Lamido Can’t be Governor of the Year

By

Aminu Garba Mohammed

aminugar2007@yahoo.com

It is true as Tilde has written about public service in Hausa society thatba ka iyawa, ba ka gamawa, ba a yaba ma: You cannot do it right as a public officer; you cannot finish the job, and you will not be praised”. But there is now a solution if you cannot please don’t go into it because no one is forced into it. All the politicians voluntarily go into public service either to serve such as Sardauna and Awolowo or for their ego such as Sule Lamido and Abubakar Rimi. It is unfortunate that in northern Nigeria only those who rig elections and claim sanity, like Lamido who connived with Ibrahim Saminu Turaki to rig elections and is now making the loudest noise. I am very surprised that Tilde could be so naïve simply because his classmate the Jigawa SSG invited him for a lunch he ended up praise singing the boss of his friend. I certainly agree that Sule is a very gifted in public relations we all remember his days as a very rude politician in the PRP. He has also retained his Onoja his aide at the Foreign Ministry similarly his SSG is reaching out to friends in the media who are willing to abuse their privilege of being columnists to praise sing.

Tilde did what most PR write ups by our journalists do which is the misrepresentations are their stock in trade. Tilde and most of us were alive when Rimi and his gang parted ways from Mallam Aminu Kano the progressive leader of NEPU and PRP. Sule Lamido was the first person to abuse Mallam Aminu Kano in his presence and publicly. Later Rimi led them and other charlatans to rebel against Aminu Kano. What was Mallam Aminu Kano’s offence against these chop-chop politicians. They were, his advocacy for frugality and decorum in public service. He did not want Kano to be isolated by the Federal Government but they were used by the UPN. Kano was isolated and because of Rimi’s immaturity 10000 people lost their lives in the Maitatsine uprising. It was from Rimi’s administration that Kano began to experience slide in education because it was his administration that was the first to default in the payment of primary school teachers salaries since then Kano has never recovered he allowed all the schools to dilapidate while he was engaged in populism of challenging the Federal Government. Rimi and his cohorts such as Sule spent public funds to fight the traditional institutions today Rimi’s brother has inherited their father’s position of village chief while Sule has upgraded his son to a higher chieftaincy position. They want to be transformed from their inferior aristocratic background of vassals to nobles.

The irony is that Rimi and Sule who never saw eye to eye with Mallam Aminu Kano before his death now claim to be his disciples and have displayed his portraits in their sitting rooms. Sule once told visiting DFID officials that he is a disciple of Aminu Kano and one of the DFID officials asked who is Aminu Kano? Sule replied that he is the Ghandi of Africa. After he spent so much time talking about himself because of his lack of education he was unable to articulate his programs in proper context of good governance best practice and Islamic culture of his people. It is should be noted that his poor education may not be unconnected with the fact that he was dismissed from Barewa College for indiscipline and he did not attend any university. It is therefore it is understandable if he is unable to express himself. When the DFID people came out the team leader asked his colleagues whether they saw the man’s watch. He was wearing Rolex worth over $40000! It is really amazing that northern leaders could be so extravagant and yet Tilde will package one of them as a worthy brand. That amount is enough to repair one of the dilapidated village schools in Jigawa State one of the most backward spots on the planet. Sule and his master Rimi are not disciples of Mallam Aminu Kano hence Tilde’s quotation of Arabs: “man shabba ‘ala shay’in shaaba alaih. Jigawa was part of Kano State and its people have been disciples of late Malam Aminu Kano, the leader of the Northern Elements Peoples Union (NEPU)” is nothing but piece of propaganda. Tilde was unable to hide his partisanship when he betrayed his conscience and anointed Rimi “best Governor in Modern Nigeria”. This was a Governor of State that he never shared the norms and values of the people that elected him. He spent his time destroying the tarbiyya of the people through the worst use of abusive language in Nigeria. It is on the record that during his discord with his mentor Mallam Aminu Kano there was no despicable name that he did not call Aminu Kano. After President Shagari who was then the commander in chief had ordered the military to quell the Maitatsine riot which they did successfully Rimi made a statement that the next Maitatsine to be quelled is Mallam Aminu Kano of Gwamaja. The Maitatsine uprising was the worst disaster after the civil war in which more Nigerians lost their lives than any violent conflict in the history of Nigeria. It is indeed a disappointment that a morally decadent person who made 10000 people to loose their lives because of ineptitude could be anointed as the “best Governor in Modern Nigeria”. The unfortunate thing is that Tilde is always quoting Islamic and Arabic sources to justify his position. Based on Islamic Rimi should have done everything possible to stop the Maitatsine more especially even if it means obedience to the Federal Government because that is Allah’s injunction. The worst thing is to cooperate with those who deny the truth but Allah permitted believers to do Taqiyya (prudent consciousness) if they are over powered in the Qur’an << Let not the believers take those who deny the truth for their allies in preference to the believers- since he who does this cuts himself off from Allah in everything- unless it be to protect yourself against them in this way >> Therefore in this case Rimi had no excuse of being rude and stubborn instead of being humble and plead with the FGN at the earliest possible time to avert the death of 10000 people. In any case it was even his negligence that allowed Maitatsine to grow wings and start the uprising so Rimi is culpable. Rimi is Tilde’s “best Governor in Modern Nigeria” for allowing 10000 of his citizens to die because of bad politics. In fact Rimi is the worst Governor of Kano State for causing the death of 10000 people, for instituting indiscipline in politics and lack of decorum contrary to Islamic teachings. In times of infrastructure and institution building Kwankwaso and Shekarau are better than him.   

Rimi and Sule Lamido always believe that they are the only clean guys but on selfish grounds and not the truth and because they lack Islamic training they have no regard for elders even their so-called Mallam Aminu whom they castigated when he was alive. We saw how they parted ways because Obasanjo took Sule and left Rimi. We all remember that Obasanjo took Sule instead of Rimi because Sule is more or less not even educated and diplomacy remained in Obasanjo’s hands instead of Sule who could hardly express himself. Rimi left the PDP because Obasanjo could not accommodate him. Now he is back in PDP after chopping with Atiku. This people always claim that they are progressives but consistently they have been Machiavellian their desire is only to feed on politics. What is the ideology of PDP or AC? They have no ideologies but quest for power. Sule could get power in PDP he remained Rimi could not he went out and followed Atiku, now he is back into PDP to chop in Sule’s plate. Balarabe Musa on the other hand has been consistent, so was Bala Usman. Rimi and Sule on the other hand want to maintain flamboyant lifestyle therefore they can never be consistent.

Tilde in his PR for Sule listed six points which made him to choose him man of the year. One of them is his decision to give N7000 to each disabled person. One would have expected a scientist of Tilde’s caliber to inform his audience how many such disabled people have so far been empowered with this N7000 allowance. As a semi-educated government the Jigawa State Administration under Sule Lamido made this pledge without statistics of the disabled people in their poverty stricken state. It is only rhetorics because no sane person could make assessment without baseline data only empty politicians like Sule who are committed to deceiving people that make such utterances never to be fulfilled wholeheartedly.

Another reason for Tilde’s choice was the provision of fertilizer at subsidized rate. There is no doubt this is a welcome idea but in the usual deceitful manner Tilde reported that all government officials will get their share in their villages. The World Bank and other development partners with whom the FGN and all states are working with, are not against agricultural development but misuse of subsidies through theft and deceit as the case many in northern states. It is very surprising that an intellectual of Tilde’s caliber could reduce the issue of fertilizer and agriculture to mere distribution in the villages. As a critical mind he should have asked for the benchmark upon which the subsidy was articulated. Jigawa State despite the academic pretensions of its SSG and his supports like Tilde does not any program drawn by Sule Lamido with wide public consultations unlike Katsina and Kano States that have well articulated economic development programs. Because they have no program just like other semi educated people they think fertilizer to the villages will solve the problem. Sule and his cronies want to continue deceiving their people that they are radicals and are not willing to reform and embrace best practices which they claim are from World Bank and others. Instead of them to reform and learn from reform minded states like Katsina State that used existing national financial institutions to finance its agricultural subsidy or Kano State that revived its extension services now the largest in Nigeria to improve agricultural production.

Another simplistic reason for crowning Sule “the Governor of the Year” is that he has captured the essence of Governance by making Government relevant to the needs of the people this as if all other Governors have not. Northern Nigeria is indeed a funny place where poverty is the phenomenon because of people like Sule Lamido. What are the needs of the people of Jigawa and other poverty stricken northern States? Tilde and his intellectual friends such as Jigawa SSG should answer this question. A careful survey of 1999 to 2007 will reveal the enormous contradictions in northern Nigeria. Muazu and Bafarawa spent large sums on infrastructure in the case of Muazu most contracts were even allocated to world class contractors such as Julius Berger. After their two terms there was minimal human development and now they are castigated for their white elephant approach to governance. Shekarau who made human development his focus has also not escaped criticism. He doubled the number of teachers and health personnel in his first term he has also built the largest water treatment plant in West Africa yet Sule is financing Rimi and the PDP to put Kano on fire this is progressive politics in northern Nigeria. What is the difference between Bauchi, Kano, Katsina and Jigawa that we have to play dirty politics to cheat our people? Sule could be Governor of the Year for fragmenting northern Nigeria and by extension Nigeria.

There is no doubt one must agree with Tilde on the need to stop wastages but certainly Sule and his Jigawa domain are no exception. There is no need for sponsoring politicians to go on Hajj or spend so much on guests and cefane! But Sule is also engaged in wasteful misplacement of priorities. Sule Lamido’s administration has so far made the highest motor vehicle purchase in the shortest time in Nigeria’s history. Who was awarded the contract? The Jigawa masses need to know and why purchase 500 cars at time for goodness sake and why the hurry? Are cars the immediate problem of Jigawa State? It is also true that Sule has cornered the resources of the LGs and pauperized the rural populace because no projects that have direct bearing on the people that spur additional income are being executed. He is saving to buy more cars or give contracts to Rimi and Kwankwaso to finance Kano PDP. Of course in partisan politics Sule could expand his domain by financing Rimi and Kwankwaso.