To many who could not see the rationale behind the roller-coaster
fight between Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar of Bauchi State on
one hand, and federal legislators from the state, led by no less a
personality than House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, on the
other hand, the appearance of the immediate past governor of the state,
Isa Yuguda, at a political rally organised by Dogara penultimate week,
goes a long way to resolve what was hitherto seen as a jigsaw puzzle of
sort.
For months, people were wondering why, inspite of the olive branch
extended on countless occasions to Dogara and his co-travellers by the
Bauchi governor, the federal legislators have chosen not to hearken to
wise counsel by slamming every door against peace. Many have been
suspecting the existence of unseen forces instigating the legislators.
There is also, on the other hand, the rumour that the legislators were
fighting the governor owing to his refusal to purchase houses, cars and
allocate special allowances on monthly basis for the legislators.
If a roll-call is taken of President Buhari’s arch political enemies,
Isa Yuguda will surely feature prominently. Here is a man who was
denied justice by his political party, the PDP. He decamped to Buhari’s
political party of the time, the ANPP, and Buhari campaigned vigorously
for Yuguda to win the 2007 gubernatorial election of Bauchi State. Not
long after he won, however, as if to give vent to the adage that the
leopard does not change its spots, Yuguda crossed back to his PDP and
formed a strong opposition against Buhari, his erstwhile benefactor.
Left for Isa Yuguda, Buhari will not have come near the presidency of
the country.
Though it should surprise no one when birds of the same feather are
seen flocking together, there still is something terribly fishy when
Dogara, a man always making a show of being a Buhari apologist,
organises a rally and makes Yuguda, whose disdain for Buhari is never
hidden, the centrepiece of the event. For many, this is one pointer to
the fact that the PDP could well have a hand in instigating the endless
fight against the Bauchi governor, and the desperate efforts to deploy
every fora to demonise him. Proponents of this theory believe the whole
motive is to weaken President Buhari’s APC to prepare the grounds for
Yuguda’s PDP to take over Bauchi in 2019.
And as if to give vent to this school of thought, Dogara and
virtually all the other legislators fighting Governor Abubakar have been
categorical that the APC will not win the Bauchi governorship in 2019,
unless – according to some of their followers – one of them is fielded
as candidate. But does it occur to them that by relentlessly sowing deep
seeds of discord and trying to factionalise the APC in Bauchi, a major
bastion of support for the party, they are also making it difficult, if
not impossible, for the APC to hold-on to the presidency at the next
general election? In the typical temporal victory of falsehood over the
truth, what is hidden is now coming to light. And this is only a tip of
the iceberg!
Dogara succeeded in making what his apologists described as a
triumphant entry to Bauchi. He regaled the crowd that received him with
stories of federal projects he has cornered, or wants to corner, to the
state. Good enough. That, indeed, is what he has been voted by his
constituents to do. But the one thing he deliberately missed out in his
speech is the cost of the rally, said to run into hundreds of million of
naira. That humongous amount is enough to transform the lives of
Dogara’s hapless constituents, for good. And his name will have been
written in gold. Why then did he waste so much money in a
totally-needless ego-driven venture? Was the “contractor” Dogara
referred to, in his speech, as being in their midst at the rally, the
sponsor of the event? And who is this unnamed contractor? If the
contractor was not the financier, who funded the jamboree, or they want
us to assume the money was taken from the coffers of the House of Reps?
Endless, unanswered questions.
In an article widely published in some newspapers, Dogara’s media
aide, my good friend Turaki Hassan, claimed that the Speaker has been
renamed “Mai Solar” by his hapless constituents because of solar-powered
street lights he was said to have provided to some locality. But since
resources are few, and there are competing demands, didn’t it occur to
Speaker Dogara that a solar light is the least of the problems facing
his constituents? Why can’t he follow in the footsteps of Governor
Abubakar by illuminating their hearts with education, or making food
available to them by boosting agriculture, even if he is yet to respond
to allegations publicly made by another federal legislator that he
diverted an important Federal Government’s water project to his own
personal farm?
The whole drama, termed as Dogara’s triumphant entry to Bauchi, was a
badly-scripted one any person with excess naira could stage. Even when
the economy of the country was buoyant, unscrupulous politicians are
known to hire crowds to make a political statement. Some even go to
neighbouring states to rent crowds and make a fake show of strength.
But what Dogara and his co-travellers did not realise is that they
ended up, in a strange way they never intended or imagined, casting
Governor Abubakar in good light. The fact that they went to Bauchi and
staged that rally without being molested points strongly to the fact
that Governor Abubakar is an absolute man of peace who is socially
re-orienting the Bauchi society. Many a governor will not have taken an
inch of that affront. Stories abound of how some governors hire
mercenaries to stop their opponents, by all means. Whether by
coincidence or design, the Bauchi Governor left the state for Dogara and
co, so that nobody could use his presence to perpetrate mischief.
One expects that rather than dissipating unnecessary energy and
humongous resources in fighting the governor of Bauchi, Speaker Dogara
should be more concerned with issues to do with accountability and
transparency, by lifting the cloud of secrecy around the finances of the
House of Reps that he leads. That, by far, is more important to
Nigerians, not a needless display of wealth and over-bloated ego. Right
now, only a few members have an idea of how things are being run in the
House of Representatives. Many are just keeping quiet so as not to rock
the boat. Nigerian are being kept in the dark, inspite of some cosmetic
efforts to the contrary.
The Speaker also owes it to posterity the responsibility to respond
in greater detail to serious allegations of malfeasance levelled against
him by his erstwhile benefactor, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin. Distracting
Governor Abubakar could never sweep these weighty allegations under the
carpet, and however long it might take, it remains one issue that must
be unearthed and addressed.
It is saddening that this unnecessary fight has denied Bauchi full
benefit of its men in power at the federal level. The governor will
definitely have achieved lots more, if he were not being severely
distracted. Division is an ill wind that blows no one no good, and that
explains why no religion has ever supported it. Dogara, said to be a
pastor, ought to know this very well, and abide by it. In unity, you
gain strength. One therefore hopes that sooner than later, the Speaker
and his co-travellers in the National Assembly will accept the olive
branch extended severally to them by Governor Abubakar, in the interest
of Bauchi and the whole of Nigeria.
Musa, CEO of Ginet Media, wrote from Bauchi.
