Armchair Critics and the Unfair Attacks on Sule Lamido

Armchair Critics and the Unfair Attacks on Sule Lamido

Adiata Adamu

All new political dispensations, as expected come about with the good, the bad and the ugly. When Sule Lamido the radical populist Leader of the PDP in Jigawa state was forcibly drafted once again to vie for the post of Governor of Jigawa the period truly signified a new dawn. That someone so colourful as Lamido who has practically given up on the sad and comatose state of his state's politics is again back in the fray. It is of great significance that he was to tango with some of his political sons yet again.

But one good thing here for the Lamido for Governor plan was that he was this once in cahoots with another of his political sons, Ibrahim Saminu Turaki, Jigawa's internet loving two-term Governor with whom Lamido had been at war all of the eight years of the current phase of the state's political dispensation.

One thing worthy of note though is that with the plans of the PDP juggernaut for 2007 and the reality of Lamido's mass following among the commoners of Jigawa whether or not Lamido had been supported by Saminu Turaki and his group it was obvious to all political pundits that this time around he was surely destined for Jigawa Government House. Especially with the horrible schisms in the ANPP even before Turaki was forced out of the party by Honourable Farouk Adamu Aliyu, the gutsy ANPP ex-Federal lawmaker for Birnin-Kudu/Buji, with Turakin Hausa moving into PDP and his newfound romance with Sule Lamido, who is the undisputable lord of the PDP in Jigawa, Lamido and his supporters had to sheath their swords. This was in spite of the fact that they had waged a relentless war against what they had severally referred to as Turaki's ruinous management of Jigawa in the past eight years.

Turaki for the first time got to know peace. And the PDP men and women who had been hungering for government finally got into government through Lamido.

From the beginning of the marriage of convenience that has now seen Turaki elected Senator, his former Commissioner and Speaker Mustafa Makama also elected Senator and his last but one Finance Commissioner elected Deputy-Governor it was clear there has been some form of a serious truce on the political front.

Of course this is discounting the fact that the whole political machine used by Turakin Kazaure, Turakin Hausa is the same one that had been bequeathed to former SDP Governor of Jigawa Ali Sa'adu Birnin-Kudu, one of Sule Lamido's earliest protégées.

In the political bequest in 1991/1992 Sule Lamido made to Ali Sa'adu's Government current Deputy-Governor, Ahmad Mahmud Kulkuli from Gumel was Jigawa's first SDP chairman appointed by Lamido at the excision of Jigawa from old Kano; while Ibrahim Saminu Turaki was the Party Chairman who took over from Ahmad Kulkuli during the reign of Ali Sa'adu. As for commissioners and other top apparatchik of the Turaki Government many of whom were part of the effort to ensure Lamido's victory this time around during the 2007 elections most of them actually cut their political milk teeth in Lamido's political classes in the 80s either as PRP youth when Lamido was the Party's national Youth Leader or in SDP where he was first chairman of the Party in old Kano state.

With all these as background and the fact of merger of the rump of SDP, PRP partisans at all levels to bring in Lamido's government those who were worried that Lamido might embarrass his boy, Ibrahim Turaki, when he takes over from him were comforted that he won't.

Especially knowing where he comes from and the grand agenda of positive change and people oriented human development expected of Lamido's long awaited government. And true to expectations Lamido didn't disappoint those of us who hoped he would be mature. For one, he did not mention or disparage the former government even once in his inaugural address on May 29th. That set the tone for the government. His focus and direction was most cerebral, expressing such concerns as to do with ideology, which is a long forgotten matter in Nigerian politics. In it he was concerned with how to save the most critical sections and members of society.

At the risk of being misunderstood he articulated a major policy decision the day he was sworn-in as Governor giving the critically handicapped a N7,000 living allowance in Jigawa. No government anywhere in Nigeria had ever thought of this before. The cerebral Lamido understood the critical need for stable families properly empowered for true growth and development in the society. His solution was to ensure mothers, future mothers, girls of school-going age who would be the hub of such families in Jigawa, were given special attention. Their education is now free and compulsory from October this year. This is outstanding, and foresight of the type that doesn't require ICT capacity to access.

Therefore since the inauguration where the outgoing government announced a debt profile of almost N30 billion Lamido exercised the restraint expected of the new improved more sober (post-Foreign affairs Ministry diplomat) Governor the people of Jigawa had waited and prayed for since their mistake of 1999. At that time the depth of misunderstanding and the malice of mischief makers had tilted victory away from Lamido's PDP which had then had the majority of Jigawa local governments under its control. That was to the benefit of Turaki's ANPP. Despite the pain in recalling the past Lamido and his people had had to swallow humble pie this time around to work together with Turaki and other Lamido boys.

Now after all this, the transition committee charged with the assignment of finding out the current status of Jigawa's government being handed over to Lamido so that he would know exactly where to take-off came up with a stupendous debt story. That over N200 billion is the actual debt profile of Jigawa. Now that has since kept everyone concerned with Lamido, with Jigawa and with Turaki or even tangentially with Nuhu Ribadu concerned and agitated.

There have been many interpretations of why this debt story. Especially when Turaki himself had a few days to handover in late May said he had left huge sums of money for Jigawa, that he had also left shares, lion shares in blue chip companies, he says at that for the young state he had ruled for all of eight years. He was said to have announced this at a NAN interview allegedly in Dutse, the Jigawa capital, even when he had not been seen in or around Dutse in months. Later when the Sule Lamido set up transition committee came about with its debt figures, figures it says it got from functionaries of the Turaki Government, one Lawan Danzomo, the latest Finance Commissioner in Turaki's government who had served Ali Sa'adu as works Commissioner in the early 90s and served Turaki all these eight years debunked the claim invoking the wrath of God on whosoever is lying about the figures.

May be he is not invoking the wrath of God over the fact that there are huge and unbelievable debts but rather the figures, mark you! Anyway since then the hordes have been unleashed. And all kinds of writers are now having a field day. Only two or so weeks since handover of power to Lamido. All of them have refused to tackle this little matter of debts head-on. Lamido has since become a sitting duck for all kinds of jabs. It started as a trickle with those querying his rationale for giving the most disadvantaged members of society, the blind, the crippled and lepers a living wage. They chorus: where, how is he going to raise money for such a gargantuan project? How can he cope when he says his transition committee has told him there was no money in the state treasury? How is he to get money when he says he will not victimize or harass anybody for being part of the government and its rape of the past eight years? They forget that he is not paying willful destitute and beggars. No! He is paying those who lost their sights because the society hasn't provided them medication when they needed it to arrest their problem. He is paying lepers who are so blighted because the system didn't work for them. And such types as those crippled by polio and more. How many do you know of this type of handicapped in your environment? Is it fair to ignore them and lump them alongside those who beg for no earthly reason even when government and the society provide them jobs? The trickles of criticisms though expected are beginning to roar into a stream. The floods now get to forget the basics raised as terms of engagement by Lamido in his government. Looked at critically the pattern appears deliberately orchestrated to achieve a specific goal. To distract Lamido. To discredit Lamido. The fear one has now is that some allies, recent allies conscripted by the changes in the tides of politics in Nigeria and more so in Jigawa to work together having heard the story of the huge debts are already spoiling for a showdown.

They however don't seem ready yet. Maybe they are waiting for such a time that they are able to drag Lamido down to the cesspit they have been consigned into by their own selfish and misguided actions especially while in government in Jigawa. Of the diversionary comments a recent laughable one by one hired Maiduguri hand, a woman for that matter goes off to attack Lamido over alleged attacks on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

The hired hack bereft of any ideas and totally lacking in any sense of historical sequencing attacks Lamido for joining issues with his elders. That Turakin Adamawa was Lamido's elder. Haba? What could be so farther from the truth? To set the records straight may I give some lessons in history to the novice, the unlettered hack Hajiya Hafsat Musa Zanna ( musahafsat@yahoo.com) who wrote one abusive article, Sule Lamido: The Antics of An Ingrate 'Area Father', posted on www.Gamji.com. She had in her junk article called to question Lamido's political credentials painting a picture of a Lamido in the figment of her imagination. Not the Lamido we all know. She had referred to Lamido as a secondary school drop out thus wickedly and ignorantly inferring that he didn't have what it takes to be Governor.

First, Hajiya Hafsat are you and your sponsors at all aware that Lamido was chairman of SDP in old Kano State, comprising of present day Kano and Jigawa? That he was governorship candidate in SDP Kano and later Jigawa? He was also elected national secretary of SDP.

Under his leadership as Party Secretary, Late MKO Abiola and current SGF Babagana Kingibe won the June 12th election. Where then did Atiku become his senior, his elder? Atiku was a common floor member of SDP in late Shehu YarAdua's PF/PDM group. He was only drafted to contest the presidency as a newbreed politician (which was unarguably the beginning of newgreed politics) along with Kingibe and Abiola when YarAdua along with Lamido and other senior olderbreed politicians (who were into ideological politics) had been banned from contesting elections by then President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

Even of recent in 1998, in the formation of the PDP on whose platform Atiku became Governor-elect in Adamawa and was made VP by Obasanjo it was Lamido and his other allies who had just come out of detention after Abacha's death who set it up without Atiku, who had never been detained by Late General Sani Abacha. So assuming Lamido were to abuse - as in political abuse, that is - the Turakin Adamawa there would be no abomination here. It is from an elder to his junior.

And Turaki would understand that and have to live with it. After all the Turaki had never had any qualms abusing Obasanjo his own boss, the man who gave him the chance to grow and made him VP. I do not believe Lamido has any serious personal quarrel with Turakin Adamawa. It is rather political. And that is to be expected. My guess is that some people want to get Lamido to blow his top and get diverted, to waste time fighting fights he doesn't need. I'd advise that he ignores them. I'm sure he will recognise this and ignore them. As for the lies of the relations between Lamido and Aminu Kano and Lamido and Rimi during the PRP days as falsely crafted by Hafsat Zanna, it was so laughable that for a while I almost let it go assuming it to be no more than the traditional joke relations between the Kanuri and Fulani.

It is obvious this Hajiya Zanna hack is totally ignorant. It is likely that she was not born during Shehu Shagari's Second Republic. Or if she was, she was not old enough to know anything going on around her. But for the records Lamido never contested for Governor with his boss (in the 1993 that she wrote, not 1983 the time that) Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi went for Governor in Kano with the full support of Lamido and his people who were willing to pitch camp with Rimi having parted ways on ideological principles with Aminu Kano.

In fact after Sule Lamido's tenure as PRP member of the Federal House of Representatives from 1979 to 1983 representing Birnin-Kudu federal constituency he was fielded for the Senate from the same zone by Rimi in Rimi's party, Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe's NPP. Not in Mallam Aminu Kano's PRP which Lamido, Rimi and many others who shared their views had been forced to leave for irreconcilable ideological differences.

How could Lamido then be said to have betrayed or undercut Rimi with the Late Mallam Aminu Kano? And talking about the tales of Lamido presented as someone reaping in a PRP in which he had not invested anything, Hafsat Zanna may wish to know he was the Chairman of PRP in Birnin-Kudu LG who crisscrossed all its nooks and crannies taking with him the gospel of the PRP. At that time illustrious fellow LG chairmen included late PRP Governor and Senator Sabo Bakin Zuwo, who was PRP chairman of Kano Municipal.

Talking about the oft-vended tales of Lamido as a secondary school drop out, this is a very pedestrian stale ploy spawned to diminish him in the eyes of his constituents that has not worked all these two or three decades Lamido had been a full pledged politician. Because those sold the tale have with credible reason seen through the mischief of its vendors. The people of Kano and Jigawa who have interacted with Lamido have never bothered about his educational background. They have never bothered to ask him about his days at Barewa College Zaria 50 years or so ago. They are not bothered even when some of them know his Barewa College number. Or that they know and have seen his pictures on the Barewa College old boys (BOBA) calendar. They are fully in the picture of his many diplomas and certificates, including those secured from credible overseas institutions.

The people of Kano had never bothered to ask Lamido about the many jobs he had held down from the Nigerian Railways, NTC Zaria, or the multinational AC Chriestleb, where he rose to the post of a top manager in the Lagos head office and as Area Manager for the whole north. Lamido was not picked up from nowhere to become PRP Federal House of Representatives member for Birnin-Kudu. What is more, the very savvy people of Kano and Jigawa know that it is not the tons of degrees that you have that make you a good manager of men. After all what degrees did Sarkin Kano Abdullahi Bayero have that gave him the reach to open up old Kano, building water works, hospitals, schools etc.

Or yet what certificates and degrees did Kano's first Governor Abdu Bako have or his lieutenants, Tanko Yakasai the tailor, Maitama Sule, the Dan-Masanin Kano, Inuwa Dutse, the agriculture guru of his days and the many more that gave them the wisdom necessary to establish the foundations Kano and Jigawa now enjoy. This is not to talk of Sardauna Ahmadu Bello or Aminu Kano or Tafawa Balewa or even Lawan Danbazau and Sabo Bakin Zuwo, each of whom gave their all in the service of the fatherland.

We won't have to call in Microsoft's Bill Gates as witness, a confirmed drop-out who now sets the pace in the world of computing, and indeed in many other areas of human endeavour. This is not to glorify lack of education as assumed of drop outs.

No! Rather to highlight the great capacity of the many points men of change in society for whom the lack of a formal western education has never been a handicap, but had seemed to rather spur them on to superhuman efforts with undoubted results. Not to disparage people with degrees and whatever, no matter how poorly has been the input of those graduates and PhDs who have been the ideologues of the confusion in our Governments at all levels over the past decades. How many graduate governors and Ministers and Local Government Chairmen have we had these years past whose input has been more negative than positive? How many? So assuming Lamido were to be disparaged on account of his allegedly low level of education or as a drop out, which I very much doubt he is. He is in good company.

For the Sardaunas, the Balewas, the Aminu Kanos, the Rimis, the Abdu Bakos and the rest weren't much better in that regard. And they did quite well in their time. So did Lamido as Foreign Affairs Minister, as Chairman NACB, as chairman SDP, as manager Chriestleb, as national secretary, SDP and today as Governor Jigawa by the grace of God. And hopefully as much more in the future! On the wishful thinking expressed by Hafsat Zanna that Jigawa's election petition tribunal would overturn Lamido's well deserved victory at the polls. Hajiya Hafsat Zanna of Maiduguri, Borno State unlike her sponsors is completely ignorant of the current politics of Jigawa. If Zanna had asked them they would have told her that it is probably only in Jigawa state that there is no single petition against the elected governor at the state's election tribunal. Sule Lamido was the first Governor to have received fellow contestants' blessings and endorsements.

The AC candidate for Deputy Governor, Dr. Fulatan, a former Special Assistant to Lamido was one of the earliest callers to congratulate Lamido. The ANPP's most prominent warrior in Jigawa Hon. Farouk Adamu Aliyu was another early caller. Many others also reasonably graciously called or sent emissaries to wish Lamido's Government well. And the people in their hundreds trooped in by the day, from the April 14th elections right up to the May 29th swearing in date to pledge their support and loyalty. Even AC chieftain and former Governor Ali Sa'adu was said to have supported and in fact voted for his elder brother, Lamido.

The people of Jigawa are no doubt happy with their new Governor. And ready to give him a chance to right the many wrongs of the past. And Lamido appears all charged up and ready to deliver. Despite the many challenges.

As for subsequent ups and downs in politics, Hajiya Hafsat Zanna now hopefully having grown up enough to know how things work in the world and in politics, I am sure she is aware that it is not rude or wrong if you disagree and part ways with whosoever you were with so long as you both do it on principle.

That is why for those who think creating diversions would deter Sule Lamido from pursuing what is right and proper for the people of Jigawa I say they do have another think coming.

The Lamido I know will not hesitate to insist that anyone who has taken away Jigawa's money for projects not executed returns the funds. The Lamido I know will not be swayed by the number of write ups to stop focusing on the plans he has for the people. He will not be bothered that some desperate people are busy opening new battle fronts for him to scare him.

As Zanna Hafsat and her sponsors may have heard him say on the news if there were no challenges why should Lamido at 60, now be Governor of Jigawa? The only worrisome issue at this stage is that there may yet be people with heaps of bunu around their waists racing towards the raging fire of progress and development in Lamido's Jigawa. And that would really be a pity.

Mallam ADIATA ADAMU writes from Maitama District, Abuja.