Lamido My Governor of the Year By Kabir Nata’ala The Sunday discourse of Dr. Aliyu Tilde which he entitled “Lamido, My Governor of the Year” was an excellent piece. I came across it in the LEADERSHIP of 6th January, 2008. I must confess it was an intellectual work similar to that of George O’well, author of the ANIMAL FARM, who succeeded in criticizing a system without direct allusion. I am not here trying to refer to Tilde in contrast to George O’well, because they differ in many ways at least in principles and sincerity of purpose. What I am saying is that Tilde copied his style to avoid direct reference. I personally congratulate Alhaji Sule Lamido for being Tilde’s Governor of the year, which title he won for his six policies as opined his admirer. Tilde stands the right of assessing any public office holder in as much as he will be fair in his judgment, but from my observation his adulation for the Jigawa State Governor is purely ostensible and if it is not, then it has dual motives each of which is negative. One is to extend his kwanon bara (begging bowl) to the Governor and the other is to find an alibi for falsely accusing the government in the neighbourhood of Jigawa State. It is not only one state that shares common boundary with Jigawa but any right thinking person knows which state Tilde referred to, and as I am from that State, I think I owe it a duty to react instantly against this injustice and falsities. I do not dissent from the idea of criticizing any government for misdeeds. Criticisms are sometimes deterrent to excesses. I wrote much in criticism of the recent administration in the state and I will not hesitate to criticize the present one if it goes astray. The six policies of Sule Lamido as listed by Tilde are the priorities of his government and every government has its priorities based on the needs of its people. Of course it is worth delight if the Jigawa Government considered the physically disabled for monthly allowance. If Jigawa has high number of destitute, its neighbour has a scaring population of unemployed youths and women who have been made redundant by the inhuman policies of the past government in which Tilde was a key official but chosed to take a passive stand that time. With the creation of a Special Agency for Youths and Women now thousands of them are employed and the Agency continues to absorb them in different skills acquisition programmes. This greatly reduced the activities of thugs in the state by almost 70 percent within just six months. As for the agricultural subsidy, the neighbour state not only subsidized fertilizer by fifty percent but evolved a new and effective distribution means that helped make the commodity reached the ordinary peasant farmer without the interference of the middle men. The first time such fair distribution has ever been witnessed in the state. It is pure lie that “thirty trucks-loads of fertilizer disappeared in fraud”. I know only of a truck that was caught at the border and brought back for investigation. It is the habitual mischief of Tilde that exaggerated the trucks number. It is extremely surprising, indeed astonishing beyond any imagination that Tilde could be blinded by his desires to fabricate serious lies for selfish purpose. The allegations that the Governor in the said neighbouring state allocates N750,000 to his family daily for domestic feeding and N800,000 each to his SSG and Chief of Staff monthly for same domestic purpose are never substantial as he claimed. This provoked my curiosity to go to the Government House for clarification Wallahi (by God), there is nothing like that. I thought when Tilde left the University (where he should have been more relevant) to begin the hunt for lucrative public offices he became a little acquainted with the procedures of running such offices. No office can function, no matter its status, without running cost. This informed the decision of the present government to increase the overhead cost of all ministries and parastatals by 100 percent. Duties and daily burdens on the offices of the SSG and Chief of Staff are too enormous for N800,000 to cater for monthly. There is nothing like “domestic feeding expenditure”. And if it is true that the habit of spending millions daily as security vote is a continuation of the practice by the previous administration, why did he then keep quite against this practice? Was it because he was part of the government? Tilde’s fear of probing the immediate predecessor in the neighbour state is not unexpected. He was part of the corruptions that took place that time. His record as the Chairman of the Special Schools, where enormous funds had been pumped, was too ugly to be revisited. Inflation and self award of contracts, diversion of funds, etc. All Tilde wants is the continuation from where the previous government stopped but not looking back. It should be recalled that soon after the recent elections, Tilde wrote a piece in connection with the victory of the present governor in the neighbour state in which he insinuated bad omen for the new government even before its inauguration. He explicitly demonstrated his wishes for the government to fail. In my reaction to that which I named “THE MANY FACES OF ALIYU TILDE” and published by DAILY TRUST, I told Nigerians Tilde was such a person who reaps from unnecessary criticism. He only hoped to scare the new government to silence him by either renewing his appointment or a fresh one for that matter. To the surprise of those who do not know him, he came round to approach same government in an offer to serve it. Such is Tilde. And when the government turned down the offer he became frustrated which led to the second attack. Now whether Lamido likes it or not, he remains indebted to Tilde, and if he pays next year another state in the neighbourhood, perhaps Gombe or Plateau, will have to host the master analyst. He does not grow tired of moving from place to place in search of fortune. I have long ago discovered who Tilde is. He is never sincere in most of his words and deeds. It was the same person who came to align with Mohammadu Buhari in 2003 with highest hope of becoming a Federal Cabinet Member but not for his subscription to the General’s principles and ideologies. When circumstances stood on the way to success, Tilde parted ways with Mohammadu Buhari, because he has no any hope with him again. A friend once confided to me that he ruled out any possibility of the General becoming the president when he said “no magic will make Buhari the Nigerian President”. It is alleged that with the financial weakness of General Buhari, Tilde was merciless to make some money out of him. Though, I do not blame him. He was out of academic circle to make his fortune; to have his fair share of the national cake, and this can be achieved by whatever means. The end justifies the means. |