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Atiku Abubakar and His Adamawa People By Abu Ibrahim
I may not be the best of writers but the internet sites like www.gamji.com, www.saharareporters.com, www.pointblanknews.com, Newspaper sites and many more offer unlimited access to this prestigious forum for common people like me to also be read and our perspective (no matter how irrational or otherwise) to be heard even if by a very few privileged internet users. before now I have to think of how to sit down, write, get to the post office, buy stamps and post and only god knows when your article will arrive the editor (if it does) and be considered for publication. Let me also use this forum to thank Nigerians at home and in Diaspora who have teamed up to provide these internet fora where ordinary mortals like me can also contribute to Nigeria’s development.
In the last two years that I relocated to Adamawa for my quiet life and small business, I have seen all the scheming and deadly machinations of people who have nothing to offer to the society but delight in mudslinging and outright mischief all for their selfish ends. What I have to say has to do specifically with the person of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Turakin Adamawa and his own people in Adamawa State. I have made short comments on web based papers to try to educate people on the alternative perspective of the man Atiku Abubakar and other national leaders but the attacks on his person has not abated. I have decided to take a little time to expand this article to cover a wider perspective. I do not know how to get this to all Adamawa people to read and maybe re-adjust their warped thinking, however, it is still better I make an attempt. I strongly feel these attacks are from misdirected minds and people who are not able to independently assess a person, his weaknesses and his strengths. My submissions here are based on (1) my fundamental right to say what I feel is for the public good, (2) as one who is on the ground in Yola, Adamawa state and in a position to say things the way I strongly feel about them; (3) as a Northern minority who has his expectations of our so-called Northern leaders who go out and stand on roof tops to ‘fight” for the North and end up turning the less privileged into slaves to come and shout ‘ranka ya dadai’ to them before they get a chip (crumps) of what he managed to snatch from the jaws of the other lions. What one is sure to see are well-fenced mansions with heavy iron gates, stern looking security men, exotic flowers and mosque. No ordinary man on his neighbourhood can worship his God in that mosque because he is a misfit in that place. All he gets is crumps after shouts of ‘ranka ya dadai.’ Their investments are in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Port-Harcourt and elsewhere in the world. If they are the minority tribes that rose to such a wealthy status in the society, they suddenly blend with people in ‘their class’ and will NEVER want to be identified with his ancestral minority tribe. These are the kinds of leaders we have in the North. (4) As a Nigerian with all rights and privileges to contribute on matters that I feel are not being looked at or done the best way (in my perspective) it should be. Let me say it very clearly here that I abhor pilfering of public property entrusted to ones care and hold the strong view that anybody found to have done so through laid down procedures (rule of law) should be brought to book. While I am writing here to defend Atiku, it does not mean I support him (Atiku) if it is established that his wealth is not from legitimate business investment. Rather than join the bandwagon to insult and call him all names because he is rich (from assumed stolen funds) I will encourage all those who have incontrovertible evidence to prove that what Atiku has today is not as a result of legitimate investment.
The last political dispensation in Adamawa state is what many describe as a wasted 8 years period because ‘nothing’ was achieved in the state by the Boni Haruna government. While I agree with this submission to some extent-for my own reasons- as it was in most other states of Nigeria from the cries of the people of those states. The Adamawa people can readily adduce reasons any day such as:
Atiku used Adamawa state money through Boni Haruna to build American University and ABTI-Academy and his business empire in Yola.
Atiku installed Boni Haruna a stooge who could not develop Adamawa state. Atiku’s American University is not for the ordinary man Atiku failed to rehabilitate Gombe-Yola and Hong Mubi roads as a Vice President etc etc.
In the days of General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd), over 80% of Nigerians believed Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was a thief because Obasanjo said so. Only those who knew Atiku well enough stuck with him or maybe because they were all treated the same way by the then president. What they cannot hear or reason about is the explanation by Atiku that Obasanjo sidelined him from the art of governance since 2003. everything Atiku has said about Obasanjo has come to pass. Until Obasanjo speaks and lays bare what he knows about Atiku, in my judgment for now, Atiku was more upright in governance that the one that was shouting “ole… ole… ole….”
Ribadu, who always swore ‘wallahi tallahi Atiku is corrupt’ on NTA, said that he had evidence to bring Atiku to book. Ribadu is a student now in Kuru. One may ask, did Ribadu go away to Kuru with his evidence to nail Atiku? In over ten months, Ribadu's group in Adamawa (including Jubril Aminu, Murtala Nyako, Bello Tukur, and others) have been at the helm of affairs in Adamawa and nobody brought out any evidence of looting against Boni Haruna and Atiku yet the noise has not abated. Do Boni and Atiku still have immunities from prosecution? To get back all your money from Atiku is simple, just bring out all the dossier against Boni Haruna and ask him to account for all the subventions received and he will surely tell you who and who took the money from him.
The reason why the attack on Atiku has not stopped is simple. Most Adamawa people the so-called Adamawa elites (if they are) have all been brainwashed and told that Atiku is a bad and greedy man. They heap the failure of Boni Haruna (if at all he stole their money and therefore failed woefully to develop the state).
While NOT holding brief for Boni Haruna, I want to narrate what an Achaba (okada) boy who just finished secondary school last year lamented that out of three of them in their house, their parent could only afford SSCE fees for their last born. He was grieved from two fronts-that his own ought to have been paid since he was the most senior and getting older and that Nyako stopped what others had been enjoying from the state government. If Boni Haruna used to pay up the SSCE and NECO examination fees of all government schools in the state since 1999- 2007, how can one measure this as a development when what politicians and followers would want to see are physical things like roads, water, housing estate, etc?
I want to say emphatically that these people cannot stop Atiku's contributions to the growth of Yola and Adamawa as a whole. Many believe Atiku has money so he should rehabilitate Yola-Gombe road. Personally, I pity this group of people that reason like this. It is on record that 85% of Nigerian roads are bad. If you blame Atiku for Gombe-Yola road, whom do you blame for the remaining roads in Nigeria? What a warped logic that to demonstrate that you are doing something for your people you must bring out money and tar a federal road from your pocket? These arguments are made by so-called learned people and politicians who capitalize on the low education level of the people of the state to sell their cheap blackmail on Atiku. This is human nature which Atiku knows and is stubbornly investing in Adamawa state.
Can one imagine the employment he is providing to these thankless Adamawa people? imagine the recognition Yola has as a result of the presence of the American University-increased banking activities, increased fast foods restaurants like Big Bite, Mega Delight, Tasty Menu, Wamise and many others which NEVER existed in the serene Fulani community of Yola. We also have increased air transport to Yola. American University has brought world leaders like Desmond Tutu, Prof. Pat Utomi, Robert Pastor and Mc Nnamara,(former Bill Clinton's top executives), Sir Marrack Golding (former UN Under Secretary etc all BOT members of AUN to Yola for the university's BOT meeting. What else do Adamawa people need in terms of exposure and recognition at the international level? Some stupidly say the university is for the rich only and to make money for him (Atiku). For God’s sake, we have the Adamawa State Polytechnic Yola/Numan, The Federal Polytechnic Mubi/Yola, The Adamawa State University Mubi and the Federal University of Technology, Yola. Why must a Yola man (a poor one for that matter think of taking his children to American University of Nigeria with World Class Facilities? Have they imagined what contribution to Nigeria these graduates will bring with the knowledge from a world class university? The lazy Adamawa people want Atiku to bring what he has and share it to them to eat and insult him again when his money finishes. Atiku is 100x wiser than all other northerners in helping his people. Adamawa people need serious re-orientation to distinguish between her most committed and dedicated sons and daughter and those parading as leaders without anything to offer the masses. I do not know Atiku personally but the first time I saw him was during the Founders Day of American University last year. When I saw him talk about all that he has will be committed to the American University (as far as the law of Islamic Inheritance allows) I became convinced and reasoned that Atiku has his heart and soul on this university.
Again he has his hostile people in his heart. This is because as an astute businessman Atiku knows it is better to invest the money into business to generate interest so that it can sustain the salaries of all workers employed in Adamawa state (thereby putting food on their tables in their houses than continue to demand ‘ranka ya dadai’ and share out to them (not that he has abandoned this Northern tradition). Which northerner is doing this across the north? What else do you expect from a leader who has made his money and is comfortable? Who has fooled these people in Adamawa that Atiku is a bad and greedy man? If only five other Adamawa elites were to do what Atiku is doing today in Yola, will Adamawa still talk of un-employment? Who is leading all these people by their noses like pigs?
Atiku cannot stop helping Adamawa state because of his these so-called useless critics who have NOTHING to offer the Adamawa people except to fight for their stomach. Jubril Aminu, though a renown Professor of old has shown the stuff he is made of by his attitude to Dr. Buba Marwa and he (Jubril’s) subsequent rubbishing by the Senate when he carried his Adamawa State ‘leadership’ trait into the respected hallowed chambers of the Senate. These are the people (leaders in Adamawa today) who are celebrated by their people both learned and not.
What the so-called Adamawa people and their elites cannot see today will manifest in due course when they are wiser (if at all they will be). Atiku’s image looms larger than Adamawa state and Nigeria by my estimation because his dogged and un-relenting spirit and resolve to perform a task to a logical conclusion no matter the odds has endeared him to the hearts of many in Africa.
MY QUESTION FOR YOU IS THIS SIR:
1.
Is Adamawa/Yola the only place you want your contributions and influence
felt?
MY ADVICE TO ALHAJI ATIKU ABUBAKAR, THE TURAKIN ADAMAWA: Do not despair even if your candidate does not win the re-election as a result of all the scheming and desperations we witness in Adamawa. You have shown humility even when you have the might to bulldoze it. Sleep well and have it at the back of your mind that you have silent un-biased admirers scattered all over Nigeria, nay Africa because you have inspired many by your words and actions. Be reminded that Jesus and Mohammed suffered the same fate when they had to preach salvation to their people. Jesus was not as lucky as his people the, Jews nailed him to the cross with all his goodness.
For now your former boss the n20,000.00 farmer man in 1999 is the richest man in Africa from the revelations of the Power Sector Probe, Abuja Land Allocation Probe and the coming NNPC and others probes when they starts. Even if you are indicted, I will still compare your involvement against the now established standard kleptomaniac Thief Dr. Matthew Okikiola Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo; the man who helps his son. Abu Ibrahim
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