Playing to the Gallery

By

Sadiq Abdussamad Habibullah

 Sokoto, Nigeria.

sadiqabdussamad@yahoo.com

It is true that we have witnessed the death and subsequent burial of tenure elongation. But then I strongly believe that the Nigerian constitution that is operative today is not without its attendant defects and lacuna. So the debate on its amendment must be reopened at the appropriate time somewhere in the future. Meanwhile as the obituary of "Tazarce" is being written it is not out of point to recognize the roles played by some frontline characters so that their names will be written with permanent pen for the children yet unborn to read about those who attempted to truncate their future by jeopardizing of our hard earned democracy. Worth mentioning in the saga is Nasiru Mantu, the deputy senate president who chaired the National Assembly joint committee on constitutional amendment. Despite all the energy he expended and the resources squandered to undertake the foul public opinion nonsense across the six geopolitical zones of this country as well as the voting tactics he adopted just to muscle the outcome of the Port-Harcourt report to favor his ulterior motives, Mantu only succeeded in driving the sad term boat to the grave. Also boarding the boat are Senators Jibril Aminu (Adamawa), Sodangi (Nassarawa), Isa Muhammad (Niger) and others too numerous to mention. On the floor of the lower chamber are the likes of Honorable Gela Njida (Borno), Bako Sarai (Kano) and co. From the governors' forum Abdullahi Adamu of Nassarawa, Bukar Abba Ibrahim (Yobe), Ali Sharif (Borno) were the most notorious. However, all the governors smartly operated behind the scene with the exception of those of Abia, Adamawa, Plateau, Kano and Sokoto.

In the entire saga however, the most unfortunate set are the senators who supported the third term. This is so because the issue was debated thoroughly on the floor of the senate and all the members were given chance to voice out their stand. Most of the "sad term" senators represented their minds against the wish of their people. This was buttressed by the fact that most of them were disowned by their constituencies after making their stand known to the public. Have these senators known, they would not have boarded the faulty train that could not reach the final destination? Now, what does that mean to these senators? Political suicide? The answer may be YES. Since some of them are already facing the threat of recall while some have remained in Abuja because they cannot go back to their people for fear of molestation.  In fact as I write this piece my worry is not the senators who have dug the grave of their future aspirations but the successor of Obasanjo come 2007. It bites me to see some of these governors that could not provide even "non portable" water to their state capitals not to talk of rural areas, campaigning or even nursing ambition of presidency. I think they have to get it clear that this time around it is not the length of one's bears or the name he answers that will be counted as the mark to qualify one as a political office holder. Neither is the number of churches nor mosques constructed will be scored. The number of pilgrims sponsored to Hajj or Jerusalem is no more a political point. But rather the number of schools, hospitals, boreholes, feeder roads etc. constructed as well as tonnes of fertilizer supplied to farmers, probity, and accountability will be the main thing.

Of course they have state resources at their disposal to continue the squander mania. So they can sponsor adverts and programs in both print and electronic media to project their image. But to the people they governed nothing to take home. Even then, with the sudden renaissance and the demise of brown envelope journalism in the country I think Nigerian journalist and their international counterparts will leave no stone unturned in digging out the mess and atrocities committed by these daft that are playing to the gallery.

Nonetheless, this scenario has long been anticipated by some political analyst and most attributed the dilemma to Obasanjo for his long silence on the tenure elongation saga under the cover of the constitution amendment gimmick. I believe if not those bootlickers who lured Baba into the shabby deal, he would have focused his search machine towards tracing out a successor for the nation. We thank Allah for the detraction. Now what is heart rending is that if care is not taken the chances are that the time left to election may be too short for a credible candidate to emerge. And this may offer an opportunity to those shameless chaps who could not even pay the minimum wage in their states to crowd the field.

With no hesitation whatsoever I think Atiku and IBB are no better alternatives to Obj. But then the fear is that if PDP is able to achieve reconciliation and the ticket rotates to the North, Nigerians may be forced to choose the lesser evil (yet to be found) among the duo if no divine intervention. Finally, as I rest my case, let me join well meaning Nigerians to pray to Almighty Allah to rescue us from the shackles of these merciless predators and choose for us a merciful leader and grant him all the guidance to take us to the promised land; and not surrender our future into the hands of these greedy, self-serving, power drunk politicians. Ameen. 

 Sadiq Abdussamad Habibullah writes from Sokoto