Kano: Why I Defend Malam?

By

Saka Raji Audu

sakaraj@yahoo.com

 

Criticisms, especially the constructive ones are required for the progress and development of the society. They empower every sincere government to adapt rapidly to changes for people's advancement. But where situation is the opposite, which is the case in most of the criticisms against the people's governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and his administration, which I had cause to respond to, they enhanced animosity, falsehood and retardation of any government efforts. It is always good to encourage some one who tries to make meaning out of a nonsense situation. It is not an easy task presiding over the affairs of Kano because of its political sophistication and litany of interests.

 

Among the five elected governor so far in Kano beginning from the first elected governor of the state, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed Rimi, the present one, Malam Shekarau is the only one that has carved niche for himself and to the admiration of his people. As Malam, he is dignified. As civil servant, he calls a spade a spade. And now, as a politician, he knows the dynamics of power. Rimi won the admiration of Kano people in 1979 because of the respect the down trodden have for the late revolutionary leader of the state, Malam Aminu Kano of blessed memory. This explained why in 1983, When Alhaji Rimi ditched him for another party, NPP, the down trodden could not spared him for the second term. Instead, a far less educated personality, the late Sabo Barkinzuwo, also of blessed memory, was elected in his place in spite of Rimi's much celebrated progressive achievements.

 

The election of Barkinzuwo as the governor of old Kano, now Kano and Jigawa, was like a protest vote against Rimi's recalcitrant postures for Aminu Kano. In the 1992 political dispensation, Kano naturally fell for the proscribed Socialist Democratic Party, SDP. It was almost certain that if the governorship election was conducted in the state, SDP would win. The election came and went. SDP, as popular in Kano as it was, presented candidate it was not sure of its popularity and acceptance in the person of Alhaji Magaji Abdullahi, the immediate past 2ic of Shekarau. The other party, the proscribed National Republican Convention, NRC cashed on SDP political miscalculation in its choice of governorship candidate to intensify campaigns.

 

By way of omission or commission, SDP lost the governorship election to the less popular party, the NRC. That was how the present Senator, Architect Ibrahim Kabiru Gaya became the third elected governor of Kano based on a platter of gold. In 1999, the Kano politics changed. For the first time in the political history of the state, Kano went in the same pattern with the federal government. This was perhaps chiefly because of the general anxiety and desperation to shift federal power to the South at all costs, in view of the political logjam brought by the 1993 June 12 general elections. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who had just been released after serving three years in jail was adopted by the People's Democratic Party, PDP as its presidential candidate. This party, cashing on the general readiness for power shift, used its federal might to impose PDP in Kano, against the wish of its people. Alhaji Dr. Musa Kwankwaso, a one time member of the House of Rep became the fourth elected governor of the state.

 

In 2003 when it was time for another election, the Kano people, it seemed, realized the enormity of tilting to the federal direction. They vowed not to fall on the same stone again. While preparing ground for this challenge, they were not in any hurry to forget the past political experience. The presiding governor wanted to continue for the second term because of his incumbency advantage and Mr. President's support. In view of this perceived fortified foundation, Kwankwaso was convinced beyond reasonable doubt that nothing would stop him from having the second term. He however, never knew that the very man he had demoted from Permanent Secretary to a classroom teacher, based on mere opinion differences, would be his successor.

 

I, also, never knew who Malam Ibrahim Shekarau was. I first came in contact with his campaign poster in Wapa area, Fagge while on my way to the Triumph publishing house to submit a write up for publication. Later I saw his rickety Toyota campaign car with inscription "Shekarau for 2003." I would have dismissed it as a play if any one had told me that Shekarau could defeat Kwankwaso who had a combined advantage of incumbency and federal might. But, trust Kano people. They know their onion pretty well and when to strike. On 19th April 2003, the governorship election was held throughout the federation. It was very easy for the Kano people to say good bye to Rabiu Kwankwaso and his PDP. Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, the least expected candidate among the heavy governorship contestants, won the election and became the fifth elected governor of Kano state.

 

I never took Shekarau's leadership seriously until after taking stock of his three months in office. That was August 2003. Thereafter, I became impressed in some of his far reaching progressive decisions and implementations. Among these include the relative stability on power supply in the metropolitan, the improvement of water supply, which was epileptic in the last one month of his predecessor, the settlement of outstanding payment owed to civil servants in the state, the saving of the life of one little Munzali that was having health problem when his government released N2M to carry out treatment on the little boy at the Saudi Arabia. Other things Malam Ibrahim Shekarau did within three months of his government that impressed me were the 50% fertilizer subsidy he gave to farmers for improvement of their farm produce, the purchase of JAMB form for indigent students of Kano state as part of his resolve to encourage students in their educational pursuit and his constant warnings against corrupt practices, using shariah as basis for implementation.

 

By 2005, two years of Malam's administration, he had already achieved a lot in the governance of Kano state. In 2006, the Kano people were already asking him to re-contest for the 2007 governorship election, which would afford him the opportunity to continue with his good work and consolidate achievements. I later joined in this call because I was convinced by many of his numerous achievements on ground. It took Malam time before he could accept the voice of the people for his second term. It was not easy fulfilling this mission of the second term. Those who arrogated to themselves Alfa and omega in the state and wanted Shekarau to fill their pocket but refused them ditched him. He was persecuted and made to go through the dark side of life by the very politicians who claim they brought him to power. He was made to feel guilty of sins he has not committed dreaded with incessant fear. Still, I urged Malam to continue because it is good to encourage good, putting every thing in prayers. As Muslims, I was extremely glad that Shekarau did not cage out of frustrations. He would have given the anti-progressive elements chance to laugh. At the end of the ugly rough journey, Shekarau had upper hand and laughed last, which means he laughed best. Still not convinced that God was in control, the oppositions took him to court and he won. You know that in Nigeria, it is a difficult issue for one to accept defeat. Just two months after Malam Shekarau celebrated his 1st year of his second term, the mercenary critics came up again with a subterfuge, displaying naked jealousy and animosity towards his administration. This time around, some hack journalists agreed to throw out their professional ethics and joined the dirty crusade to write nonsense about Shekarau's administration.

 

 I have stated many times without number that journalism is not for every new comer. It is for people with conscience and analytical minds. Journalist worth his onion does not use one opinion to make conclusion or assumption of issues. Every thing of this life is in two faces. It is therefore totally unethical and unacceptable for some of our modern day journalists to engage in malicious reporting against a perceived enemy. Every one is entitled to one's opinion but for every opinion one makes, one should not fail to substantiate it or prove it beyond reasonable doubt.  After all, we are often told that no body is guilty of any offence until he or she is proved beyond reasonable doubt. It is against the backdrop of false accusations coming out from some of our media axis that made me to respond accordingly, because as I said, the bad thrives because the good refuses to act.

 

Between June 2008 and till date, I have cause to make some rejoinders against articles and news reports that are tilted to one side of the coins, making the readers to believe as if the subject being talked about lacks the other side. The readers should help me look at the following headline of articles and news reports that I have responded to within the period mentioned above. "Kano and loads of unfulfilled promises", "Kano: Development in reverse gear", "Kano officials embezzled N4.5billion", "Rumbles in Kano over car gifts", "The squandering of goodwill in Kano" and "Poverty in Kano: Height of official insensitivity." All but two of these articles were published by one particular newspaper alone and because the articles were meant to destroy rather than construct, they lack logical presentation and cohesion. As a public affairs commentator, it will amount to disservice to my conscience and the community if after reading the malicious articles; I pretend that all is well just because I am afraid of being called all sort of intimidated names. This was why I had to leave my university teaching job in 1998. But today, I have discovered that the deep seated jealousy and animosity in journalism is worse than that of academic. This is the story.

 

In 1992, after my graduation and completion of the national service, I got university teaching appointment as graduate assistant. In 1994, I was promoted to Assistant lecturer in addition to headship responsibility for the department I teach. In 1995, I applied for research grant, which was approved after undergoing turbulent processes. In the same year, I used the grant to publish a researched book in my teaching field. I made the public presentation of the book, in which a prominent politician in the state was the chief presenter. He made handsome donation, which later turned out to be a 419 affair. Some of my teaching colleagues became uncomfortable with my decision to use the research grant for book publication. They had wanted me to give their own part of the grant and divert the rest for personal use. I never knew this was what they normally do with such money. I thought it was actually meant for research. Later I had to pay supreme price for choosing to publish rather than sharing my grant among my colleagues because they couldn't just forgive me. In 1996, I published the revised edition of the book, which attracted patronage from within and outside the university community. This is the second offence. Hitherto, in 1994, I was elected the Public Relations Officer of the University branch of ASUU. I was performing my functions diligently until 1996 when the issue of strike came in. The late Head of State, General Sani Abacha decided to deal with us for daring to embark on strike. For three months, our token salary was withheld. We insisted that strike must continue until the government resolves the issue at stake. But the government wouldn't act. I continued distributing strike bulletin until one day I discovered to my utmost surprise that out of eleven of us elected as branch executive members, seven had gone to secretly sign no strike and collected their salary because they could not bear the brunt.  Out of the four of us that remained in the struggle, two also left the struggle three days later, leaving my self and the Chairman to continue. Unfortunately, the university community and most of our colleagues saw the two of us as recalcitrant elements that had no interest in the progress of the university at heart. The matter was becoming highly political and because, one cannot cry more than the bereaved, I had to call a spade a spade by joining the bandwagon. In taking this difficult decision, I chose to resign my position of the branch P.R.O so that my moral rectitude would not be burdened. This decision became my offence number three.

 

Earlier, I had been approached by some of my colleagues who had some scores to settle with my HOD to solicit my cooperation for his removal from office, I declined because it is against the principle of my faith. This becomes my offence number four. In 1996, there were general complaints about one of our colleagues from a parent department. He was accused of certain anti-moral activities. Another colleague from the same department was also notorious in selling two pages handout Willy nilly. I discovered that the unchecked fraudulent activities of the two colleagues would affect the image of the rest of us who are innocent; I decided to write and expose them. Later I came to realize that in the university system, we also have untouchables. As a result of the fact that the two colleagues I exposed belong to the untouchable group, their apologists vowed to deal with me. This became my offence number five. At last, the university community found it necessary to set up panel to look into the issue of the two colleagues. I was happy that indeed Daniel had come to judgment. The panel members just like the senate committee that investigated the N16billion power probe and later indicted for collecting N100,000,000 bribes, decided to compromise their assignment in order to save my two powerful colleagues. What happened?

 

A colleague of mine from the same section, this time – a Katsina woman- who had also not been happy with my academic book publications because she had also asked me for joint authorship, which I declined because the research was independently done by me. She connived with the untouchables to raise fictitious alarm over my academic publication, not knowing that a Professor in the field had gone through the manuscript. This however does not save me from the hands of the untouchables who are also members of the university decision makers. The committee chairman asked of six copies of my academic publication, which was never returned to me. I later found that the book was given to the children of the committee members, which they made use of in furthering their academic pursuit. This not withstanding, the committee fraudulent and biased decision frustrated my humble self out of the university system. I thank Almighty God that before I left, I had written and published five books, all of which were exhibited at the 9th General conference of African universities held in January 1997 at Lusaka, Zambia.

 

Now, on why I defend Malam. In my conscious attempt to put the record straight, I tried as much as possible to relegate sentiment to the background and endeavoured to address the issues involved in logical perspective. Unfortunately, the writers of the earlier articles mentioned and their fellow travelers could not withstand my superior logical argument. They had to resort to personal attacks and intimidation in order to wade me off or made me feel guilty of sins I have not committed, so that that they can have the field day to emit their do-able and un-do-able. Some of them wrote to my mail box and told me that I responded to their articles because I was sponsored and given money to do so since in their own shallow mindedness, there was no more chance for independent thought. Others even called me Shekarau's trumpeter and Sule Ya'u Sule's agent, leaving the issue talked about aside. The logical response I put back to them was that if I was paid to respond to, and correct their unfounded allegations against Malam Shekarau and his administration as contained in their articles and news reports, which they cannot dispute, who paid them to write their destructive articles /news report in the first place? They couldn't provide answers to this puzzle. Again, if they know that they could not withstand opposite views to their newspaper write ups and reports, why should they forced themselves to write at all? I should think that whoever kills should also be ready to die, if not, it would amount to the highest form of injustice in the society. In any case, it is better for one to be dumb than for one to tell lies.

 

One of the road side critics whom, incidentally I taught in the university and awarded him certificate to be where he is today had in his usual character of fabricating reports also attempted to insinuate reasons for my leaving the university teaching job, which he hopes to use as a way of settling scores against my rejoinder on his various fabricated news report. This explains why I bring about the true story I narrated above so that in case he leaves up to his word, the gullible reader should know exactly what transpired since no one can report any incident better than the victim. It should be recalled here that the same person had some time in the past went to my place of work in a case of an ex-staff who claimed that his insurance money was not remitted to his NSITF account. I was not around when the journalist together with his colleagues from NNN, NAN and Daily Times went to the mill to make enquiries about the matter. It was later the man from the Daily Times called and told me about what happened. Before I could meet with Mr. Fabricator, he had already sent an alarming story to his paper, which was published on the next day. For the same man to now claim that he met me and I attempted to induce him only confirm that he is not an honest journalist, and where honesty is lacking, any thing can always happen. I do not know what this man hopes to achieve by exposing his weaknesses and linguistic incompetence that were hitherto hidden from the public through his poor script that lacks cohesion, semantic and structure. This was why he chose to go outside the logic and context of the current issue and resort to personal attacks in order to 'deceive' the public 'intimidate' a superior in intellectual discourse. I do not think that this aim can be achieved through any callous means.

 

Yours sincerely is not unaware that when one surpasses one in rational discourse, what follow thereafter will be personal attacks and character assassinations. This journalistic poverty does not work again any where in the world. We are in democracy and every one is entitled to his opinion. So, I have the absolute right to reply any body be it mechanic, trader or journalist that think he/she can deliberately writes with sentiment in order to rubbish the great achievements of the people's governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State. Any writer who is afraid of rejoinder must not fail to do his home work properly before rushing to the press. It is not enough for any one to castigate without convincing evidence or proper investigation, and when such writer receives rejoinder to put the record straight, he will simply say the writer has received bribed to reply him as if the accuser is innocent. This is just an escape route and a clever way to accept defeat. If Mr. A that writes to tarnish the image of Mr. B accuses Mr. C of being paid to reply him, the logical question that comes to mind is, who bribes Mr. A to tarnish the image of Mr. B? We must therefore always endeavour to address issues rather than chasing shadows.