Bukar

Bukar’s Legitimate Ignorance

Nasiru Lawal

For those who do not know, or have forgotten, or knew but decide to ignore, a brief biography of Alhaji Bukar Abba Ibrahim, the governor of Yobe State, is worth recapping for the purpose of this article, which I must confessed was necessitated by the governor’s ongoing political summersaults, if not outright suicide.

Alhaji Bukar Abba Ibrahim was born in October 1950, exactly 10 years before Nigeria’s independence. By profession, he supposed to be in Abuja (where modern buildings are daily constructed) making it as a professional Quantity Surveyor, since that is what he studied from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University ABU Zaria.

As the Almighty will have it, rather than dealing with architects and building engineers, labourers and so on, Yobe State was carved out of Borno State by IBB. Months after its creation, Bukar Abba Ibrahim the quantity surveyor contested and won the young state’s gubernatorial election under Social Democratic Party, SDP and became its first civilian and democratically elected governor. Unfortunately for him, the soldiers stroke again in 1993, and he went into political oblivion.

In 1999, after Abdulsalami Abubakar’s transition programme occasioned by the sudden death of Abacha, Bukar Abba Ibrahim bounced back. He contested elections and won again, under the All Nigeria People’s Party. And since then, he has been the governor of the State that prides itself as the ‘Pride of the Sahel’.

In fact in Yobe State, one can say without fear of contradiction that democracy starts and ends with Bukar Abba Ibrahim. Unfortunately the dividend of democracy is not there for the people to enjoy. The roads are as bad as ever, the taps are without water, and the city is just one huge village where the governor reigns supreme as the village head.

Though is a member of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP), however, he is at the forefront championing programmes that have no place in his party. He is perhaps more vocal in defending PDP unfrien dly policies than most of the party’s governors.

If you did not watch the opening ceremony of the PDP organised public hearing in Maiduguri, aimed solely at extending the tenure of President Obasanjo, you’d have missed only one thing- Governor Bukar’s legitimate ignorance. He forgot that Nigerians have a right to be heard if the public hearing is really about them. In the whole room where the public hearing was conducted, everybody was there, except of course the common man, who is either ignored or thought unfit to be listened to.

President Obasanjo might also suppose that he has an ally in the person of Bukar Ibrahim, but that would be wrong. The only thing Bukar Ibrahim is after is his own political career, which he can gladly continue e ven if it is under a military head of state. At least he did it under IBB and it paid him well just it is paying him well today.

According to Bukar Abba Ibrahim, there should not be limit as to the number of terms a governor can serve. This is understandable. The governor is only speaking out his mind and this is good for him. If democracy should cease to exist from today, he would have made history as the only democratically elected governor Yobe State ever had. You sometimes wonder who governors are representing. If tenure extension is okay, of continuity as they always say is good, why did Bukar change local government chairmen in the State? Or are they not entitled to the continuity stunts?

Con sider this short piece posted on the net, it is a comparison between Obasanjo and Mbeki: “When the Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, was asked on Nigerian national television a few months back whether he intends staying in office beyond the constitutionally stipulated date of May 2007, he simply did not answer the question. Rather, he chose to beat about the bush speaking about economic reforms and things that had nothing to do with the question asked. The question was asked during a phone-in program through which ordinary Nigerians get to ask their leader questions directly.

Mr. Obasanjo, though never coming out publicly to state that he intends staying in office beyond that allowed by the current Nigerian constitution, appears to have fooled very few. State governors (like Bukar Abba Ibrahim) have recently been shamelessly coming out to endorse an extension o f his tenure.”

Meanwhile, South Africa's Mail & Guardian is reporting that the South African president, Thabo Mbeki was asked if he intended staying in office for a third term. His answer was simple: “By the end of 2009, I will have been in a senior position in government for 15 years. I think that's too long…I think that after 15 years, I should step aside in any case…The ANC has taken the position that we don't want to change the Constitution…Even when we got that more than two-thirds majority, we said this, that we are not going to use this two-thirds majority fundamentally to alter the Constitution. And that remains our position.”

Governor Bukar Abba Ibrahim seems to be ignorant of the feelings of the majority of Nigerians over the pla nned constitutional amendment. What Nigerians are saying is that amending the constitution at this time when the present administration has less that 16 months in office can only point to one thing- attempt to extend its tenure in power.

If this is not the case, the amendment should be carried out by the government elected in 2007. Or else, no public office holder should enjoy the extension of tenure even if adopted by the constitution review committee.

Nasiru Lawal is Abuja-based journalist