26 Aug 2009 |
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The Last Fox StandingBy Alhazai Baban SumayyaThe other day, Prof.Wole Soyinka stunned not only his millions admirers but his critics as well. He was in the ancient city of Kano to pay a “special homage” to the state governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. During the visit, the noble laureate did the unexpected. He did not only extolled the virtue of the North West governor but tacitly endorsed him as the right candidate to take over from President Yar’Aduwa come 2011, at least, if the sound bites from the state own daily is anything to go by. “You are the Nigeria’s last hope, Soyinka Tells Shekarau screamed Daily Triumph. Other papers chose to see it from the angle of the ‘last man standing’, the phrase Soyinka used to describe Shekarau. I am not sure yet, if Shekarau is the last man standing since we equally have Ali Modu Sherif of Bornoo state and governor Geidam (Yobe) in the All Nigeria People Party (ANPP) and have since pledged to remain with the opposition party. Yet, I am aware of Shekarau’s leadership qualities and amazing democratic credentials, which no doubt, stand him out among his peers. This is what Soyinka was talking about. But being far away from the Northern state Soyinka may require our help to reel them out on his behalf. In 2003, Shekarau was routed in a free and fair primary by Alhaji Ibrahim Ali Amin, Little. Shekarau as a democrat embraced the winner, after declaring his acceptance of the defeat in good faith. Few days later, the ‘democrat’ in cahoots with some powerful elements of the party plotted the fall of the winner from behind . The rest, as they say, is history, a history written according to Shekarau and his allies. We certainly, need someone with this kind of principles to own up to electoral flaws and still remain in power. Just last year, local government elections were conducted in the state. But it was greeted by unprecedented violence. Lives were lost, property destroyed. Some local government secretariats, like Gwale where AC presumably won, were torched in protest. What happened? Shekarau’s party was in for a shocker. Defeat was staring it on the face. It’s dominance was being threatened. Even at governor’s constituency, Nasarawa, where he could not match the combined arsenals of Little and Ibrahim Salisu Buhari, the story was the same. What was the way out? Shekarau was never short of ideas in this regard. The state radio started churning out results even before the collations were conclusive. Nasarawa and other local government councils, where ANPP was humiliated returned to the party. In the end, only results of three local governments, namely, Kumbotso, Dawakin Kudu and Warawa were reluctantly conceded to opposition. Today, there’s only one man standing among the three. He is the chairman of Kumbotso local government, Alhaji Munir Babba Dan’Agundi who was recently hailed by the state House of Assembly as the best performing chairman in the state. The real last man standing. Out of the rest one (Warawa was forced to decamp to the ruling ANPP after seeing how his stubborn colleague from Dawakin Kudu lost his seat later to ANPP’s machinations. This is the kind of democracy that we desperately need in this country and thus our support goes to Kongi for his foresight. If Shekarau can only allow one popular chairman to remain on his throne for over a year, is there a better democrat than he? We cannot talk of democracy without mentioning good governance since that is what we were told it guarantees. How did our governor fared in the last 6 years of his social contract with his people? This indeed, is the crux of the matter, as Shekarau’s giants strides cannot be exhausted in a page of newspapers. We can just briefly touch on some landmarks. The first major assignment that the governor carried out was the award of fertilizer procurement contract worth N 5 billion. There was no budgetary allocation for it, and no council approval. The contract ended in fiasco as the state governor admitted that it was duped and cleverly cried out to the EFCC for assistance. Part of the fund was recovered but there’s still scam within the scam. The open admittance and resort to EFCC were mere image -saving gimmicks. Up till today, Nigerians have not been told the real identity of the contractor. Kano people will never take it lightly if they find out. They will not hear from me. Yet, two years after, the same government would be tainted by another fertilizer contract scam. This time around, Shekarau’s right hand man Alhaji Sani Rogo (then commissioner of Local Government Affairs) would be involved. The state’s legislators had to call for the blue eyed boy of the governor’s sack before he was forced to resign. He is today an influential aide, who still busy preparing to succeed his benefactor. In the first four years of Shekarau’s administration not much was achieved, especially in the area of infrastructural development. To be fair to him, no one should query him over this as right from the onset he told all and sundry that infrastructure was not priority. He wanted to do something different: Human Development and societal reorientation, a kind of rebranding project that Dora Akunyili is doing now. But Shekarau took his rebranding too far by making it a number one priority at the expense of other important projects. This apparently was because he wasn’t prepared to be governor and hence short of ideas about governance. He was busy celebrating prompt settlement of pension benefits as major achievement. Leaders of pension groups were paid airtime on local radios to praise the government to high heaven over this landmark. Today, the same pensioners use the same radios to condemn the governor for shortchanging them. The artificial honeymoon was over long ago. Thus Shekarau’s muddling along with his human development ruse throughout the tenure did not come as a surprise to us. He is yet to deliver on water provision promise, while Kano people go to Egypt for medical care. If you take the two years of Governor Lamido of the neighbouring Jigawa state and juxtapose it with Shekarau’s six, you will be amazed by the gulp of difference that confronts you. Lamido has already tarred 1000 kilo meters of roads. Shekarau is busy celebrating starting rehabilitating three roads in the ancient city, which FIFA forced on his throat. But Jack Warner was not impressed during his last visit. It took the intervention of sport minister for the state to scale through as Shekarau disappointed FIFA, while states like Enugu were described as miracles. Still on Lamido. The governor has rehabilitated 50 hospitals and built 900 housing units. Shekarau is yet to commission any housing unit that he can call his own even if it’s three bedroom flat. Lamido has wooed a whole tricycles assembling firm to his rural state, yet no single company has followed Shekarau’s elusive search of foreign investment into the most populous state of the country. In Jigawa Lamido came up with the first genuine efforts to tackle the menace of streets begging with his social security policy. Physically challenged persons are on salary in Jigawa state, while the empty vessel in Kano is making the largest noise on human development. At the height of the much reported global melt down, Shekarau was busy squandering the little resource of the state on car gifts to cronies and traditional rulers. The district heads of all the 44 local governments were given a brand new Prado jeep each. Our hospitals were yearning for ambulances and other basic equipment. But Shekarau was busying sharing buses to all sorts of groups in preparation for his presidential ambition. This, however, attracted the wrath of people, who laid ambush at the emir palace and humiliated the governor. Missiles were hurled at him, amidst chants of condemnations. But reckless squander mania has always been the hallmark of Shekarau’s experiment with governance. He signed a law that allows him to choose a land and kind of abode that will be built for him at the expiration of his tenure. The law also says that tax payers’ money must be used to furnish the mansion to his taste, while a well furnished permanent office must also be provided for him for life. In the same vein, the tax payers will continue to foot the bills of his 4 aides salaries. Shekarau, according to the law is entitled to continue with his current salary and allowances for life. That’s not all. He is also entitled to take his family for an annual leave to any part of the globe at our collective expenses. Shekarau has since signed this “thoughtful and selfless” legislation into law and will start benefitting from 20011. Who says we don’t need somebody, who masters how to legalize profligacy at Aso Rock. All said, whichever way one views it, Kongi has a point for endorsing this man. Shekarau is man, with a good history of betrayal. He has betrayed the constituency, which brought him to power, the masses, as elites are the major beneficiaries of his tenure. He has since betrayed the core principles, which make him salable to the people. He has betrayed his political god father Gen Muhammad Buhari, whom he dumped for better game players like Alhai Bashir Tofa. He has betrayed the family of late Malam Aminu Kano-taking the matriarch to hospital and later used that for political propaganda. The same Shekarau has betrayed pensioners, who have since realized that they were used as pawn in the chessboard of Kano politics. The governor has betrayed his God, through the brazen manipulation of religion to score cheap political point. Thus it’s interesting to see which of the religion this last fox standing intend to use to manipulate Nigerians on his way to Aso Rock. What is the likely campaign slogan for 2011? I guess, “Sharia for All 2011” will do. Baban Sumayya writes from Kano
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