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When The Ears Are Bigger Than The Head By Abubakar Mohammed Sambo
When the ears are bigger than the Head, is an article written to unravel the political romance between the erstwhile Governor Boni Haruna of Adamawa State in Nigeria and the ‘on-the-run’ immediate past Vice president, Atiku Abubakar, the leader of thought, and the almost founding father of the Action congress, the party that came on board as a result of the bifurcation of the ruling peoples’ democratic party, the PDP, and keenly contested the controversial April polls.
Governor Boni Haruna, the current makaman Mubi, as he is known, is one of the bravest, from within the Traditional ruling council in the Emirate of Mubi. Mubi is almost the largest emirate in the state after Yola, with a first class Emir.
Governor Boni Haruna, is known for his being straight-jacketed, focussed and is said to have taste on all that he does, and perhaps, the reason behind the eloquent rehabilitation of the Government House, to an exquisite standard that seems to generate applause from most people that are easily tripped by exquisite structures, with fine finishing and sparkling paints and designs. That is perhaps the reason behind all type of his renovation in the state, bringing the ‘Abuja prototype of zinc, paints and roofing style in vogue in the state capital’.
One thing which Boni Haruna is known for is his political doggedness. He took the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar to be his political mentor. That is the reason why he tolerated the vice president for some time and be came absolutely loyal to the Atiku Abubakr. He is quoted to have said that, he would rather go to jail than to support the erstwhile obasanjo’s third term political agenda. This basically is because his political godfather was not in support of the third-term agenda, and was having an agenda in becoming Nigeria’s president.
Loyalty is indeed devotion, an allegiance, trustworthiness, constancy, reliability, fidelity, dependability, steadfastness. Politically, to be loyal to your political mentor or political godfather entails being all this and also avoiding all that your master must not have necessarily indulged into; political romance, political agreements and bargains.
Boni Haruna has been loyal to his political mentor, and went even beyond being loyal. Perhaps he might have forgotten in his introductory political science class while in the university, that, Rex, contends “what is morally wrong can never be politically right” or he did not read his books well while in the university. This might have also explained reasons behind circumscribing his entire cabinet with ‘non-educated bureaucrats’, to make policies for him.
One may seek to know, why in the first place, Boni Haruna became ‘loyal’ to Atiku Abubakar! The most ‘vibrant’ reason perhaps is traceable to may, 1999 when Boni supposed to be Deputy Governor to his godfather, the godfather used his political connections then, to imposed Boni on the people of Adamawa State, even as that was going against their wish over and against their wishes, when Boni was about losing all, as a result of Atiku’s exit from the state to become the vice president. Certainly that Boni’s “assumed” loyalty stems from that particular episode.
Boni’s act of so-called loyalty transcend out of the boundaries of loyalty into the frontiers of stupidity and foolishness. It results to foolishness because what was exhibited by the acclaimed university graduate, and the then number one citizen of the state includes; idiocy, silliness, imprudence, thoughtlessness, stupidity, folly, foolhardiness, recklessness, madness and irresponsibility.
Irresponsibility because an intellectual will also lookup for a mentor that is charismatic, an icon of justice or a personality that is focused and ideologised, for it is the beginning of establishing a sentimentalized sense of judgment. As Plato, opined;
that the root cause of human predicaments is that they are being led by ignorant men, who are as ignorant as themselves. And that they can only get out of such predicaments when they realized that, power is indeed in the hands of the ignorant men. That power in the hand of the ignorant is poison.
A responsible leader, ought to have organize himself well, have an inclined opinion. Use the model of symbolic interactionism, as propounded by sociological scholars, to form opinion and learn how to interact first, before thinking of having a role model.
Forget about the issue of non-performance, arrogance, rudeness and recklessness that was exhibited during his eighth (8) wasted years. Talk about the leadership cum personality characteristics of Mr. Boni Haruna, when he was in control of political power in Adamawa State.
He portrays himself as the most ‘loyal’ personality to the former vice president. What I cannot understand with the pattern of his social and political mode of behaviour is that, Mr. Boni Haruna, as arrogant as he can be made us believe that he is a dogged struggler that can even, if it means, sacrificing his life to protect the image and personality of his political godfather.
Surprisingly enough, with all his rudeness, anti-social behaviour offensive to accepted standard of decency, lacking refinement or social interactive skills, Boni Haruna cannot wait behind in the state to give an account of his wasted eight years of steward of leadership in the state, after all the bluffs in a Church service to mark his exit from the official capacity he has helped in murdering. He pretends to be fearless, but the 29th of May has clearly shown us that he is a coward, a liar, a thief and an irresponsible personality.
Whatever it might have cause Boni Haruna, even if it will cause him his life, he is supposed to have invited (that) his arrogance to Ribado Square, so that we will believe in his doggedness and we also testify to his ‘loyalty’. Boni could have been exonerated from all our assumed perceptions after the 29th of May.
There is this African folklore, that whenever you see a man, whose ears are bigger (or taller) than his head, he is bound to be stubborn, look at peoples with disdain and also tend to be aggressive. Are Boni’s Ears not bigger than the head?
When you ask even small children throughout Adamawa state community, to sing Boni’s song, they can sing a song that was composed by them and it has causal relationship with his ears…( in zomo ya mutu, wa zai yi mana wasan kunnuwa….?
Boni should stop singing a sentimental song about his being loyal to the former vice president, made him find himself in the political mess. That his loyalty to Atiku is the reason behind his ordeal and perhaps that is why he ran away with out handing over. What Boni exhibited is sheer stupidness and an act of irresponsibility and not LOYALTY.
The late Bob Marley once said in his music, ‘He that fight and run away, lives to fight another day. We await your re-surfacing if at all you will for ever re-surface!
Abubakar Mohammed Sambo, is a lecturer with the Department of Public Administration, Adamawa State University, Mubi.
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