kwabo's or Magatakardan Wammakko's. If at all his concern for education is anything to go by, why are the Sultan and Shagari recently making a distress call to the sons and daughters of the state to come to the aid of the state's educational sector? The nomadic education program is just among the political decoys or sign posts that are just what they are and naturally independent of what they represent. The noma issue has come out into a medical debate again and the basic cause goes back to malnutrition resulting from unmitigated poverty, why is Sokoto topping the list? If Mbekwe will venture out of Bafarawa palace and even visit villages outside the capital not even very far like: Alkammu, Giniga, Gidan Ahe, Sire, Kwamna etcetera all on Illela road, he would nearly cry with his eyes. But that is only 'if' his conscience will a wee bit permit it or if at all he gives a damn! Who are the beneficiaries of the SPORA, if not the Bafarawa 'area boys' drawn from the large army of the urban jobless to do the dirty biddings of Ummarun Kwabo? I wonder whether Mbekwe has bothered to count how many boreholes could have been sunken in the parched villages of Sokoto with the state resources recently deployed at the marriage of Bafarawa's daughter to the GM of Mtel?

Furthermore, to clearly indicate that this writer is an octopus and one who is not even knowledgeable about the Northern set up he keeps on whipping the Hausa versus Fulani sentiment in all his ramified write-ups. The tragedy is not even that he is making such outrageous utterances but his paymasters assenting to them. Mbekwe, you should please show me a thorough- bred Hausa and I will show you a Fulani. If you can separate Hausa from Fulani then you can blood from flesh. You can not whip such very very cheap sentiments here. My mentioning of the Late Sultan Mohammed Bello is only to say the contributions of a great leader, unlike your looter, but not to flog on any ethnic superiority. Before I conclude, I just wish to reiterate that this article is written with the sole purpose of clarifying that Dr. Omar Bello is independent of Umar Bello. If the former, who is an Islamic Scholar of repute, would vie for the governorship post of our state, we would surely give him our support, if only to wrest our state from the hands of this thieving lot. If not for this clarification, I wouldn't have been distracted from my books to reply to the ranting of a paid ant.

Umar Bello is a Lecturer at the Jubail Industrial College, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.