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Ujudud Shariff- A Writer Without Cause By Muhammadu Abubakar The generous use of the word ‘cause’, by Ujudud Shariff prompted me to search for the meaning of the word in the latest Cambridge International Dictionary of English. I had to do this, because I got confused and had to ask myself, ‘Is it really the word we knew from elementary level or, since English is said to be dynamic, a new meaning has been found for the word’? Of course I needed to reassure myself that the word is not as fluidy as Mr. Sheriff’s character. The dictionary quoted above, gave the synonyms of the word to mean either principle or reason. ‘The reason why something, especially something bad, happens’, the dictionary explained. Viewed from the perspective of principle, the dictionary had this to say, ‘a socially valuable principle which is strongly supported by some people’. I believe the latter, rather than the former applies to Mr. Shariff’s ‘cause’, given the context in which he usually presents it. As such, I will limit my article to this meaning. For sometime now I have been following the writings, or more appropriately the opinions (Writing is too dignified to be associated with frivolous pursuits) of Ujudud Sharrif, as they appear on the back pages of the Daily Trust newspaper on Tuesdays. The more I read those opinionated articles by Sharrif the more concerned I became. Concerned not for Sheriff whose character and reputation is his own to make or mar; but for the medium he had been shamelessly exploiting for his personal aims and objectives. At a point I had to stop reading those articles by Sharrif altogether. For one thing the man’s arguments have always come across as very shallow. On any issue one could always predict what he would say and the unintelligent way he would say it. The only thing that may be new in each weekly article are the gossips he has managed to glean from his association with important people who are invariably his paymasters, in and around the corridors of power. From the time he wrote his infamous blackmail article titled: He came, he saw, and he left; which was maliciously written to smear the character and person of a fine officer and a gentleman in the person of Col. Ahmed Daku (rtd) who was then the governor of Kano state; to his clumsy attempt at whitewashing the non-performing minister of special duties, Col. Musa Mohammed (rtd) over the latter’s sloppy handling of the last national merit award exercise, it is clear that Ujudud Sheriff has degenerated from a promising journalist to a cheap opportunist. There is little doubt that should defence minister, Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Sheriff’s latest victim of blackmail and calumny tempt Sheriff with a million naira or two, he would very easily make a somersault. His pen is definitely cheaper than the cheapest pen in a bookshop. Again look at how he’s tried to condemn Governor Goje of Gombe state over Goje’s differences with Ujudud’s benefactor the highly incompetent Musa Mohammed. Without travelling to Gombe or talking to Goje’s people to get their side of the story, Ujudud wrote an article which even some of his minister’s friends who are familiar with the facts of the matter found condemnable. I recall during the Abacha days, when Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, out of sheer patriotism wrote an open letter to General Abacha requesting him to discard his idea of staying in office, forever. This, Dangiwa said would not only destroy the nation, but would rub-off on the northerners’ integrity and our position in the state of the union, particularly when most of the prodemocracy activists clamped in jail, were of the southern extraction. Dangiwa also counselled Abacha that if it was only him that can keep Nigeria alive, then all of us had no business being where we were. We should all go and keep vigil at Aso Rock to stop Death from snatching the country’s only saviour. It was when this bold patriotic move by Dangiwa was applauded by all well meaning Nigerians and journalists that are worth their salt, that Mr. Shariff inundated us with a piece which was as nauseating as it was insulting to our collective psyche, under the guise of responding to Dangiwa’s letter to Abacha. He tagged it DANGIWA; A REBEL WITHOUT CAUSE. I do not know who paid for this, but I know for sure, with him, once the pay is right, anything goes; ink-wise. Another window of opportunity for a good pay opened, when Obasanjo made him a translator, nay public relation officer, or something to that effect in his Oputa Show. Most Nigerians remember this panel for its entertainment and the refusal - based on principle, of General Buhari and General Babangida to appear before it, rather than the reconciliation, it was set up to achieve. When Oputa Panel rounded up, Obasanjo’s Machinery for dealing with his corrupt enemies, the EFCC, came calling, he grabbed their offer. He has been their PR consultant, since then. He had good reason for not turning down the offer-the pay was right. His recent assault on Kwankwaso, where he described the minister as a DOGGED FIGHTER WITHOUT CAUSE, in my view brings out Sheriff for what he is: self-serving, unscrupulous, unintelligent. A very strong evidence of this was his timing in writing the article: ‘Kwankwaso: What manner of minister?’ Clearly by deciding to write that article at the time he did, Sheriff had displayed a blatant disregard for the sensibilities of his readers. I believe many would have wondered what took Sheriff so long to address the tussle over the piece of land in question. He waited until the tension in Kano attained a very dangerous level; a time when the cold war between Engr Kwankwaso and Governor Shekarau was approaching its peak before sneaking in with his own personal vendetta; thereby callously and wickedly pouring fuel to the fire, indifferent to the deadly consequences should people get misled by Sharif’s selfish incitements. Why didn’t Sheriff restrict himself to expressing opinion over the issue of the moment, which was the unfortunate murder of former governor Rimi’s wife? Even at that, since he could not swear that Kwankwaso did not kill Hajiya Sa’adatu Rimi,(as he said in his article) then he must have a clue no matter how little, why not save all of us the trouble, by making it available to the police, just like Hon. Barau Jibrin did, where only a text message to him implicating Aminu Babba Dan Agundi was made available to the police and that implicated the former Kano king maker. If after three years as minister, the only crime Sheriff can accuse Kwankwaso of, is that of working for the national interest rather than submitting to the gallery while serving parochial interest, then Kwankwaso should thank Sheriff for the compliment. In turn Sheriff should apologise to the reading public—at least those that go though the trouble of reading his articles; because his attitude has shown just how low he rated their ability to discern a true, patriotic opinion from a sponsored shallow piece of argument full of bile and lies. In his characteristics dumbness, Sheriff had also asked why Kwankwaso chose to respond when he is not the only ‘big man’ from Kano. Has Sheriff ever heard of the word innuendo? Any cub reporter worth his name should be familiar with it; but one would not be surprised, given the terribly poor quality of Ujudud’s arguments, choice of words and even grammar. In spite of the well-known fact that President Obasanjo has never told anyone that he would seek a third term, why does everybody thinks a statement by the president will help clear the air, and douse the rising tension over the third term issue? This is what Kwankwaso did and it was right and timely. Now it is up to the other ‘big men’ from Kano to clear themselves and up to Rimi to substantiate his allegations. But of course, I do not expect Sheriff to understand this simple line of reasoning. Lastly, I would like both to appeal and caution the management and editors of the Daily Trust. I have been a supporter and friend of the Trust newspapers from inception about six or seven years ago. I have watched the papers grow to a position of reference in various parts of the country. But I fear that there is a gradual loss of focus steadily creeping into the Daily Trust recently. Otherwise long before now Sheriff would have been taken away if not from the Trust altogether, at least away from the back pages, to the inside where they have hidden Mr Idang Alibi, who to my mind is a better columnist. At least he is consistent and does not injure others. One would also like to cite the way and manner a recent response to Sheriff’s article on Kwankwaso was treated. Somehow it appeared as if nobody thought of editing the article. It was left to Sheriff to assume the position of the editor of the paper. Do us readers need to know whether or not that response was published freely by the editors of the Trust? Isn’t that to be taken for granted? By that admission Sheriff has fallen into the trap he tried unsuccessfully to dig for Kwankwaso. It was very clear that it was Sharif who edited the article and assuming the position of the editor gave himself the advantage of having the last word. Ujudud knew he was doing something wrong, that was why he felt obliged to say, WITHOUT BEING ASKED that “the decision to publish this letter (article) was made by the editors of the Daily Trust”. I believe the Trust has exhibited high sense of integrity over the years, but sneaky opportunists like Sharif are threatening that enviable reputation. It is time you did something about it, before he drags you to his very low interpretation of journalism. Based on the foregoing, one can safely conclude that Dangiwa was vindicated. As of Daku, we have not heard from him for long, but to my knowledge nobody has come forward yet, to accuse him of any wrong doing, since Ujudud’s write up against him. Ujudud’s antecedents, his patronage of Obasanjo’s government and his write ups are just irreconciliable. So who does his things without cause? I HOPE TRUST WILL HAVE THE COURAGE TO PUBLISH THIS ARTICLE.
MUHAMMADU ABUBAKAR NASSARAWA GRA, QUARTERS KANO
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