To start with, permit me to refresh your memory about Sule Lamido. He is presently one of the PDP governors now manning the Jigawa state arm of the gang of political armed bandits and coalition against the good people of Nigeria , PDP.
Before April 14 elections that crowned victory on him, Sule Lamido contested governorship election under the same PDP in the state but failed woefully largely because of his antecedent treacherous life style as a politician.
For the avoidance of doubt I consider myself extremely humbled to join in the interesting and on going controversy generated by one Hajiya Hafsat M. Zanna in the Daily Trust of June 15, 2007 and the fluid less and watery defence of Sule Lamido by Lawal Kaugama, a former special assistant to former Governor Saminu Turaki of Jigawa state in the Weekly Trust of June 23 this year titled ‘Re: Sule Lamido, antics of an ingrate father’ and Adiata Adamu’s article titled ‘armchair critics and the unfair attacks on Sule Lamido’ in The Triumph newspaper of June 25, 2007.
It is important to bring to the fore some important but critical points explained by Hajiya. In the said article Hajiya Hafsat sent the radical firebrand governor-who now wants to take credit from where he did not sow, to the cleaners. According to her conclusion, Sule Lamido must be told that gone are the days when arrogance, thuggery, power drunkenness, treachery, immorality and indiscipline will earn him the support of his subjects.
I am in total agreement with Hajiya Hafsat that Sule Lamido derives pleasure in abusing his elders. He has done it to late Aminu Kano, his political godfather, Mohammed A. Rimi and lately elder statesman and immediate Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
There is certainly no way Lamido can claim any common trait with the late Aminu Kano. Aminu Kano lived a life of humbleness, respect for elders no matter the political differences and most importantly, he was never treacherous in his entire life, political or social.
For Sule to claim to be heading a government of the Talakawas is not only untrue, deceptive, confusion and focus but also one lacking a winning political ideology. Politics, Lamido should know is not just about radicalism, thuggery and unrefined opposition as was the practice in the 60’s. It is far from that. Politics in Nigeria today like it is in the developed world is about leadership by example, development, progress and unity.
Though I don’t know much about Kaugama, but from his defence and his former title, it is clear that having enjoyed the spoils of working for a former Governor who looted the state; he is all out to paint Lamido in clear white for one obvious reason. It is clear that Kaugama wants to show Lamido that he can be an asset for him if he retains him as SA Media. Well Lamido is at liberty to retain him. Let me stop this digression and return to the issues at stake.
There is no gainsaying in the fact that Atiku Abubakar has shown full support for the emancipation of the old Northern Region since his election as Vice President in 1999. His singular efforts for the revamping of the near collapsed educational, economic and industrial activities of the North by way of pulling his resources and expertise to deliberate and chart the way forward for these sectors are unparallel in Nigeria .
Atiku has set the machinery in motion for people like Kaugama and his new found political godfather, Lamido to continue from the foundation laid by statesman Atiku Abubakar.
What baffles me most is the reported upgrading of Lamido’s son by the Dutse emirate council from a village head to a district head. Is that not done because Lamido is now the governor of the state? That is political cooruption and abuse of office which late Mallam Aminu Kano fought against all his life. How then can Lamido reconcile his claim of being a disciple of the late Mallam with this situation?
Rather than wasting time and resources abusing elders, the likes of Kaugama and Adamu should tell Lamido to show that he has come with an agenda to develop the state. First, he needs to grapple with the huge indebtedness of the state running into billions of Naira.
He needs to settle down and pursue a systematic programme of changing the state for the better. It is important for Lamido to be reminded that even the United Nations has rated Jigawa state as the leader in terms of level of poverty of the citizens in the country.
For him to change this unfortunate he needs to act fast without sentiment.
Let me say that for Lamido to now begin to blame the banks that granted his predecessor loan to implement projects for the state and further call for their sanctioning by the apex bank, CBN is to say the least only chasing shadows. He should be bold enough to blame his predecessor, Saminu Turaki who on his own volition approached them for the loans.
The only way to get out of the mess called Saminu Turaki is for Lamido to immediately set up administrative and judicial commissions of inquiry into the activities of Turaki from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2007. Only then can a true picture of the looting by the Saminu Turaki dynasty will be made public.
This is the only way he can show the people that he is concerned about the state of affairs in the state that is now almost bankrupt. This, in my view may be quicker and more credible. Alternatively, Lamido must invite the EFCC to thoroughly investigate the affairs of the state under Saminu Turaki.
Going by newspaper reports of mid June this year, Lamido has now tried in vain to gain national attention by mischievously attempting to lead a ‘war team’ of the governors calling for the abrogation of the immunity clause for president, Vice President, Governors and their Deputies as contained in the 1999 constitution. We all understand Lamido’s trick. He wants to reap where he did not sow.
From all indications Lamido is in a state of bewilderment, of political ineptitude, ideological bankruptcy and lacks the route to the way forward for the impoverished state. He has lost touch with the current realities of our political development.
He needs some moral and spiritual guidance to make progress and not arrogance and treachery which have become his niche over the years. Leadership is not just about the spoils of office but about service to the people. Nothing can be more correct than this. I am not a soothsayer but I predict that very soon, Lamido will part ways with the people of the state who he claims voted him into power massively.
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