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Recall Jibril Aminu Now! By Babayola Toungo
I have had cause to write on Jibril Aminu in the aftermath of the 2003 elections when he was rigged into office as the Senator representing Adamawa Central Senatorial District – my Senatorial District. I was forced to relay my disappointment to the Professor of Medicine on the pages of newspapers first because he is supposed to represent me in the Senate and second, and the most important to me, he was my Vice Chancellor at the University of Maiduguri. I was disappointed because thinking he was a man of character and integrity, I wrongly assumed he would reject going to the Senate if it means by ways other than fair. Thinking the man had a modicum of decency, I waited with baited breath for him to come out and denounce his so-called victory over his opponent, but he refused and duly took his place alongside the Omisores and Wabaras of the Senate. I have held my peace thinking some good would come out of this wrong, but it just got worse. Prof lost all his remaining sense of reasoning and became the peoples’ enemy.
The misadventure by Atiku Abubakar and his ill-informed cohorts in their ill-advised attempts to recall or rather humiliate Jibril Aminu from the Senate provided a window of opportunity for him to recoup some of his lost glory, but alas he took his personal fight with the Turaki too far by turning against the very people that proved to be his bulwark against Atiku’s assault on him. Today, the world is aware that Professor Aminu has lost all sense of bearing in his consuming passion to get even with Atiku for daring to institute a recall process against him. Well, as far as I am concerned that is a case of dog eating dog; but now Professor Aminu is wrapping in the poor populace in his effort to spite Atiku who is legitimately allowed by the constitution to contest not Aminu’s new political master – Obasanjo. It is an irony of sorts that Aminu is now advocating for the change in the rules and laws governing constitutional amendment just so that Obasanjo could have the opportunity of inflicting more pain on Nigerians, Aminu’s constituents inclusive.
It is more so sad that in 1999 Jibril Aminu was seriously considered as Obasanjo’s running mate on the ticket of the PDP – God in his infinite mercies saw through the mind and denied him the chance of doing much more damage by sending him on a political exile to the USA as Ambassador. If our Vice Presidential hopeful would have to go to the Senate through rigging then the man must have been overrated all this while. I think with the benefit of hindsight, I would much rather have preferred Atiku Abubakar than Aminu as the Vice President of Nigeria. After all Atiku, we all know never made any claim to any intellectual or academic brilliance – he just had a Diploma in Hygiene from Kano and another one in Law from Zaria. And professionally, Atiku rose to the position of Deputy Controller General of Customs where as Aminu rose to the position of Vice Chancellor in the academic system. His reputed intelligence to me is no more than brilliance camouflaged in the garb of intelligence.
The recent pronouncements of Professor Aminu convinced me that either he is senile or he has a mean streak in him that has been successfully suppressed all these years, else how do you explain his anti-people stance over the tenure elongation/ extension wahala? The zealotry exhibited by him over the vehement protestations of his constituents is very baffling. I don’t want to believe that association with the Omisores and the Mantu’s of the Senate has rubbed off him because I cannot discern the difference between Aminu and Mantu on this issue. Now the Senate in its wisdom has decided to throw away the baby with the bath water due to the stupidity of the Aminus in the Senate and we have lost the opportunity of amending our defective constitution. I don’t know for sure, but I believe that Professor Aminu may find it difficult to sleep with both eyes closed seeing how people have been intimidated to no end by their goons in their blind, sadistic desire to elongate the suffering of Nigerians.
The whole constitutional amendment charade was done with the sole aim of obtaining tenure extension for the buffoon in the Aso Villa using foul means and the likes of Jibril Aminu decided to push for it irrespective of the feelings of their constituents. For him to come out advocating secret balloting is mind-boggling and an insult to our sensibilities and those of his academic peers. I know for a fact that Aminu’s Adamawa Central constituents are 100% against a day’s extension for Obasanjo beyond May 29th, 2007. Among those constituents is a certain Elson Awano, who Aminu described as a “wretched person” and a “hustler”. Without appearing to hold brief for Awano, I believe Aminu could be the one to be best described as a hustler – because hustling could take different forms – ‘selling cocaine in the open market’ could be the worst form of hustling, if I may borrow the words of Senator Sule Yari Gandi. With the demise of the Bill in the Senate, I pray the people of Aminu’s Senatorial district will rise up as one and show him their displeasure in no uncertain terms.
It is a pity that Aminu has reduced himself to Obasanjo’s whipping boy; no wonder Marwa, who may be barely out of his diapers when Aminu was already creating records in Nigeria and beyond, would consider using him as one of his foot soldiers in his fight with Boni. In one fell swoop, Aminu has destroyed what little reputation he has that took him about four decades to build – today he is no better than the Awano he wanted to make a caricature of – the difference being Awano is an illiterate when compared with the Professor, but I would rather go with Awano knowing he may be ignorant of most of the things he says or does. Aminu should know by now that the likes of Atiku, Boni and Awano, people that have been digging democracy’s grave all this while are now the heroes of democracy not pretenders like him. At least for whatever reason the duo of Atiku and Boni has chosen to be on the side of the people even if it is temporary and for personal survival.
As we celebrate the demise of third term, we must never forget the role played by Jibril Aminu and his co-travellers and the irresponsible stand they took, which brought Nigeria to the precipice. Whatever intellectual prowess he might have and public service he has rendered to the nation could only have been self-serving as, when it mattered most, he abandoned his people and his country to please his tin-god. Neither his education nor his experience has been of any benefit to us.
There is only one thing left for Aminu and other third term protagonists. They should tuck-in their tails between legs and leave the scene. Their foul mouth and body odour are so repugnant to us; their leprous hands deserve no handshake. They must be made to pay for the misery and emotional distress they have put us in. Jibril Aminu must be recalled NOW! Shame on you, Prof.
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