What Bishop Kukah saw in APC and Buhari while sitting down, many emergency ‘ busybody” critics who took joy in castigating him in social media will never see even from the top of Kilimanjaro. – Author
Well, “na my own way” as Nigerians will say and I don’t owe anybody any apology for my pen militancy. I am saying this because of recent, my Arewa brothers are beginning to show some discomfort over what they consider as my ‘metuh-listic’ criticism of the Buhari Regime.
For those who know me well, one thing that may likely land me in Kirikiri is my love for Nigeria and Nigerians irrespective of their ethnic background, religious inclinations and political persuasions. So, I don’t have particular love for any tribe or particular hatred for any religion.
Bishop Kukah is one Nigerian I hold in high esteem not only because he is a Catholic Bishop but due to his values and intellectual prowess. His belief in a better Nigeria has earned him a place in my heart like the likes of late Gani, Aminu Kano , Fela Kuti, Fr. George Ehusani and Mohammadu Sanusi . Bishop Kukah was among the first Nigerians to warn us that all that glitters is not gold in respect of APC and PMB, but Nigerians, especially Northern politicians requested for his head in a platter for what they saw as a pro – PDP and Pro- Jonathan position.
Here, it is salient that I state that any good student of Nigerian Political history know that what Bishop Kukah saw in APC and Buhari while sitting down , many emergency ‘ busybody” critics who took joy in castigating him in the social media and will never see even from the top of Kilimanjaro
Truth be told, if Nigerians, drag me to the court of political disappointment, I will plead guilty and pray that the Judge will temper justice with mercy and give me a light sentence without hard labour because I was an ardent supporter of Buhari throughout his over twelve years in the political wilderness .
Somehow, my desire for a better Nigeria and my quest to sack the kleptomaniac PDP from Aso Rock actually prevented me from looking at the other side of the coin. I joined the APC choir in singing “Hosanna!!! Here comes Buhari the Messiah who has come to wipe away the tears of Nigerians.
Some of us who believed in the doctrine of second chance thought that after several baptism of Political failure the Daura Sheriff must have learnt to some political lessons and cultivated democratic culture. Little did we know that we were like innocent lambs dancing into the hands of a wolf in sheep clothing!
The guy was still a “Bloody Junta” who was only dancing a democratic Azonto with us during the Presidential campaign and elections so as to get our votes. Now that we have sent the squandermania, Kleptomania and unpatriotic GEJ to Otuoke to prepare for a long vocation in Kirikiri, Buhari has in that space of six months shown us his true colour .
His hatred for rule of law and disdain for the judiciary is becoming as clear in the tropical sun shine. I hope we have not jumped from PDP frying pan into APC fire. For sixteen years the PDP and their prodigal sons turned Nigerian into George Orwell’s ( Eric Blair) animal farm and if care is not taken Nigeria will soon become another Mobutu farm like the Zaire of old under Buhari.
Constitutionalism is a fundamental column upon which any democracy is built. And, no nation that disrespects the principle of subsidiary of power or separation of power can claim to be flying a democratic flag. No matter what we think, the supremacy of the constitution and the independence of the Judiciary must be respected. It is only an Emperor that can claim to be fighting corruption and yet disrespects a constitutional order from the law court. To rob Peter and pay Paul as Buhari has done in his selective Justice in the case of Dasuki and Kanu is not only an insult to the judiciary but also a dictatorial symptom that is against the tenets of rule of law and constitutional democracy.
I find myself in the same page with Governor Shettima who was bold and patriotic in saying that “ we should not encourage what is happening. If Buhari as the president can undermine the Judiciary, it gives me a lot of worry and concern. He should not be seen to be higher than our institutions, what we should be looking at is for our institution to be strengthened. Due process must be followed. If a court of law gives an order, that order must be obeyed. Investigation must be carried out and if the court found anyone guilty such fellow must be convicted’’. This is the same thing Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah warned us about. Buhari cannot be higher or greater than our constitution and by undermining the judiciary , he has proven that Bishop Kukah was right in raising concern about the kangaroo Justice practiced by dictators like Buhari.
To advocate for the respect of rule of law and due process is not to support corruption or shield GEJ from Persecution. The lord Bishop was only insisting that the right means should be used in getting the right result. We now know better!
Nasir El’Rufai of Kaduna: The Sardauna We Know
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If Nigeria is in Wahala for lack of leaders with vision and foresight, the Northern part of the country is in double wahala because she has produced most of the corrupt and ruthless leaders we have ever had, and, pitiably, the North is at the receiving end of the messy and pedestrian leadership of her sons. Say, the law of nemesis in full force if you like.
For some of us that have strong affiliation with the North and have witnessed and survived all forms of bloodletting and man’s inhumanity against man in Arewa, one prayer point have been on our lips is: Allah in your mercy send us a Sardauna of a new Arewa and Nigeria. I doubt, if any right thinking person that have lived in the North for the past twenty years will not have this prayer point, confronted with the excruciating poverty of the vast majority and the opulence of the tiny cabals, the primitiveness of the populace and the shameful under- development of Arewa, the mid-day criminality and lawlessness. Helpless and hapless, the Cathedral is normally our point of call for Allah to at least descend from heaven or give us a helping hand by sending a messiah.
The late Professor Chinua Achebe in his famous master-piece of 1983- ‘the trouble with Nigeria’ heaped the blame of under-development on the doorstep of our leaders. Truth be told, Nigeria is where she is today because her leaders always choose to chase rat while the entire house is on fire and this explains the raw poverty of her citizens everywhere you go in the North in particular and Nigeria in general.
Are you already angry? Now, don’t misunderstand me. This is not a treatise against the North. Misunderstand me if you wish ‘na you sabi’. I don’t care if I am politically correct or incorrect, neither do I mind stepping on the toes of Kaduna mafias.
I, for one, don’t believe in shifting blames and pointing accusing finger but the North cannot wash off her hands sanctimoniously like the biblical Pontus Pilate over the messy and sorry state of Nigeria today. The sons of North through straight forward and various unconstitutional crooked means with the direct and indirect collaboration of the Crown have presided over the affairs of Nigeria for more than forty years but each of them ( apart from my beloved Yar’Adua) left Nigeria messier than he met her. Shameful enough, they did not also develop the North with their loots. Here, I will not detain myself with long history because what I am talking about is not rocket science. If Nigeria is nothing to write home about politically, socially and most importantly economically, it is because the political-military, capitalist-bureaucratic elites and criminal cartels, majority of whom are of Northern extraction failed woefully in terms of providing a visionary and people oriented leadership.
From one North, one people irrespective of region, rank or tribe of Sardauna days, the North have become the grave yard for Christians, the hot bed for all forms of unchecked crime against natural justice and humanity , extremism and man-made poverty, making Northern Nigeria one of the sorriest region in the history of west Africa in the twenty first century.
Kaduna the former political capital of the then Northern region was one state that was gradually sledding into a Somalia before the election of Malam Nasir El’Rufai. When Malam picked up the APC gubernatorial ticket, I danced azonto throughout the night. Though I have read his “Accidental public servant” and consider it a ‘vade mecum’ for every student of political history, I have not met the Malam Governor of Kaduna state before. Anyway, I don’t necessarily need to meet him one on one. His actions and inactions as the minister of FCT speak volume. Since he left Abuja, Nigeria only have FCT ministers on paper because FCT is not working and nothing is happening apart from land snatching, grabbing and looting.
The Malam Governor’s fear of Allah, intellectual prowess and sagacity, patriotism, courage , vision , frankness and his ability not only to step on sacred cows but also to send them to the dustbin of political irrelevance like he has done in Kaduna has made me one of his fans. Before he cleaned the Augean stable, Kaduna state was a den of political thieves and mafias. All manners of blood sucking monstrous god-fathers held the state hostage. That apart, the state was balkanized into Christians and Muslim zones because the minions that ruled the state on behalf of the mafias were unable to provide true leadership. Put bluntly, Kaduna was a battle ground.
It is a pity that religion have been used to cover up the worst crime and criminality in the North. How can we get it right when all it takes for you to commit a heinous crime in the North and get away with it is for you to build a mosque, share bags of rice and rams during Salah and sponsor a handful of fanatics to Mecca? Some people claim it is Zakat or helping the poor. Sho! Zakat my foot. You can’t steal or loot the money meant for the building of school, roads, hospitals and industries and turn back to share bags of expired rice to the people in the name of religious observance and obligation. I have taken time to travel round the country and found out that there is no region that is as lawless as the North because people hide behind religion to be lawless like the beast of the forest. There is practically no rule of law and constitutionalism. The maxim is: do as you like provided you involve Allah.
Religion can be an instrument of peace, prosperity and progress when the right leader is in charge and when religion is practiced within the ambit of law and natural justice. Muslim leaders of the United Arab Emirate with the wonders of Dubai have proven that most of our leaders are crooks that hide behind religion and use the name of Allah to steal and cheat the common man.
Good news! Old things have passed away since the coming of El’Rufai as much desired peace have returned and Kaduna state is on the march to progress and prosperity. Like a true leader he is, the Malam Governor is concerned about lasting legacy and not pedestrian policies and second term politics.
I have followed the policies of his government and will wish to summaries it into three key points. 1. To make Kaduna work in terms of agriculture, housing, public health, functional education, industrialization and rule of law; 2. to make Kaduna great; 3. to give everybody a chance. I will not go into details but will not also fail to bring to the square two bold steps he has taken so far that have established him as the philosopher king of Northern Nigeria.
The Malam governor of Kaduna state has gracefully ended the ignoble Almajiri menace and street begging in Kaduna. This Almajiri of a thing is a plaque in the North that the political class and elite have refused to address because they want the people to remain uneducated and improvised so that they can be easily manipulated for political gains.
He has also abolished the state of origin wahala. Every Nigerian should feel at home anywhere in Nigeria. The so called federal character and state of the origin wahala are twin evils that are cog in the wheel of true national unity and progress. They kill healthy competition, meritocracy and promote mediocrity. As obtainable in more advanced societies, every human person irrespective of his tribe, religion or political affiliation should be given equal opportunity and privilege.
With the present leadership posture and political philosophy of Malam Nasir El’Rufai, I clearly perceive him as the only sincere and just political figure in the North that the cap of Sardauna fits. Of all nineteen Northern governors, he is the messiah we have been waiting for all this while.
Regrettably, the mafias are not comfortable with his Olympian height policies, projects and programmes and are using every canon within their disposal to make sure the governor does not succeed. It is a pity that a senator who should be lending the governor a helping hand have turned himself into a political delinquent and is busy pouring sand into Mallam’s garri for cheap popularity. It is the mafias and their appendages in the various tiers of governments who pursue their selfish interest and pay allegiance to their god fathers instead of their states and nations that has made the North and by extension Nigeria take a step forward and a million steps backward.
El’Rufai has started a god fight and it behooves on us all to join him in making Kaduna our own Dubai. He did it in Abuja as FCT minister and I have no doubt that he will do even more in Kaduna. We must resist all forms of stomach infrastructure that the enemies of the people are dangling before us. The mafias and minions of the old order are only battling to truncate the mission and vision of the Malam Governor so that they will continue to lord it over us. On El’Rufai, our Sardauna, I stand; et vous?
Martin-hassan Eze
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