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Prof. Aminu’s Shocking Volte-Face By Shehu Jamilu Jimeta
One of the notorious weaknesses of political deceivers is their short memories. And deception, like falsehoods, usually has a severely limited life span. Professor Jubril Aminu, a Senator of Nigeria from Adamawa State, is undoubtedly squirming in the crisis of credibility. Even his staunchest former hero-worshippers are now held breathless by his disgusting inconsistency and insincerity. Having already staked his reputation on the notoriously unpopular third term agenda, which suffered a predictable pratfall on the floor of the Senate, the Professor’s mind seems to be meandering like an airborne plane caught by turbulence.
When speculations of a third term agenda became rife in the country, Prof. Aminu was quoted as advising the President to “arrest and try” those promoting it for treasonable offence. But eventually, when the third term agenda became the official but unconstitutional pet project of the PDP, Senator Jubril Aminu sang a different tune by energetically hopping into the tenure elongation train. He was one of the Senators who took turns to speak in favour of the constitutional amendment to extend Gen. Obasanjo’s tenure by another twelve years!
However, even as he was arguing before fellow Senators, the conflict between the Professor’s mind and his mouth was unmistakably obvious. He was visible miserable as he tried strenuously but unconvincingly to sell the third term dummy to fellow Senators and the ever cynical and skeptical wider Nigerian public, which was keenly following the Senate debate on the issue live on television. The hardest task is to attempt to sell on unpopular product in a market that is already resistant or hostile to such product. As a Hausa proverb goes, the guilty will sweat profusely even if you immerse them in ice-cold water! Despite his professorial title, the Senator looked miserable on that day because, even in the theatre of his own conscience, a hostile audience confronted him.
Given his “principled” opposition to the third term agenda when it started to bare its venomous fangs, thousands of Professor Aminu’s admirers were forced to hang their heads in shame because of the disappointment he had brought to them by his inconsistency, which manifested itself with his active support for tenure elongation. Can the Professor pretend that he forgot his original stand on the third term agenda when he finally voted for it? His admirers are now disarmed to speak in defence of their hero’s inconsistency and opportunism. Sometimes, if not always, followers have longer memories than their leaders, more so in a democracy which gives us the opportunity to put a tab on the every day conduct of our leaders. Professor Aminu’s latest inconsistency and attempt to insult our intelligence is his widely reported declaration of intent to contest the presidency in 2007. Is this ambition in tune with his pervious skepticism about power shifting to the north in 2007? He was quoted in a newspaper interview that the north must not insist on power shift in 2007. Strangely, he now believes that power shift is good for the North, provided he is the one nominated to contest the nation’s highest public office!
For someone who was originally not enthusiastic about power shift to the north, Senator Aminu’s latest indication of interest to contest the presidency must have come as a great shock to many of his admires across the country. Once a leader is no longer taken seriously by his admirers and other members of the society, such a leader should search his conscience. Admittedly, Professor Aminu was once a colossus in the eyes of Nigerians. Today, however, they keep wondering and asking: how can such a great man suddenly become such a small man! And nothing erodes the stature of a great man like insincerity, inconsistency and opportunism.
What is worth believing in is worth dying for. Does this basic principle tally with Professor Aminu’s record of inconsistency? Do principled gentlemen chicken out of a good cause to serve an unworthy one? Senator Jubril Aminu was once a member of the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), founded by the late Gen. Yar’Adua. But when it became the target of Gen. Sani Abacha’s anger, Professor Aminu teamed up with other political turncoats to form the so-called Congress for National Consensus (CNC), which was one of the officially funded parties that automatically endorsed the self-succession agenda of the late Gen. Abacha. Principled fighters remain steadfast, despite the risks, because as Robert Kennedy argued “the essence of life is the hazards of life.” In his moment of opportunism, Professor Aminu forgot the lessons of the powerful words of Robert Kennedy.
Another ridiculous dimension to the Senator’s inconsistency is his clever attempt to serve different military masters at the same time- President Obasanjo and Gen. Babangida! In fact, another issue that lowers Senator Aminu in the eyes of his admirers is the disgusting extent to which he pursues personal vendetta against a brother politician, especially one that stood by him when it mattered the most. Vice- President Atiku Abubakar bankrolled Professor Aminu’s election as Senator; so also was his nomination for a first-grade ambassadorial posting to the United States in 1999.
But like a treacherous spitting cobra, Senator Aminu is pouring his venomous fangs on Atiku Abubakar and is lending his hand to every evil scheming to disgrace or bring the Vice President to his knees. However, nothing defeats an enemy like their own excesses. In view of the needless malevolent energy, with which the Professor is fighting Atiku Abubakar, the pendulum of public sympathy has swung to the Vice President who most Nigerians regard as an innocent target of harassment because he refused to endorse the illegal third term agenda. At domestic political level, Senator Aminu has damaged his public image even more grievously, because majority of Adamawa people see him as an errand boy of malicious outside forces that desperately want to put Atiku out of the way so that they can impose a “garrison democratic order” on Nigerians unchallenged.
Even after he had de-registered Atiku Abubakar and his teeming loyalists from the PDP, Professor Aminu is still thirsting for blood like a ferociously sanguinary hound set upon a targeted quarry! Not a day passes without Senator Aminu launching one personal attack or the other against the Vice President. The Professor, who is unlikely to win any election in his own right, is now desperately committed to snuffing political life out of Atiku Abubakar. In his frenzy to execute his malicious mission against Atiku, Professor Aminu has dangerously shot himself in the foot (politically).
Let Professor Aminu take notice that his political star in Adamawa State is declining rapidly and the fate of public humiliation that greeted the collapse of the widely reviled third term agenda may ultimately befall all political turncoats that will rather rule in hell than serve in paradise. The Senator is dancing in a net and by the time he realizes he has no cover any more, it may be too late to repair the damage that will befall his entire political career. No evil can ever endure for too long and such conviction may have informed Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s unflappable attitude under maximum provocation.
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