|
PEOPLE AND POLITICS BY MOHAMMED HARUNA
The War of the Cousins in Niger State
One of the biggest pieces of mischief I’ve read in the press in recent times was the front page lead story in the Daily Trust of June 24 which said the “political associates” of former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), were grooming his eldest son, Mohammed, for the governorship of Niger State for 2011. Should that fail, the author of the story, one, Malam Isa Lapene, said, the IBB associates will replace the son with a former commissioner of health in the state, Alhaji Dattijo Aliyu, a paternal cousin of the general.
Lapene is a Special Assistant on Youth Network to the state’s governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu.
According to Lapene, Mohammed’s presumed political ambition was the main motive behind the crisis that has gripped the state since the coming of Governor Aliyu over two years ago, a crisis that boiled over late last month when the state set a record of sorts by having three Speakers for its House of Assembly in succession within one week.
The crisis boiled over, Lapene said, because of the recent indictment of the immediate past governor of the state, Engineer Abdulkadir Kure and several of his lieutenants, by a judicial commission of inquiry in to contract awards during Kure’s eight-year tenure. Naturally Kure and Co. saw the indictment as a witch-hunt and tried to hit back first, by their swift but in the end unsuccessful, attempt to take over the House leadership and, second, through a spate of media propaganda that tried to paint Governor Aliyu as corrupt and self-serving.
Of all the things any one may accuse General Babangida of, grooming any of his children for political office is the most ridiculous. The man himself may be one of the country’s most accomplished power players but, paradoxically, few past leaders of the country have worked as hard as he has to keep his children away from politics. Certainly he and his wife, Maryam, worked harder to protect the privacy of their children while in power than Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Sani Abacha, some of whose children became notorious for exploiting their status to feather their nests and to achieve their political ambitions.
Nothing has happened since the general left office in 1992 to show the man has decided to establish a political dynasty. If Mohammed has become famous for anything since his father left office it has been for polo playing and not politicking. A’isha, his elder sister, may be married to a governor but she has maintained a low profile for someone who is well educated and eloquent. Ahmed, Mohammed’s younger brother, has maintained an even lower profile than his big sister as a young business man. Halima, the youngest of the lot, is still in school and too young to engage in politics.
Not only was it ridiculous for Lapene to claim that Babangida is trying to groom his son for governorship, albeit by proxy, it was even more ridiculous for the governor’s aide to claim the general has his cousin, Alhaji Dattijo Aliyu, on standby should the Mohammed option fail.
Aliyu has lately been battling the state authorities in the courts for his freedom over charges of illegal possession of government documents. This battle has no end in sight and only a stupid godfather would push the candidature of an embattled godson for any office. Surely no one can accuse Babangida of stupidity.
Of course certified crooks and even murder suspects are known to have vied for and won political office in this country. But then they needed the power of incumbency of their godfathers behind them which Babangida no longer possesses.
In any case anyone with some inkling of how Dr. Aliyu became governor of Niger State knows that the general played a significant role in it. Until the surprise and somewhat belated emergence of Aliyu as the candidate of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), it was common knowledge that Babangida’s candidate was Honorable Abubakar Bwari, a former chief whip of the House of Representative and son of one his closest confidants, the late Malam Bawa Bwari. Predictably the loyal Governor Kure threw his weight behind Bwari.
Things went sour for the legislator when someone was said to have deliberately misinformed Kure that Bwari nursed a secret agenda to investigate his tenure. Apparently he believed the story; he suddenly changed his mind about Bwari and shifted his support to Alhaji Jibril Bala Guna Alhassan, his loyal permanent secretary of the ministry of local government. For whatever reason, Babangida did not try to dissuade his godson from his change of mind.
I am reliably told that the source of the misinformation was Aliyu, Babangida’s cousin, then Kure’s commissioner of health.
Angered by this turn of events Bwari was said to have used his connections with powerful figures in Abuja, notably Malam Nasir El-Rufa’i, former FCT minister, and Malam Nuhu Ribadu, former EFCC chairman, to successfully discredit and block Kure’s new man. Aliyu saw a void and tried to move in; he reportedly told Cousin IBB that he was interested in the job. For some inexplicable reason Cousin IBB reportedly told him not to even think about it.
That put paid to Dattijo Aliyu’s governorship ambitions and eventually led to the emergence of Muazu Aliyu as the PDP candidate. Incidentally the governor is also Babangida’s cousin but on his mother’s side.
Clearly what we have in Niger State is a cold civil war of sorts but it certainly has nothing to do with any presumed attempt by Babangida to establish a political dynasty in his state, much less in the country.
What the war of the cousins in the state has a lot to do with is their positions on the record of Kure as governor for eight years. While the Dr. Aliyu thinks it is a dubious record to say the least – and most Nigerlites, including this reporter, would agree - the general believes this is not enough reason for the governor to wage a perpetual war against his godson.
The last time I wrote about this seemingly endless crisis in the state on these pages on December 12, 2007, I prayed for a quick end to it so that the long suffering people of my state of origin can begin to hope for an end to the underdevelopment of their political-economy. The renewed feud following the release last month of the state’s white paper on contract awards during Kure’s governorship suggests that my prayer is yet to be answered by the Good Lord, at least in the way I have envisaged. Yet all it would take to see a beginning to the end of the feud is, on the one hand, for Kure to swallow his pride and accept that his tenure was not a study in transparency and accountability and, on the other hand, for the governor to accept that he talks too much - especially for a leader - and heed the lesson of the Hausa proverb which says “Baki shike yanka wuya.”
A humble Kure and a reticent governor should see that they both don’t need a miracle to sit down and talk man to man so as to put an end to the political crisis they have imposed on the state. In any case even if they do need a miracle, the two gladiators should remember the saying that the miracle that moved mountains carried a pick axe. Humility on Kure’s part and reticence on the governor’s are all the pick axes needed to start moving the mountain that has stood in the way of the development of Niger State all these years. |